N54  S7    1913 

Al  IFORNU     SAN    Olf  (,(i 

llilllllllllllllllllllillllllllllll 

3   1822  01265  0198 


;i;iliii'iii!i'ii!i'!i!!H!iiili 


{iiiiuiiililiillllhillt'lliiitiiii!Uiii(ii(iii!iiii 


LiBRARY 

CAi.iMir.  -'A 

SAN  DIEGO 


''f'S'^v' 


r  ■;  ,     r. 


3   1822  01265  0198 


V. 


1 


/■i 


if 


NEW  YORK 


Typographical  Union  No.  6 


STUDY  OF  A  MODERN  TRADE  UNION 
AND  ITS  PREDECESSORS 


PREPARED  UNDER  THE  DIRECTION  OF 
JOHN  WILLIAMS,  COMMISSIONER  OF  LABOR.  STATE  OF  NEW  YORK 


BY 

GEORGE  A.  STEVENS 

/  • 

Senior  Statistician 


ALBANY 

J.  B.  LYON  COMPANY,  STATE  PRINTERS 

1913 


PREFACE. 


FOR  many  years  there  has  been  a  continually  increasing  interest 
in  the  labor  question  and  the  labor  movement.  It  is  only 
through  a  close  study  of  individual  trades  that  important 
details  relating  to  the  subject  can  be  gleaned;  and  as  there  attaches 
to  the  organization  of  printers  a  peculiar  importance  which  claims 
a  particular  record  of  facts  and  events  connected  with  its  history, 
likewise  because  that  trade  is  representative  of  and  typifies  that 
great  body  of  Labor  which  is  organized,  the  Bureau  of  Labor 
Statistics  has  selected  it  for  an  extended  review,  conformably  with 
the  statute  that  empowers  the  Commissioner  of  Labor  to  inquire 
"in  relation  to  all  departments  of  labor  in  the  State,  especially  in 
relation  to  the  commercial,  industrial,  social  and  sanitary  condition 
of  workingmen  and  to  the  productive  industries  of  the  State." 

In  preparing  this  study  of  a  great  trade  union  the  essential  object 
has  been  to  present  an  authentic  recital  of  the  origin,  rise  and  progress 
not  only  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  but  of  the  protective  associa- 
tions of  printers  that  preceded  it,  thus  exhibiting  a  connected  account 
of  the  organized  branches  of  the  printing  industry  in  New  York  City 
for  a  period  of  13  5  years  —  starting  with  the  Revolutionary  epoch  and 
closing  with  the  third  calendar  quarter  of  19 11. 

So  closely  has  the  Typographical  Union  been  associated  with  the 
industrial  reform  cause  that  it  has  been  deemed  eminently  fitting  to 
devote  the  opening  chapter  of  this  chronicle  to  a  brief  review  of  the 
modem  labor  movement  at  its  inception  in  1850,  reference  to  the 
principal  trades  taking  part  therein  being  contained  in  the  retrospect. 
Vital  questions  that  have  affected  the  whole  body  of  workers  at  other 

[iiil 


iv  PREFACE. 

periods  considered  herein  are  also  adverted  to  in  the  text,  with  a 
view  to  imparting  an  added  value  and  interest  to  the  narrative. 

No  labor  has  been  spared  to  make  the  work  accurate  and  reliable. 
Manuscript  minutes,  documents  of  various  kinds,  files  of  old  news- 
papers published  in  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries,  proceed- 
ings of  National  and  International  T^qjographical  Union  conventions, 
numerous  rare  books,  reports  of  a  public  character  —  in  fine,  all 
available  records  bearing  upon  the  subject  have  been  carefully  con- 
sulted in  order  to  assure  a  complete  presentation  of  necessary  details. 

Any  success  that  may  attach  to  this  volume  is  in  large  measure 
due  to  the  sincere  and  generous  co-operation  of  many  people  who 
are  active  in  professional,  industrial  and  commercial  life.  Especially 
do  I  wish  to  publicly  express  my  gratitude  to  Mrs.  Andrew  W.  Ford 
(n^e  Nixola  Greeley-Smith),  granddaughter  of  Horace  Greeley,  and 
Miss  Jessie  B.  Colburn,  daughter  of  Charles  W.  Colburn,  for  their 
kindness  in  placing  at  my  disposal  choice  documents,  letters,  papers 
and  photographs.  It  is  with  pleasure  that  I  also  extend  my  thanks 
to  the  American  Type  Founders  Company,  and  especially  to  its 
representative,  Henry  L.  Bullen,  librarian  of  the  unique  Typographic 
Library  and  Museum  in  Jersey  City,  as  well  as  to  Robert  H.  Kelby, 
librarian  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  for  their  uniform 
courtesy  in  according  to  me  free  and  unreserved  access  to  the  book 
stacks  and  archives  of  those  quasi-private  libraries  during  the  entire 
progress  of  my  research.  Likewise  do  I  desire  to  convey  my  cordial 
acknowledgments  to  Hon.  Joseph  J.  Little,  of  the  J.  J.  Little  and 
Ives  Company,  employing  printers.  New  York  City,  for  the  loan  of 
old  and  exceptionally  valuable  scales  of  prices  of  No.  6 ;  to  Frank  A. 
Baxter,  publisher  and  editor  of  the  Ridgewood  (N.  J.)  News,  as 
well  as  to  William  F.  Derflinger,  with  the  Martin  B.  Brown  Printing 
and  Binding  Company,  New  York  City,  for  the  use  of  circulars  and 
reports  issued  by  "  Big  Six  "  in  the  remote  past;  to  William  Briggs, 


PREFACE.  V 

of  the  accounting  department  of  the  Government  Printing  Office, 
Washington,  D.  C,  for  data  procured  by  him  at  the  Congressional 
Library;  to  John  A.  Fivey,  president  of  the  New  York  Typographical 
Society,  for  placing  in  my  possession  the  minutes  of  that  society  and 
of  the  New  York  Typographical  Association;  and  to  J.  W.  Hays, 
secretary-treasurer  of  the  International  Typographical  Union,  and 
Hugo  Miller,  second  vice-president  of  that  organization  and 
secretary-treasurer  of  its  German  Branch,  for  material  of  consider- 
able value.  To  the  following  members  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6 
I  most  cheerfully  extend  expressions  of  my  grateful  appreciation 
for  papers  and  pamphlets  of  much  worth  that  they  have  lent  me  and 
for  the  many  timely  suggestions  that  they  have  offered  in  the  course  of 
my  inquiry:  President  Charles  M.  Maxwell,  Secretary-Treasurer 
John  S.  O'Connell;  Hugh  Dalton,  George  A.  McKay,  James  M. 
Duncan,  Charles  J.  Dumas,  James  J.  Murphy,  John  H.  Delaney 
and  James  Tole,  former  presidents;  and  James  H.  Breslin,  James  R. 
Cameron,  Frederick  W.  Ferguson,  Peter  J.  Flanagan,  Bastable  J. 
Hawkes,  Owen  J.  Kindelon,  William  Lycett,  William  McCabe,  John 
McKinley,  Jr.,  David  H.  Moon,  William  Mounce,  P.  J.  O'Connell, 
Sigmund  Oppenheimer,  James  R.  Pigott,  James  Rainnie,  William 
S.  Rood,  Leon  H.  Rouse  and  George  W.  Waldron. 

Special  Agents  Thomas  J.  Hammill  and  William  E.  Pettit,  of  the 
Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  deserve  special  commendation  for  their 
diligent  and  efficient  assistance  in  gathering  and  collating  a  mass  of 
important  facts;  and  I  am  also  indebted  to  Pierre  J.  B.  Haegy, 
librarian  of  the  Department  of  Labor,  for  the  excellence  of  his  trans- 
lations into  English  of  several  lengthy  articles  printed  in  a  foreign 
language. 

New  York,  March,  19 12.  G.  A.  S. 


CONTENTS. 


Preface , . .  {[{ 

Chapter  I. —  Rise  of  the  Modern  Labor  Movement y 

I.  Building  and  Stone  Working 3 

Bricklayers  and  stone  masons 4 

Carpenters  and  joiners 4 

Journeymen  housesmiths 6 

Painters  and  decorators 7 

Plumbers  and  gas  fitters 7 

Marble  cutters 8 

Stone  cutters 8 

Quarrymen 8 

Building  laborers 8 

II.  Clothing  and  Textiles 10 

Journeymen  tailors 10 

Hat  finishers 16 

«       Straw  and  pamilla  sewers 16 

Boot  and  shoe  workers 17 

White  work  weavers 18 

III.  Metals,  Machinery  and  Shipbuilding 19 

Boilermakers 19 

Block  and  pump  makers 19 

Workers  in  precious  metals 20 

Ship  riggers 20 

Ship  sawyers 20 

IV.  Wood  Working  and  Furniture 21 

Cabinet  makers 21 

Coach  painters 21 

Sash  and  blind  makers 22 

Turners 22 

Upholsterers 22 

Window  shade  painters 23 

V.  Food  Products  and  Tobacco 23 

Journeymen  bakers 23 

Confectioners 26 

Cigar  makers 27 

VI.  Retail  Trade 27 

Dry  goods  clerks 27 

Boot  and  shoe  clerks 31 

VII.  Miscellaneous  Trades 3^ 

Actors 31 

Barbers 3' 

Coachmen 3^ 

Public  porters 32 

Saddle  and  harness  makers 3^ 

Tobacco  pipe  makers 32 

Journeymen  type  founders 33 

Iviil 


viii  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Chapter  II.— Unions  of  Printers  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.  ..  34 

I.  Original  Organization  of  Typographers 34 

II.  The  Typographical  Society 35 

III.  Frankhn  Typographical  Association 37 

Chapter  III. —  New  York  Typographical  Society,  1809-1818 41 

I.  Initial  Constitution 42 

II.  First  By-Laws 45 

III.  Geographical  Jurisdiction 47 

IV.  Upbuilding  Efforts 48 

V.  Struggles  for  Increased  Wages 51 

Wage  scale  of  1809 57 

Effect  of  1812  war 60 

Scale  of  prices  in  1815 61 

VI.  Regulating  Apprenticeship  System 65 

Futile  effort  to  fix  term 65 

"  Half-way  journeymen  " 66 

VII.  In  the  Interest  of  the  Unemployed 70 

Vigilance  Committee 70 

Registering  vacant  situations  and  idle  members 71 

VIII.  Traveling  Cards  Proposed 72 

Advantages  of  the  system 72 

Why  the  plan  could  not  be  adopted 72 

IX.  Funds  of  the  Society  Safeguarded 73 

Unappropriated  moneys  invested  in  bank  stock 74 

X.  Decadence  as  a  Trade  Union 75 

XI.  Act  of  Incorporation  Removes  Its  Protective  Powers 78 

Capable  of  suing  and  being  sued 78 

Relief  for  distressed  members 79 

Regulation  of  wages  prohibited 79 

Ceases  to  be  a  trade  union 80 

Prosperous  benefit  organization 80 

XII.  Illustrious  Members 81 

David  H.  Reins,  first  secretary 81 

Samuel  Woodworth,  the  poet 82 

Peter  Force,  annalist 94 

Thurlow   Weed,    journalist    and    Warwick    of    American 

politics 98 

Ellis  Lewis,  jurist 100 

XIII.  Celebrated  Conspiracy  Case 102 

Chapter  IV. —  Typographical  Association  of  New  York,  1831-1840.  105 

I.  Founding  a  Militant  Trade  Union 106 

II.  Fundamental  Law 106 

Forceful  introductory  remarks 106 

Depression  caused  by  child  labor 108 

Excessive  working  hours  on  newspapers 108 

Victims  of  unsanitary  workshops 108 

Assisted  immigration  a  menace 109 

Incompetent  workmanship  discouraged 109 

Provision  for  relief  of  members 112 


CONTENTS.  ix 

PAGE 

Chapter  V. —  Inception  of  the  Chapel 114 

I.  Origin  of  the  Chapel  in  Doubt ijc 

Where  Caxton  set  up  his  first  press 115 

Derivation  of  the  term  in  question 118 

Existed  in  medieval  France  and  Belgium 118 

II.  Devotional  Element  the  Prevailing  Feature 119 

A  quaint  daily  praj^er  for  printers iig 

III.  Earliest  Description  of  the  Institution 120 

Modern  printers  practice  ancient  customs 120 

Ancient  customs  used  in  a  printing  house 121 

Playing  pranks  upon  pressmen  forbidden . 122 

Institution  of  the  wayz-goose 123 

Social  customs  in  early  printing  offices 124 

IV.  Printing-House  Regulations  in  1740 124 

Unit  of  government  in  trade  affairs 124 

Members  obliged  to  submit  to  shop  laws 125 

Initiation  of  apprentices  into  trade  mysteries 125 

V.  At  the  Beginning  of  the  Nineteenth  Century 125 

VI.  Regulations  in  Vogue  about  the  Year  1840 126 

Sanctioned  by  master  printers 126 

A  crime  to  find  fault  with  decisions 127 

Peculiar  penalties  imposed 127 

Wage  scales  enforced  with  justness 128 

Preparing  for  an  apprentice's  initiation 128 

Chapter  VI. —  Uniform  Wage  Rates  Established 131 

I.  Adoption  of  Scale  of  Prices  in  1831 131 

A  journeyman  not  favorably  impressed 132 

Earnings  of  compositors  on  piecework 132 

Difference  between  newspaper  and  book  prices 133 

II.  Revision  of  Scale  in  1833 134 

III.  Wage  Changes  in  Subsequent  Years 137 

Identical  piece  rate  for  day  and  night  work 137 

Newspaper  scale  revised  and  working  time  regulated 137 

IV.  Panic  of  1837  Seriously  Affects  Printing  Trade 138 

Employers  combine  to  reduce  wages 139 

Journeymen  urged  to  sustain  prevalent  rates 139 

Life's  necessaries  higher  than  when  scale  was  adopted 139 

Higher  wages,  but  longer  working  time 141 

Strikes  in  three  large  establishments 141 

Union  declines  to  suspend  list  of  prices 142 

Chapter  VII. —  Unfair  Lists 143 

"  Rat  "  circulars  widely  distributed 143 

General  amnesty  proclaimed 144 

Boycotting  non-union  concerns 145 

Suit  instituted  for  alleged  libelous  attack 146 

Chapter  VIII. —  Assisted  Immigration  of  Printers  Denounced —  147 

Employers  mislead  foreign  journej^men _.  .  147 

Influential  journal  impugns  master  printers'  methods 147 


X  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Chapter  IX.—  Financial  Support  to  Other  Trades 149 

Turn-out  of  carpenters  for  better  wages 149 

Hatters  struggle  to  maintain  their  union 149 

Pecuniary  relief  for  tailors  and  leather  dressers 1 50 

Chapter  X.—  Other  Important  Transactions 151 

Priority  rights  accorded  to  idle  members 151 

Religious  discussion  eschewed 151 

Establishing  a  library  for  printers 152 

Honoring  Lafayette's  memory 152 

A  labor  temple  projected I53 

Establishing  a  one-cent  daily  labor  paper 153 

Chapter  XI. —  Pioneer  National  Typographical  Convention 155 

I.  Special  Address  to  Local  Unions 155 

Employment  of  apprentices  regulated 1 56 

Wage  scale,  strikes  and  "  rat  "  circulars 156 

Traveling  cards  authorized 157 

II.  General  Appeal  to  Printers 1 57 

Reasons  for  concerted  action 158 

Workingmen  legally  entitled  to  organize 158 

Evils  of  surplus  boy  labor 158 

III.  New  York  Delegates  Report I59 

From  New  York  to  Washington  75  years  ago 1 59 

IV.  Second  National  Conclave  of  Union  Printers 160 

Convention  held  in  New  York  City 160 

Revision  of  the  constitution 161 

Chapter  XII. —  First  General  Trades  Union  Organized 162 

Printers  suggest  original  central  labor  union 162 

Decided  conviction  of  its  utility 162 

Efncient  aid  to  all  branches 162 

Auspicious  event  commemorated 165 

Notable  conspiracy  trials 175 

Labor  enters  politics 175 

Chapter  XIII. —  A  Celebrated  Printer-Orator  —  Ely  Moore 177 

I.  Agitation  Against  Contract  Prison  Labor 177 

Appointed  on  Prison  Commission 177 

Harmful  to  manufacturers  and  mechanics 178 

Reasons  for  employing  prisoners 179 

Convict  labor  on  public  works  impracticable 180 

Contract  system  unrestricted 180 

Making  of  imported  articles  suggested  as  a  solution 181 

Manufacture  of  locks  in  penal  institutions 182 

II.  Labor's  First  Congressman 184 

Elected  to  the  Twenty -fourth  Congress 184 

Prison  labor  report  discussed 185 

Retains  the  confidence  of  workingmen 186 

Member  of  Twenty-fifth  Congress 187 

Speaks  against  national  banking  system 187 

Opposes  abolition  petitions 188 


CONTENTS. 


XI 


Chapter  XIII. — A  Celebrated  Printer-Orator — Ely  Moore  — (Cow/.) 

II.  Labor's  First  Congressman  — {Continued.)  page 

Fulfillment  of  a  dire  prophecy igo 

Favors  doctrine  of  State  rights loo 

Other  honors  conferred jgj 

Chapter  XIV. —  Decadence  of  a  Militant  Trade  Union 102 

Ruinous  system  of  two-thirders jg2 

Strike  of  Washington  journeymen ig2 

Manual  labor  school jg- 

Denunciation  of  Gen.  Duff  Green,  Public  Printer ig^i 

Typographical  Association  collapses ig^^ 

Chapter  XV. —  Franklin  Typographical  Association 195 

Scale  of  prices  adopted jg- 

Employers  concede  demands jg5 

Victory  acclaimed  by  discharge  of  artillery ig6 

House  of  Call  opened ig^ 

Horace  Greeley  advises  printers  to  join  union igy 

Master  printers  decide  to  reduce  wages igg 

Union  protests  against  cut  in  compensation igg 

Sixth  union  of  printers  dissolves 200 

Chapter  XVI. —  New  York  Printers'  Union 201 

I.  Motives  That  Impelled  Organization 202 

First  preliminary  meeting 202 

II.  Initial  Constitution 20'i 

III.  Horace  Greeley  Chosen  President 205 

First  working  card 205 

IV.  Becomes  Typographical  Union  No.  6 205 

Lots  drawn  to  determine  charter  numbers 205 

Chapter  XVII. —  Movements  for  Higher  Wages 208 

I.  Inquiry  Before  Action 208 

Investigators  report  on  state  of  trade 208 

Worst  features  in  small  shops 209 

Low  wage  rates  and  earnings 210 

Long  working  hours 210 

Bad  and  irregular  pay 211 

Unfair  distribution  of  copy 212 

Chief  causes  of  evils.  .'. 212 

Menace  of  superfluous  boy  labor 213 

Incompetent  floating  workmen 215 

Uniform  wage  scale 216 

Unvarying  apprenticeship  system 216 

Formation  of  chapels  suggested 217 

Employers  favor  better  conditions 217 

Industrial  co-operation  the  ultimate  cure 218 

II.  Printers'  Mass  Meeting  Considers  the  Report 219 

Horace  Greeley  addresses  the  general  trade 219 

State  of  trade  report  approved 222 

Union  requested  to  prepare  a  scale  of  prices 222 


Xli  CONTENTS. 

Chapter  XVII:  —  Movements  for  Higher  Wages  —  (Continued.)  page 

III.  First  Scale  Committee  Appointed 223 

Horace  Greeley  agitates  for  uniform  wages 224 

Majority  of  employers  reject  proposed  scale 225 

Albany  Printers'  Union  extends  well  wishes 225 

IV.  Adoption  of  First  Scale  of  Prices 225 

V.  General  Trade  Meeting  Endorses  Union's  Action 232 

Greeley  chief  spokesman 234 

Views  of  a  veteran  printer 235 

Treasurer  Rooker  proud  of  his  union  membership. .  .  .  236 

Effective  organization  required 237 

VI.  Enforcing  the  Scale 237 

Sustaining  members  on  strike 238 

Union  opposed  by  Journal  of  Commerce 239 

Editor  Greeley  takes  up  the  printers'  cudgels 242 

Short  and  successful  strike 244 

Chapels  thank  employers 245 

VII.  Agitation  for  Higher  Pay  in  1853 245 

Journal  of  Commerce  renews  its  opposition 249 

Greeley  criticises  the  course  of  the  Journal  of  Com- 
merce    252 

VIII.  Rise  and  Development  of  a  Rival  Union 258 

News  compositors  actively  aggressive 258 

Rival  union  unfavorable  to  sick  benefits 259 

Harmony  among  journeymen  urged  by  Horace  Greeley.  261 

Adoption  of  book  and  job  scale  by  rival  union 261 

Book  and  job  compositors  form  Printers'  Co-operative 

Union 262 

Inharmony  invades  the  trade 262 

Employers  object  to  demands 263 

Co-operatives'  price  list  readjusted 264 

Union  No.  6  revises  book  and  job  scale 264 

Widening  breach  between  two  organizations 265 

National  Union  takes  part  in  controversy 266 

Petition  of  Co-operatives  not  granted 268 

"  Big  Six  "  makes  peace  overtures 269 

National  Union  again  memorialized 271 

Co-operatives'  application  denied 274 

Dissolution    of    New    York    Printers'     Co-operative 

Union 275 

IX.  Wage  Scale  of  1857 275 

Financial  crash  causes  an  industrial  depression 275 

Newspaper  scale  reduced 276 

X.  Book  and  Job  Scale  Advanced  in  1863 277 

XI.  Disputes  on  Newspapers  in  1864 278 

Employers  satisfied  with  first  scale  revision  in  1864.  .  .  278 

Wage  scale  revised  twice  in  1864 279 

Proprietors  object  to  two  increases  in  one  year 281 

Greeley  thinks  proposed  increase  unreasonable 282 


CONTENTS.  Xlii 

Chapter  XVII.  —  Movements  for  Higher  Wages  —  (Continued.) 

XL   Disputes  on  Newspapers  in  1864  —  (Continued.)  page 
Refusal  to  set  "  ad  "  for  non-unionists  causes  Tribune 

strike 286 

General  strike  ordered 288 

Union's  position  defined  at  mass  meeting 288 

Hardships  of  morning  paper  printers 290 

The  Times  discharges  its  union  compositors 295 

"  Big  Six  "  renews  friendly  relations  with  Greeley..  . .  295 

XII.  Book  and  Job  Dispute  in  1869 296 

Distinction  between  manuscript  and  reprint  eliminated.  296 

Demand  for  higher  wages  precipitates  a  strike 296 

Mutual  concessions  settle  strike 302 

Compromise  on  scale  of  prices 303 

XIII.  In  the  Early  Seventies 304 

Newspaper  wage  scale  readjusted 305 

Industrial  crisis  of  1873 305 

XIV.  Book  and  Job  Strike  and  Wage  Reduction  in  1876 306 

Wage  scale  proposed  by  employers 306 

General  strike,  with  a  compromise  in  some  offices. .  .  .  307 

XV.  Wages  Decreased  on  Newspapers  in  1876 308 

XVI.  Book,  Job  and  Morning  Newspaper  Scales  Suspended ....  309 

XVII.  Upbuilding  Process  Begins 309 

Reverses  impel  prudence 309 

Renewal  of  hard  times  in  1882 311 

XVIII.  Revival  of  Wage  Scale  in  1883 311 

Committee  opposed  to  adopting  scale 311 

Lockout  results  in  fixing  book  scale  at  35  cents  per 

1,000  ems 313 

Complete  scale  adopted 314 

Successful  general  strike 316 

XIX.  Increase  for  Newspaper  Composition  in  1887 316 

XX.  Book  and  Job  Controversy  in  1887 317 

Increased  book  scale  and  card  shops  demanded 317 

Employers  solicit  services  of  State  Arbitration  Board.  318 

Contest  for  strictly  union  offices  begins 319 

Union  declines  arbitration 320 

Proprietors  willing  to  pay  scale,  but  oppose  closed  shop  321 

Defeat  for  the  union 322 

XXI.  Partial  Reduction  of  Book  Scale  in  1889 323 

XXIL  Brief  Newspaper  Strike  in  1889 323 

Reduction  of  wages  attempted 324 

Form  of  settlement  accepted 324 

XXIII.  General  Introduction  of  Composing  Machines,  1 890-1 894. . .  326 

Machine  scale  of  1887  not  effective 327 

Introduction  of  linotype  machines 327 

Union  favors  composing  devices 329 

First  scale  for  machine  composition 329 

School  of  instruction  proposed 331 

Machine  schedule  for  bookwork 336 

Opposed  to  restriction  of  output 337 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

Chapter  XVII.  —  Movements  for  Higher  Wages  —  {Continued.)  page 

XXIV.  Effect  of  the  1893  Panic  on  Wages 338 

XXV.  Scale  Amendments  in  1897  and  1898 339 

Borrowing  matrices  prohibited 339 

Overtime  rates  readjusted  for  job  printers 340 

Scale  for  machine- tenders 341 

Striving  to  abolish  piece  system  in  book  offices 341 

XXVI.  Increases  for  Book  and  Job  Compositors  in  1902 342 

Agreement  with  TypothetiE 343 

XXVII.  Proceedings  Under  First  Newspaper  Arbitration  Plan  in  344 

1901 344 

Arbitrating  demand  for  an  advance 346 

Union's  reasons  for  advance  in  wages 347 

Argument  of  publishers  for  decreased  rates 348 

Decision  against  the  union 352 

XXVIII.  Revision  of  Newspaper  Scale  in  1907 354 

Demands  made  by  the  union 354 

Counter-proposition  of  publishers 355 

Recourse  to  local  arbitration 355 

Local  tribunal  in  deadlock 357 

National  arbitrators  raise  rates 357 

XXIX.  Newspaper  Workers  Secure  Increased  Wages  in  1910 358 

Local  arbitration  unsuccessful 358 

Rates  increased  by  national  arbitrators 360 

XXX.  Advances  in  Wage  Scale  of  Book  and  Job  Printers,  Adopted 

in  1910 364 

Formation  of  Printers'  League  of  America 364 

Union  accepts  arbitration  plan  of  Printers'  League . . .  365 

Chapter  XVIII. —  Movements  for  Shortening  Hours  of  Labor  ....  368 

I.  Eight-Hour  Demonstration  in  1871 369 

II.  Movement  for  Eight-Hour  Day  in  1872 369 

III.  Discussion  of  the  Question  in  the  Eighties 370 

IV.  Machines  Decrease  Working  Time  on  Daily  Newspapers 371 

V.  Book  and  Job  Printers  Move  for  the  Nine-Hour  Day 372 

Daily  hours  reduced  to  nine  and  one-half 374 

National  agreement  for  the  shorter  working  day 375 

Nine-hour  law  successfully  instituted 376 

VI.  Eight-Hour  System  in  Book  and  Job  Offices 376 

International  Union  declares  for  the  eight-hour  day 376 

Opposition  of  Typothetae  to  shorter  working  day 377 

New  York  union  active  in  the  movement 377 

Independent  concerns  grant  the  demand 378 

Typothetae  shops  lost  to  the  union 379 

An  injunction,  followed  by  contempt  proceedings 379 

Chapter  XIX. —  Celebrated  Individual  Strikes 384 

Strikes  on  the  Tribime 384 

Controversies  with  the  New  York  Sun 396 

Strikes  on  the  World 402 

Trouble  on  the  New  York  Times 4^4 


CONTENTS.                                                  ,  XV 

Chapter  XIX. —  Celebrated  Individual  Strikes  — {Continusd.)  page 

Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle  dispute 405 

Controversy  with  the  Mail  and  Express 407 

Union  loses  office  of  Evening  Post 4.07 

Chapter  XX. —  Numerical  Strength  and  Upbuilding  Efforts 413 

Panic  of  1857  depletes  ranks  of  the  union 413 

Upbuilding  efforts  in  1859 414 

Membership  loss  during  the  Civil  War 415 

General  amnesty  augments  the  rolls  in  1868 416 

Work  of  rejuvenation  in  1883 416 

Growth  since  creation  of  office  of  organizer 418 

Effect  of  the  1906  strike  on  the  membership 419 

Membership  each  year  from  1850 420 

Chapter  XXI. —  Women  Printers 421 

Employment  of  women  printers  begins  in  New  York  in  1853 422 

Union  discourages  entrance  of  women  to  printing  trade 422 

Greeley  favors  employment  of  women  compositors 424 

Equal  rights'  advocates  seek  Labor's  recognition 429 

The  World  dismisses  its  women  typesetters 43 1 

First  Women's  Typographical  Union  formed  in  New  York 432 

Women  refuse  to  take  places  of  striking  men 433 

"  Big  Six  "  pleads  for  a  charter  for  Women's  Union  No.  i 434 

International  Union  consents  to  formation  of  women's  organizations.  435 

Miss  Lewis  chosen  corresponding  secretary  of  International 436 

Women  printers  unable  to  obtain  same  wages  as  men 438 

Union  No.  6  demands  revocation  of  women's  charter 438 

Women's  Union  No.  i  dissolves 439 

Full  pay  for  women  in  men's  organization 440 

Chapter  XXII. —  Chapel  System  Established 441 

Chapter  XXIII. —  Representative  Form  of  Government  in  Union 

Affairs 447 

Pronouncement  for  delegate  system  in  1871 447 

First  Board  of  Delegates 449 

Second  Board  of  Delegates 450 

Third  Board  of  Delegates 450 

Chapter  XXIV. —  House  of  Call  Created 452 

Chapter  XXV. —  Apprenticeship  Question 454 

Regulation  of  apprenticeship  at  the  beginning 454 

State  law  relative  to  apprentices 455 

Restrictive  measures  cause  strike 457 

Apprentices  not  allowed  on  daily  papers 461 

Newspaper  apprenticeship  revived 462 

Broadening  apprenticeship  regulations 464 

International  course  in  printing 465 

Chapter  XXVI. —  Funds  of  the  Union 468 

Sources  from  which  revenues  are  derived 468 

Treasury  amply  safeguarded 4^9 

Receipts  and  expenditures ' 47® 

Compensation  of  officers  and  committeemen 471 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Chapter  XXVII. —  Beneficial  Features 472 

I.  Unemployment  Benefits 474 

Helping  its  unemployed  in  1857-8 474 

Succoring  idle  members  in  the  seventies 475 

Temporary  aid  given  in  1885 476 

Permanent  benefit  fund  follows  advent  of  machines.  .  .  .  477 

Making  benefits  a  constitutional  right,  not  a  charity 479 

Unemployment  benefits  paid  in  eighteen  years 48 1 

II,  Farm  Project  for  Idle  Printers 484 

Tilling  the  soil  in  Pelham  Bay  Park 486 

'Experiences  in  Bound  Brook,  New  Jersey 488 

Agricultural  undertaking  abandoned 492 

III.  Pensions  for  Superannuated  Members 492 

Local  old-age  benefits 492 

International  pensions  for  aged  members 493 

IV.  Union  Printers'  Home 494 

V.  Hospital  Beds 500 

Permanent  Committee  on  Health  and  Sanitation 501 

Improvement  in  workshop  conditions 504 

VI.  Mortuary  Benefits 504 

Amounts  paid  in  fifteen  years 506 

Increase  in  the  length  of  printers'  lives 507 

Record  of  deaths  in  52  years 508 

Union  provides  places  of  sepulture 509 

VII.  Disbursements  in  Benefits  for  Fifteen  Years 509 

Chapter  XXVIII.  —  The  Union   Label 51 1 

Printing  Trades  Federation 512 

Allied  Printing  Trades  Council 513 

State  law  legalizing  union  labels 515 

Chapter  XXIX. —  Prison  Labor 516 

Printing  contract  annulled 516 

Contract  system  unfair  to  capital  and  free  labor 519 

Restricting  typesetting  in  prisons 520 

Constitution  forbids  competitive  prison  work 521 

Chapter  XXX. —  Public  Holidays  for  Working  People 522 

Labor  Day 522 

Saturday  Half  Holiday 523 

Chapter  XXXI. —  Tariffs  and  Copyrights 527 

Printers  demand  high  duties  on  imported  books 527 

International  Copyright  Law  advocated  by  Union  No.  6 528 

Chapter  XXXII. —  Priority  Law 529 

Chapter  XXXIII. —  Mileage  System  for  Traveling  Printers 533 

Chapter  XXXIV. —  Other  Printing  Trades  Organizations 536 

I.  Brooklyn  Printers 536 

II.  German  Printers 541 

III.  Pressmen 55^ 

IV.  Machine-Tenders 558 

V.  Woman's  Auxiliary 5^5 


CONTENTS.  Xvii 

PAGE 

Chapter  XXXV. —  General  Organization  of  Printers 567 

National  convention  of  journeymen  printers  in  New  York  City ....  568 

Second  general  meeting  of  the  craft 573 

National  Typographical  Union  founded 577 

General  conventions  of  1862  and  1885  in  New  York  City 578 

Chapter  XXXVI. —  State  Typographical  Union 583 

State  Allied  Printing  Trades   Council  formed 583 

Chapter  XXXVII. —  Affiliation  with  the  General  Labor  Move- 
ment    585 

National  Labor  Union 585 

New  York  State  workingmen's  conventions 586 

City  ceiitral  labor  organizations 592 

Chapter  XXXVIII. —  Public  Printing 595 

Contract  system  deprecated  by  1850  convention 595 

Opposition  to  a  public  printery  in  Washington 595 

Union  No.  6  urges  creation  of  State  Printing  House 598 

Governor  vetoes  State  Printing  Office  Bill 598 

Chapter  XXXIX. —  Printing   Exposition 602 

Chapter  XL. —  Matters  of  General  Import 604 

Patriotic  sentiment  expressed 604 

Celebrating  the  completion  of  the  Atlantic  cable 606 

Non-interference  with  the  freedom  of  the  press 607 

Objection  to  use  of  steam  presses  for  printing  currency 608 

Union  No.  6  co-operates  with  Church  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  the  Interests  of  Labor 608 

Women's  Trade  Union  League 612 

Espouses  peace  among  nations 613 

Chapter  XLI. —  Union  Printers  Who  Attained  Distinction 616 

I.  First  President  of  "  Big  Six" 616 

Horace  Greeley  assumes  presidency  of  Printers'   Union 616 

Early  career  of  the  printer-editor 617 

Experiences  as  a  tramp  printer 617 

Initial  venture  as  employer 618 

Consistent  exponent  of  co-operation 619 

Interest  in  the  general  labor  movement 620 

Ever  alert  to  improve  craft  conditions 623 

Public  reception  tendered  to  Greeley  by  "  Big  Six  " 623 

Death  of  Horace  Greeley 625 

Union  No.  6  feelingly  deplores  his  demise 626 

Rearing  a  monument  to  his  memory 626 

Statue  of  Greeley  erected  by  union  printers 632 

Horace  Greeley  centenary 636 

II.  Other  Prominent  Members 643 

Charles  Walter  Colbum 643 

Franklin  J.  Ottarsqn 646 

Robert  McKechnie 648 

Hon.  Amos  Jay  Cummings 651 

John  C.  Reid 654 


Xviii  CONTENTS. 

Chapter  XLI. — Union  Printers  Who  Attained  Distinction — iCont.) 

11.  Other  Prominent  Members  — {Continued.)  page 

John  R.  O'Donnell 656 

John  W.  Touhey 658 

Wesley  Washingthn  Pasko 659 

Gov.  George  Wilbur  Peck,  of  Wisconsin 660 

Isaac  W.  England 661 

Hon.  Joseph  J.  Little 665 

Presidents  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6 666 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

New  York  Tribune  staS  in  early  fifties  of  nineteenth  century Frontispiece. 

George  Bruce,  first  secretary  of  Franklin  Typographical  Association  of 

New  York,  in  1799,  and  afterward  a  celebrated  type  founder 37 

David  Bruce,  vice-president  of  Franklin  Typographical  Association  of 

New  York,  in  1 799,  and  subsequently  a  noted  inventor  and  type  founder.         38 
Samuel  Woodworth,  union  printer  and  poet,  author  of  "  The  Old  Oaken 

Bucket  " 82 

Peter  Force,  president  of  New  York  Typographical  Society  in  1815,  and 

distinguished  American  annalist 94 

Thurlow   Weed,   union   printer,   journalist,   and   Warwick   of   American 

politics 98 

Ellis  Lewis,  member  of  New  York  Typographical  Society,  in  1817,  and 

Chief  Justice  of  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania 100 

Ely  Moore,  eminent  union  printer,  celebrated  orator,  and  Labor's  first 

Congressman 177 

Charter  issued  by  National  Typographical  Union  to  New  York  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  6 201 

Reproduction  of  first  working  card  issued  by  Horace  Greeley  as  president 

of  New  York  Printers'  Union 205 

Charter  issued  by  National  Typographical  Union  to  New  York  Women's 

Typographical  Union  No.  i 42 1 

First  union  label  adopted  by  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  in  1891,  and  sub- 
sequent labels  used  by  that  organization 511 

Charter   issued   by   International   Typographical   Union   to   New   York 

Typographical  Union  No.  6 567 

Horace  Greeley,  as  he  appeared  when  he  became  president  of  New  York 

Printers'  Union  in  1850 616 

Statue  of  Horace  Greeley  erected  by  union  printers  in  Greeley  Square, 

New  York  City 632 

Inscription  on  base  of  statue  of  Horace  Greeley  in  Greeley  Square,  New 

York  City 634 

Charles  Walter  Colbum,    whose  signature  was  the  first  one  affixed  to 
the  initial  constitution  of  New  York  Printers'  Union,  and  who  received 

working  card  No.  i,  issued  by  Horace  Greeley,  as  president 643 

[xix] 


CHAPTER  I. 
RISE  OF  THE  MODERN  LABOR  MOVEMENT. 

IT  was  at  the  threshold  of  America's  Golden  Age  that  the  New  York 
Printers'  Union  (which  eventually  became  Typographical  Union 
No.  6,  familiarly  known  as  "  Big  Six  "  throughout  the  industrial 
world,)  had  its  inception. 

From  California  had  come  the  gladsome  tidings  that  mines  of 
fabulous  wealth  had  been  imcovered,  and  this  discovery  on  the 
Pacific  Slope  of  the  most  precious  metal  marked  an  important  era 
in  the  life  of  the  nation. 

Emigration  to  the  farthest  West  commenced  with  the  earliest 
intelligence  that  the  mountains  of  the  remotest  comer  of  the  continent 
had  yielded  their  inexhaustible  treasures  to  the  hand  of  the  delving 
explorer,  and  this  exodus  increased  in  proportion  to  the  amoimt  of 
gold  that  was  taken  from  the  earth. 

Great  improvement  in  business  ensued.  Large  quantities  of  the 
yellow  metal  were  mined,  producing  an  immediate  change  in  the 
value  of  the  currency  and  creating  a  revolution  in  the  prices  of  com- 
modities. 

Labor,  particularly  in  New  York  City,  experienced  the  influence 
of  these  rapid  alterations  in  conditions.  Realizing  that  their  earnings 
were  not  commensurate  with  the  demands  consequent  upon  the 
upward  tendency  of  the  cost  of  living,  the  workmen  sought  to  broaden 
and  better  their  economic  standard  through  organization. 

In  the  closing  days  of  1849  formation  of  unions  began  among  a 
few  Metropolitan  trades  in  a  small  way,  the  printers  being  in  the  van 
of  this  uplift  effort,  but  by  the  advent  of  the  succeeding  spring  quite 
a  number  of  protective  associations  had  sprung  into  existence  and 
the  modem  labor  movement  was  then  firmly  laimched. 

Industrial  co-operation  received  much  attention  in  those  days, 
and  labor  copartnerships  were  entered  into  by  several  trades,  with 
some  degree  of  success.  A  Co-operative  Labor  League  was  formed 
in  December,  1850,  the  plan  of  which  embodied  these  regulations: 

The  officers  of  the  League  to  contract  with  large  dealers  to  supply  the  mem- 
bers of  the  League  with  articles  of  general  consumption  of  good  quality  and 
at  fair  market  prices. 


2  •  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

The  contractors  to  establish  depots  in  such  localities  as  may  be  indicated  by 
the  oflficers  of  the  League  for  the  convenience  of  the  members. 

The  contractors,  in  consideration  of  the  custom  of  the  League,  to  allow  per 
cent  discount  on  the  entire  amount  of  money  taken  by  them. 

The  members  to  be  supplied  with  books  issued  by  the  League  —  such  books 
to  be  taken  to  the  depot  when  any  article  is  purchased,  and  the  amount  ex- 
pended to  be  entered  in  the  book. 

The  discount  shall  be  computed  from  these  books,  and  paid  by  the  contractor 
to  the  League  and  returned  to  the  members  of  the  League. 

All  transactions  of  the  League  to  be  for  ready  money. 

A  central  association  called  the  Industrial  Congress  was  established, 
and  the  unions  were  well  represented  in  that  body,  through  whose 
activity  the  labor  cause  was  extended  and  invigorated.  At  its 
inception,  on  June  5,  1850,  83  delegates  from  50  organizations  were 
present  and  took  part  in  the  proceedings.  It  petitioned  the  Common 
Council  of  the  city  on  August  6,  1850,  urging  "  that  (i)  the  contract 
system  on  public  work  be  totally  abolished;  that  (2)  no  person  be 
employed  as  a  superintendent  of  or  have  charge  of  any  department 
of  our  public  works  who  has  not  served  an  apprenticeship  to,  and  is 
thoroughly  conversant  with,  the  branch  of  business  committed  to 
his  care;  that  (3)  the  lowest  wages  to  be  paid  to  laboring  men  engaged 
on  the  public  work  be  $1.25  per  day,  and  that  (4)  no  person  whatever 
be  discharged  from  the  public  service  solely  on  account  of  his  political 
opinions."  Another  field  of  discussion  that  it  entered  was  that 
favoring  "  the  enactment  of  a  bill  constituting  a  proper  district 
surveyor,  who  shall  direct  the  erection  of  all  buildings  within  his 
district,  investigate  all  dwelling  houses,  and  prohibit  the  tenanting 
of  all  houses  not  in  a  position  to  accommodate  (with  proper  regard 
to  the  public  health)  the  tenants."  In  October,  1850,  after  delib- 
erating upon  the  homestead  question,  which  was  then  a  popular 
theme,  the  Congress  unanimously  assented  to  this  proposition: 
"  That  the  State  be  requested  to  pass  bonds  for  and  raise  $1,000,000, 
with  which  to  locate  on  land  families  who  are  anxious  for  homes, 
with  five  years  to  pay  the  homestead  thus  granted ;  and  that,  in  case 
at  the  expiration  of  that  period  such  parties  are  not  in  a  condition 
to  pay  one-half  and  the  county  the  other  half,  the  time  shall  be 
extended  to  allow  the  recipients  to  liquidate  the  debt." 

Associated  work  people  also  assembled  in  the  different  wards  of 
the  city  and  discussed  subjects  of  public  interest.  At  one  of  these 
mass  meetings,  held  in  the  Eighteenth  Ward  in  August,  1850,  resolu- 
tions were  adopted  "  (i)  against  the  traffic  in  public  lands,  (2)  in 
favor  of  abolishing  or  amending  all  laws  which  favor  Capital  at  the 
expense  of  Labor,  (3)  that  eight  hours  ought  to  constitute  a  day's 


RISE  OF  THE  MODERN  LABOR  MOVEMENT.  3 

work  on  public  contracts,  and  (4)  to  carry  out  these  views  that  an 
Industrial  Committee  be  appointed  for  the  ward." 

No  element  of  the  industrial  community  labored  more  zealously 
to  promote  the  welfare  of  the  crafts  than  the  German  artisans,  who  had 
nightly  gatherings  and  formed  many  occupations  into  unions,  finally 
creating  the  United  Trades,  a  central  commission  composed  of  men 
who  spoke  the  Teutonic  language,  which  organization  became  a 
potent  factor  in  the  agitation  for  reforms. 

From  the  capital  of  the  State  emanated  words  of  encouragement 
and  caution,  as  expressed  by  the  union  of  Albany  typographers,  who 
hailed  "  with  gratification  the  movement  now  going  forward  among 
the  workingmen  of  this  State,  irrespective  of  class,  and  we  look  with 
a  hopeful  desire  to  the  accomplishment  of  some  great  good  to  their 
cause;  that  the  power  of  elevating  the  condition  of  workingmen  is 
wholly  with  themselves,  when  they  are  firmly  united  and  their  action 
is  impelled  by  moderation  and  wisdom;  that  it  is  a  duty  which  they 
owe  to  themselves  and  to  their  successors  that  they  unite  upon  bases 
of  principles  by  which  to  abide  through  all  the  trials  and  vicissitudes 
with  which  they  may  meet." 

The  general  tone  of  the  public  press  was  favorable  to  the  endeavors 
that  were  being  put  forth  by  the  workers.  "  The  strikes  which  com- 
menced among  the  mechanics  and  workingmen  of  this  city  a  short 
time  since  are  still  going  on,  and  we  must  again  express  our  satis- 
faction at  the  manner  in  which  these  strikes  and  meetings  continue 
to  be  conducted,"  commented  the  New  York  Herald  editorially  in 
its  issue  of  April  8,  1850.  "  The  workingmen  confine  themselves 
to  the  matters  which  they  assemble  to  deliberate  upon,  and  take  no 
heed  of  absurd  and  ridiculous  theories.  This  is  all  right  and  proper." 
Such  were  practically  the  sentiments  of  most  of  the  journals  of  the 
period. 

The  1850  movement  among  the  leading  trades  in  different  indus- 
tries is  briefly  described  below: 

I. 

Building   and  Stone  Working. 

As  at  present,  building  was  the  leading  New  York  City  industry. 
Beneficial  societies  had  for  many  years  existed  among  a  limited 
number  of  trades  in  this  line  of  business.  These  added  protective 
features  to  their  benevolent  work,  while  to  others  combination  was  a 
new  venture. 


4  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

The  Benevolent  Society  of  Operative  Masons,  composed  of  brick- 
layers and  stone  masons,  was  organized  in  1843  and  incorporated 
in  1844.     As  a  mutual  aid  association  it  had  been 
Bricklayers         successfully    conducted.     With    the    beginning    of 
and  1850,  however,  it  determined  to  transform  itself  into 

Stone  Masons.  ^  trade  union.  There  were  600  members  on  its 
roster  on  April  24th  of  that  year  when  it  met  at  76 
Prince  street  for  the  purpose  of  inaugurating  a  crusade  against  the 
sub-contracting  system.  The  matter  was  then  discussed,  but  formal 
action  was  not  taken  until  May  7th  following,  when  at  a  crowded 
meeting  denunciatory  resolutions  were  adopted.  After  preambling 
that  "among  that  portion  of  the  community  known  as  contractors 
in  stone  and  brick  it  has  become  an  established  practice  to  give  out 
the  building  of  cellars,  basements,  etc.,  by  sub-contract  to  men  who 
are  not  mechanics  and  therefore  in  no  way  competent  to  carry  out 
such  responsibilities  safely  and  properly,"  the  union  resolved: 

1.  That  we,  the  journeymen  stone  masons  and  bricklayers  of  the  City  of 
New  York,  look  upon  these  practices  as  an  evil  and  a  great  detriment,  not  only 
to  the  trade,  but  to  owners  of  real  estate,  which  it  behooves  us,  as  men 
and  mechanics  knowing,  to  expose. 

2.  That  we  further  look  upon  it  as  an  infringement  upon  our  rights  and  as 
such  it  becomes  our  duty  to  repudiate  it. 

3.  That  in  disapproving  these  infringements  it  further  becomes  our  duty  as 
mechanics,  whether  belonging  to  the  Operative  Masons'  Society  or  not,  to  unite 
in  a  body  and  adopt  measures  whereby  we  may  for  the  future  more  safely  guard 
our  property,  which  is  our  industry,  the  most  precious  and  sacred  we  can  possess 
on  earth. 

Before  the  adjournment  of  the  session  a  vote  of  thanks  to  the  press 
for  its  friendly  attitude  was  unanimously  carried.  Partial  success 
was  the  outcome  of  this  attempt  to  abolish  the  "  lumping  "  system. 

Up  to  185 1  masons  received  $1.50  per  day,  but  on  March  26th  of 
that  year  the  society  held  a  special  meeting  and  ordered  "  that  on 
and  after  the  fourteenth  of  April  ensmng  no  member  shall  work  for 
less  than  $2  per  day."  Employers  conceded  the  advance  of  50  cents 
in  the  price  of  the  daily  labor  of  these  mechanics,  who  on  Saturday, 
April  26th,  marched  in  procession  through  the  principal  streets  of 
the  city  to  commemorate  the  occasion. 

Pioneer  Temple  No.  i,  House  Carpenters'  Protective  Associa- 
tion, although  organized  in  March,  1844,  had  not  ac- 
arpen  ers        complished  as  much  in  the  way  of  establishing  a  just 

Joiners.  ^^^^  °^  wages  as  it  desired,  but  the  general  struggle  of 

1850  served  to  strengthen  its  original  aims.     It  was 

a  secret  order,  having  rites,  ceremonies,  grips,  signs  and  passwords. 

Most  of  the  men  who  founded  it  had  previously  belonged  to  various 


RISE  OF  THE  MODERN  LABOR  MOVEMENT.  5 

carpenters'  societies,  which  rarely  existed  in  a  flourishing  condition 
for  more  than  six  months.  Anxious  to  avoid  the  rocks  on  which 
these  preceding  associations  had  spht,  they  formulated  a  series  of 
principles  that  never  before  had  been  put  into  execution  by  a  union 
of  these  workers.  They  declared  that  "  (i)  the  interests  of  the 
employer  and  employee  are  one  and  the  same  when  properly  under- 
stood; therefore  the  interests  of  the  trade  require  that  they  shotild 
act  together  to  overthrow  those  obstacles  which  depress  Labor. 
Acting  on  this  principle  any  competent  carpenter  of  sober,  industrious 
habits  is  eligible  for  membership  in  the  association.  That  (2)  a 
knowledge  of  the  principles  of  the  science  of  mechanics  and  architec- 
ture as  applied  to  house  carpentry  is  very  essential  to  the  perfecting 
of  every  carpenter  in  the  knowledge  of  his  business  and  as  it  is  natural 
to  suppose  those  who  best  understand  their  business  will  generally 
receive  the  highest  wages,  we  feel  it  to  be  our  interest  to  promote 
this  knowledge  among  our  members."  To  effect  this  object  the  dis- 
cussion of  questions  pertaining  to  mechanical  science  was  part  of 
the  regular  business  of  the  union  on  meeting  nights  and  much  valuable 
information  to  the  members  was  thereby  acquired. 

Seven  hundred  members  of  this  organization  assembled  on  March 
I,  1850,  and  decided  to  seek  a  raise  in  wages.  Pursuant  to  such 
resolution  application  had  been  made  at  the  different  workshops  for 
this  advance.  In  some  instances  the  increased  scale  was  granted, 
while  in  others  it  was  refused  conditionally.  On  March  8th  an 
adjourned  meeting  was  held  at  American  Hall,  Broadway  and  Grand 
street,  to  receive  reports  from  a  committee  that  had  been  appointed 
to  confer  with  the  employing  carpenters.  It  was  stated  by  the  com- 
mittee that  many  employers  had  consented  to  raise  the  price  to  $1.75, 
but  that  others  demurred  till  examples  were  generally  set.  Con- 
siderable discussion  ensued  as  to  the  nature  of  the  advance  —  whether 
it  should  be  a  uniform  rate  of  $  i .  7  5  or  an  increase  of  2  5  cents  on  exist- 
ing rates,  which  varied  from  $1.25  to  $1.50  per  day.  The  resolution 
of  the  former  meeting  to  strike  for  a  uniform  rate  of  $1.75  was  put 
and  carried  amid  loud  cheering.  It  was  further  agreed  to  assemble 
on  March  nth  for  the  purpose  of  a  public  demonstration  by  pro- 
cession through  the  streets,  and  a  visit  to  the  different  jobs.  Like- 
wise it  was  determined  that  the  men  should  return  to  work  on  March 
12  th  for  employers  who  consented  to  the  advance,  and  that  the  others 
should  hold  out  till  their  terms  were  agreed  to.  A  good-sized  gather- 
ing of  journeymen  convened  on  the  evening  of  March  nth  at  Con- 
vention Hall  in  Wooster  street.  At  that  meeting  the  reading  of  the 
names  of  52  firms  who  had  agreed  to  pay  $1.75  was  greeted  with 


6  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

applause.     Steps  were  also  taken  to  effect  a  more  cohesive  organi- 
zation. 

Not  long  after  the  attainment  of  this  improved  condition  apathy 
began  to  appear  in  the  ranks  of  the  carpenters.  In  May  at  a  regular 
session  of  the  union  this  listless  feeling  was  reprobated  by  a  number 
of  members.  A  report  was  submitted  to  the  effect  that  several 
employers  had  cut  wages  to  $i  .62^  a  day.  President  M.  Harris  then 
advocated  the  opening  of  co-operative  shops  as  a  means  of  accom- 
plishing the  requirements  of  the  journeymen.  The  subject  was  dis- 
cussed by  others,  but  a  conclusion  was  not  reached. 

As  the  building  season  waned,  two  rates  prevailed  in  the  trade  — 
$1,625  and  $1.75  per  day.  This  fact  developed  at  a  meeting  which 
took  place  on  December  6th,  when  reports  were  received  from  25 
shops,  showing  that  there  were  both  minimum  and  maximum  rates, 
while  in  one  shop,  where  the  employer  had  attempted  to  reduce  the 
price  to  $1.50,  the  men  had  struck. 

At  the  same  meeting  a  plan  was  submitted  for  reducing  the  hours 
of  labor  to  eight  per  day  and  securing  homes  at  a  reasonable  figure 
for  members  of  the  trade.  Consideration  of  the  subject  was  deferred, 
and  at  subsequent  meetings  considerable  debate  on  the  eight-hour 
question  was  indulged  in,  but  without  decisive  action. 

The  matter  of  wages  again  received  attention  at  the  February, 
185 1,  meeting  of  the  association,  when  the  scale  committee,  while 
urging  against  recourse  to  strikes,  suggested  the  enrolling  of  1,500 
men  pledged  not  to  work  for  less  than  $1.87!  per  day  from  the  tenth 
of  March  to  the  tenth  of  November. 

A  general  meeting  of  journeymen  housesmiths  was  held  at  the 

Fourteenth  Ward  Hotel,  Grand  and  Elizabeth  streets,  on  March  12, 

1850,  to  hear  a  report  from  their  delegates.     Ben- 

Joumeymen       jamin  Gott  was  chosen  chairman  and  Isaac  Hough 

Housesmiths.  secretary.  There  were  at  the  time  300  house- 
smiths  in  New  York  City  and  vicinity  and  200  of 
these  were  represented  as  being  favorable  to  the  formation  of  a  per- 
manent organization.  The  meeting  considered  the  question  of  rising 
prices  of  food,  clothing,  fuel  and  rents  and  embodied  its  views  in  a 
set  of  resolutions,  holding  "  that  on  account  of  the  high  rates  of  rents 
and  the  prices  of  provisions  it  is  with  difficulty  we  can  get  tenements 
to  live  in  or  make  suitable  provisions  for  ourselves  and  families, 
leaving  out  of  the  question  the  idea  of  saving  for  a  time  of  need," 
and  determined  "  that,  for  the  purpose  of  making  our  condition 
better,  and  to  meet  the  demands  that  are  made  upon  us  by  the  land- 
lords and  others,  our  wages  be  advanced  12^  per  cent."     March 


RISE  OF  THE  MODERN  LABOR  MOVEMENT.  7 

2sth  was  fixed  upon  as  the  date  for  the  new  rate  to  go  into  effect,  and 
a  committee  of  two  from  each  shop  was  appointed  to  communicate 
this  action  to  the  employers.  A  strike  followed  and  the  demand  was 
generally  complied  with  before  the  close  of  the  first  week  in  April. 

Organization  of  the  Practical  House  Painters'  Benefit  and  Pro- 
tection Society  occurred  on  March  19,   1850,  William  S.  Gregory 
being    president    and   James    McPeake    secretary. 
Men  engaged  at  this  trade,  as  at  present,  were  quite       Painters 
numerous,  and  at  a  monthly  meeting  held  in  May       and 
it  was  announced  that  150  had  enrolled  as  members.      Decorators. 
with  32  entrance  applications   to  be  acted  upon. 
A  constitution  and  by-laws  had  been  adopted,  and  the  society  was 
then  in  a  flourishing  condition,  with  $100  in  its  treasury.     But  it  was 
not  until  the  beginning  of  1851  that  the  union  attempted  to  regulate 
wages,  when  it  determined  to  establish  warm  and  cold  season  rates. 
On  January  6th  it  resolved,  "  that,  in  accordance  with  a  circular  pre- 
viously forwarded  to  the  employers,  a  notice  be  sent  to  them  through 
the  newspapers  demanding  the  rates  of  wages  to  be  $1.75  per  day 
from  the  first  day  of  March  until  the  first  day  of  November,  and  $1.50 
per  day  from  the  first  day  of  November  until  the  first  day  of  March." 

A  full  meeting  of  the  union  of  gilders,  a  decorative  branch  of  the 
painting  trade,  was  held  on  April  12,  1850,  to  consider  the  question 
of  increased  compensation.  Several  months  previously  this  asso- 
ciation was  formed  with  the  object  of  establishing  a  uniform  standard 
of  wages.  Before  insisting  upon  any  changes  in  prices  the  union 
decided  to  appoint  a  committee  to  wait  on  men  at  workshops  for 
the  purpose  of  ascertaining  how  many  were  willing  to  go  forward  to 
secure  fair  wages  and  subscribe  toward  a  fund  to  help  those  thrown 
out  of  work. 

It  was  reported  in  1850  that  twelve  years  previous  to  that  time 
there  were  not  more  than  a  dozen  plumbers  in  the 
city,  but    the   introduction   of   the   Croton   water      Plumbers 
system  had  caused  an  increase  in  the  number  of      and 
journeymen  to  nearly  200,  whose  wages  ranged  from      ^^^  Fitters. 
$2   to  $2.25  a  day.      Thirty  of  these  mechanics 
organized  on  May  14th  mainly  for  beneficial    purposes,  but  the 
society  ultimately  developed  into  a  trade  union. 

Gas  fitters  did  not  combine  until  April  22,  1851,  when  a  preliminary 
meeting  of  a  portion  of  the  trade  decided  to  form  an  association  for 
the  protection  of  those  who  joined  it.  On  the  first  of  the  succeeding 
month  the  newly-organized  society  adopted  a  constitution  and 
by-laws. 


8  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

The  New  York  Tribune  of  December  25,  1850,  printed  the  fact 
that  the  "  marble  cutters  have  a  powerful  associa- 
Marble  tion,  with  a  fund  of  $1,000,  and  meet  regularly 

Cutters.  monthly.     They    are    represented    with    their    full 

quota  in  the  Industrial  Congress,  and  from  its  start 
have  continued  to  sustain  it.  They  are  ardently  awaiting  the  tri- 
umph of  industrial  reform." 

Organization  of  the  Practical  Journeymen  Stone  Cutters'  Union 
reached  completion  on  June  28,  1850,  with  the  selection  of  William 
Karnes  as  president  and  Michael  Cotter  as  recording 
Stone  secretary.     Numerically  it   was  large,   and   it   co- 

Cutters,         operated   with   journeymen   stone   cutters   in   the 
principal  cities  of  the  country.     Persons  of  every 
nationality  were  admitted  to  membership   upon  payment  of   $1 
initiation  fee. 

Workmen  in  this  trade  completed  the  institution  of  Quarrymen's 

Union  Protective  Society  early  in  May,  1850,  by  electing  Thomas 

Kiernan  president  and  Bartholomew  D.  Monaghan 

secretary.     At  the  beginning  of  1851  the  union  had 

a  membership  of  400.     On  February  20th,  that  year, 

it  adopted  a  resolution  declaring  "  that  on  and  after 

the  first  of  March  next  the  members  will  exact  $1  a  day  for  their 

work,  and  any  violation  of  this  resolution  will  subject  a  member  to 

expulsion  from  the  society."     The  wage  question  was  again  discussed 

at  a  general  meeting  on  April  i,  1852,  when  it  was  decided  "  that  on 

and  after  the  first  Monday  in  May,  1852,  the  stipulated  wages  shall 

be  $1.12^  per  day,  ten  hours  being  the  time  allotted  for  said  day's 

work." 

The  Laborers'  Union  Association,^  which  was  instituted  on  May 

3,  1843,  and  chartered  as  a  benevolent  society  by  the  Legislature 

of  1845,  was  by  far  the  most  numerous  organization 

Building         of  workmen  in  New  York  City  at  the  opening  of 

Laborers.         1850,  having  then  2,560  members  in  good  standing. 

It  was  divided  into  four  sections,  and  up  to  May 

of  the  latter  year  its  objects  were  of  a  beneficial  character,  the  original 

constitution  of  the  society  containing  this  declaration  of  principles: 

Whereas,  The  revolving  wheels  of  time  for  the  last  sixty-seven  years  (age  of 
American  independence)  have  brought  base  violence  upon  the  cardinal  princi- 
ples of  humanity  by  closing  the  doors  of  equality  upon  all  alike;  it  therefore 


>  This  organization,  known  as  Laborers'  Union  Protective  Society,  is  still  in  existence  in  the 
Borough  of  Manhattan,  New  York  City,  being  governed  by  a  general  council  composed  of  eleven 
divisions,  with  9,510  members. 


RISE  OF  THE  MODERN  LABOR  MOVEMENT.  Q 

becomes  the  imperative  duty  of  all  lovers  of  freedom  and  equality  to  take  a 
stand,  firm  as  the  principles  of  wrong  can  prompt,  to  form  a  new  feature  upon 
the  chart  of  liberty,  a  feature  which  shall  hold  sacred  the  immutable  rights  of 
self-government.  To  do  this  the  laboring  men  of  the  City  of  New  York  do  on 
this  3d  day  of  May,  A.  D.  1843,  strike  for  renewed  independence  which  shall 
crown  every  member  of  the  human  family,  coming  from  whatever  clime  he  may, 
alike.  Therefore,  for  the  purpose  of  ameliorating  the  condition  of  a  large  class 
of  the  human  family  and  bring  to  the  lap  of  greatness  the  true  harbingers  of 
worth,  we,  the  signers  of  this  constitution,  do  on  the  day  we  sign  this  instrument 
pledge  all  that  we  hold  honorable  and  dear  that  we  will  hereafter  act  as  members 
of  a  compact  under  the  name  and  title  of  The  Laborers'  Union  Association, 
the  objects  of  which  shall  be  union  for  happiness. 

Sick  members  were  entitled  to  $2  per  week,  $15  was  appropriated 
for  funeral  expenses,  and  as  a  chartered  corporation  it  could  purchase 
and  hold  real  estate  not  exceeding  $10,000  in  value. 

At  the  beginning  of  May,  1850,  the  society  took  a  vote  in  the  four 
divisions  on  the  subject  of  wages,  and  it  was  decided  that  from  the 
1 6th  of  that  month  members  should  stand  out  for  $1.12^  per  diem, 
the  majority  of  laborers  at  the  time  being  paid  $1  a  day.  The 
Tribune  of  May  14th  treated  the  subject  editorially,  remarking  in 
part: 

We  have  no  hesitation  in  pronouncing  the  demand  for  $1.12  J  for  day  labor 
in  our  city  moderate  and  reasonable.  The  day  laborer  has  work  only  in  fair 
and  mild  weather;  a  storm  stops  his  work  and  wages;  a  severe  frost  is  almost 
certain  to  deprive  him  of  anything  to  do.  He  must  be  an  energetic  and  lucky  man 
who  can  make  out  more  than  250  days'  work  as  an  outdoor  laborer  in  the  course 
of  a  year,  while  the  larger  number  will  not  average  200.  Two  hundred  and 
fifty  days  at  $1.12^  is  $281.25  per  annum,  which  will  seem  a  large  sura  to  laborers 
in  the  country,  who  do  not  consider  that  there  is  hardly  a  dwelling  in  our  city  so 
shabby  and  inconvenient  that  $400  is  not  paid  for  the  rent  of  it,  while  many  a 
house  which  would  barely  accommodate  with  decency  two  small  families  is  rented 
for  $600  per  annum.  Then  comes  fuel,  $8  per  cord  for  wood,  which  swells  to  $10 
before  it  is  prepared  for  use,  with  similar  prices  for  every  handful  of  lettuce  and 
radishes,  or  anything  else  which  would  cost  nothing  in  the  country.  We  are 
confident  that  $281  per  annum  here  is  not  equal  to  $150  in  the  country  and  that 
$1.12  J  per  day  here  is  not  equal  to  62 1  cents  in  the  average  farming  town.  We 
most  earnestly  hope  that  the  laborers  will  be  able  to  establish  their  new  rate  of 
wages,  but  we  know  that  there  are  real  and  formidable  obstructions  in  the  way 
of  it.  Many  employers  have  taken  contracts  at  prices  which  (as  they  believe) 
will  not  justify  them  in  paying  over  $1  per  day;  many  men  who  can  just  live  at 
the  business  they  are  pursuing,  at  the  present  rates  of  labor,  will  be  seriously 
embarrassed  by  the  exaction  of  a  higher  rate.  There  is  no  use  in  denying  what 
is  true  because  we  could  wish  it  otherwise. 

Not  being  wholly  successful  in  the  effort  of  1850  to  advance  wages 
the  four  divisions  of  the  association,  whose  title  had  become  Laborers' 
Union  Benevolent  Society,  met  in  general  session  on  January  9, 


lO  NEW  YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL  UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

1851,  on  which  date  the  membership  numbered  3,562,  and  concluded 
to  notify  builders  and  contractors  "  that  on  and  after  the  first  day  of 
May  next  we  will  not  work  for  less  than  $i.i2|  per  day,  and  having 
accumulated  a  fund  of  money  amply  sufficient  to  carry  out  the 
resolution,  all  persons  contracting  for  buildings  are  hereby  notified 
of  the  fact  and  left  without  excuse."  Having  succeeded  in  enforcing 
its  demand  the  union  on  January  22,  1852  (its  rolls  then  containing 
4,685  members),  resolved  to  again  seek  an  increase,  this  time  to  $1.25 
per  day,  to  take  effect  on  the  first  Monday  of  May  following.  Some 
of  the  master  builders  met  on  May  4th  and  unanimously  agreed  to 
pay  but  $i.i2§,  while  others,  who  comprised  the  major  part  of  the 
employers,  granted  the  $1.25.  A  strike,  which  lasted  a  few  weeks, 
took  place  on  buildings  where  the  contractors  had  refused  to  accede, 
and  members  who  were  affected  thereby  received  their  wages 
from  the  society  while  they  were  idle. 

II. 

Clothing    and    Textiles. 

,  Among  the  important  trades  that  took  an  active  part  in  the  move- 
ment of  1850  were  the  tailors.     They  met  in  March  and  estabUshed 
the  Journeymen  Tailors'  Union,  which  five  months 
Journeymen      later    nimibered    2,500    members.     In    April    the 
Tailors.  German  section  of  the  association  perfected  meas- 

ures to  open  a  co-operative  store  "  for  various 
fabrics  and  first  prices."  About  the  middle  of  July  the  pantaloons 
makers  adopted  a  bill  of  prices  for  "  Southern  pantaloons."  This 
schedule  provided  that  the  rates  for  making  trousers  of  "  black  or 
blue  cassimere  and  doeskin  "  should  be  as  follows:  "  Made  plain, 
75  cents.  Extras:  Canvas  in  bottoms,  12I  cents;  straps  of  same 
material  detached  or  sewed  on,  12^  cents;  binding  tops,  6|  cents; 
stripes  down  the  side,  25  cents;  cords  down  the  side,  per  pair,  12^ 
cents;  inside  waist  strap,  6j  cents;  lined  all  through,  12^  cents;  half 
lined,  6 j  cents.  For  merinos  or  any  kind  of  fancy  doeskins  or  cassi- 
mere plain  pants  commence  at  62^  cents;  extras  as  above."  Other 
branches  of  the  tailoring  trade  also  prepared  uniform  rates  and  sub- 
mitted them  to  the  employers,  a  small  proportion  of  whom  instantly 
consented  to  the  demand,  but  the  great  majority  declined  to  enter 
into  negotiations  with  the  union.  A  strike  of  great  magnitude 
resulted,  and  at  the  close  of  July  manufacturing  had  almost  entirely 
ceased. 


RISE  OF  THE  MODERN  LABOR  MOVEMENT.  II 

The  Industrial  Congress  supported  the  journeymen  both  financially 
and  morally.  It  was  at  this  period  that  the  boycotting  system  was 
introducer"  as  a  war  measure  of  the  union,  the  Congress  on  July  30th 
declaring  in  favor  of  abstaining  from  business  intercourse  with 
the  clothing  firms  that  had  rejected  the  tailors'  bill  of  prices.  William 
Richardson,  representative  of  the  Benevolent  Society  of  Operative 
Masons,  presented  the  following  at  the  session  of  the  central  body, 
which  sanctioned  it  without  opposition: 

We,  the  Industrial  Congress,  representing  the  various  protective  and  indus- 
trial societies,  do  consider  it  our  duty  to  sympathize  with  each  other  and  protect 
each  other's  rights  and  just  claims  to  a  proper  reward  for  our  labor.  Be 
it  therefore  resolved  that,  as  the  tailors  of  New  York  are  on  strike  for  wages, 
we,  the  Industrial  Congress,  will  not  patronize  any  store  or  shop  that  does  not 
pay  the  proper  prices  to  their  workmen,  and  that  we  report  the  same  to  our 
respective  societies.  Be  it  further  resolved  that  the  tailors  be  requested  to  publish 
the  names  and  numbers  of  such  as  do  not  pay  the  prices  demanded. 

An  enthusiastic  mass  meeting  under  the  auspices  of  the  Central 
Trades  Society  of  Journeyman  Tailors  filled  City  Hall  Park  in  the 
afternoon  of  Saturday,  August  3d,  having  been  called  "  to  take  into 
consideration  the  condition  of  the  working  classes,  and  the  strike 
of  the  tailors,  especially."  German  members  of  the  society  assembled 
at  the  eastern  wing  of  the  City  Hall,  while  the  English-speaking 
tailors,  consisting  of  American,  Irish,  Scotch  and  English  craftsmen, 
met  in  front  of  that  municipal  building. 

Many  addresses  were  made  at  both  meetings.  It  was  shown  that 
the  workers  were  compelled  to  labor  excessively  long  hours  in  order 
to  earn  wages  that  were  even  then  insufficient  to  meet  the  physical 
requirements  of  and  to  provide  comfortable  homes  for  their  families. 
At  the  German  section  Mr.  Fries,  a  tailor,  said:  "  We  came  to  this 
country  because  our  own  country  had  oppressed  us,  but  what  have 
we  gained  by  the  change?  We  have  found  here  nothing  but  misery 
and  hunger,  oppression  and  treading  down.  Whose  fault  is  it?  Is 
it  not  plainly  our  own  fault?  Here  we  are  on  free  ground,  in  a  free 
country,  and  it  is  ovu"  own  fault  if  we  do  not  assert  and  insist  upon 
our  rights." 

Another  tailor  favored  a  general  strike  of  all  the  trades.  He 
suggested  as  a  remedy:  "  Let  the  butchers  and  bakers  begin  and  cut 
off  the  supplies.  They  must  all  strike  together,  and  then  the  aristo- 
crats will  all  starve.  They  are  the  drones  and  the  idlers.  We  pro- 
vide all  they  enjoy  by  our  labor,  and  we  have  to  stand  by  and  look 
on  them  revelling  in  every  luxury,  while  we  are  driven  to  a  bare 
mouthful  of  bread,  and  that  only  to  be  got  by  hard  toil  and  sweat." 


12  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Exception  was  taken  to  the  proposition  for  a  general  strike  by 
Mr.  Sauer,  a  carpenter,  who  sentiently  remarked:  "  I  call  upon 
you  all  to  unite,  but  we  must  not  all  strike  at  once  and  together,  else 
we  shall  all  have  nothing  to  eat  at  once  and  together.  We  must 
strike  one  at  a  time,  and  support  each  trade  in  its  effort.  We  must 
exert  ourselves.     We  are  so  downtrodden  we  can  hardly  live." 

Resolves  were  passed  calling  for  united  action;  "  that  the  great 
question  now  is  just  and  fair  pay  of  the  workingmen  by  every 
employer,  and  a  full  guarantee  by  the  State  of  the  same  to  the  work- 
ingmen; that  each  trade  elect  three  delegates,  to  form  a  committee 
from  the  whole  number  thereof,  to  lay  our  demands  and  claims 
before  the  public;  and  that  the  committees  of  all  trades  must  unite 
with  the  Industrial  Congress  and  immediately  send  to  Washington 
the  just  claims  of  the  workingmen." 

One  of  the  speakers  at  the  English-speaking  gathering  was  Mr. 
Barr,  who  thus  depicted  the  working  conditions  of  the  tailors: 
"  Why  are  the  tailors  on  strike?  Because  they  have  done  too  much 
work.  Instead  of  working  eight  hours  in  the  day  —  all  that  any 
man  on  the  face  of  God's  earth  ought  to  work  —  they  work  sixteen 
hours  a  day.  This  is  all  a  mistaken  idea.  If  every  man  would 
throw  down  his  tools  at  the  expiration  of  eight  hours  tradesmen 
would  not  be  found  inhabiting  miserable  tenements  that  landlords 
have  erected  to  squeeze  the  life  out  of  them.  There  would  then  be 
work  enough  and  pay  enough  for  all.  But  you  have  worked  sixteen 
hours,  and  the  capitalists  have  got  your  work  upon  their  shelves, 
far  more  than  is  wanted  for  present  consimiption.  They  boast  they 
have  plenty  of  goods,  and  that  they  will  starve  you  out." 

Mr.  Leech,  a  journeyman  tailor,  dwelt  upon  the  causes  that  led 
up  to  the  dispute.  "  It  was  dire  necessity  and  want  that  compelled 
us  to  strike,"  stated  he.  "  We  were  working  from  5  o'clock  in  the 
morning  till  9  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  we  could  only  earn  from 
$4  to  $s  a  week.  There  are  two  classes  of  bosses  against  whom  we 
have  struck.  First,  the  Southern  bosses.  Anyone  who  looks  at 
their  stores,  which  are  like  palaces,  must  see  that  they  get  an  extra 
percentage.  They  will  get  $10  in  the  South  for  a  pair  of  pantaloons 
that  here  woiild  bring  only  $5,  and  $25  for  a  coat  that  here  could 
not  bring  more  than  $12.  They  can  therefore  afford  to  pay  15  or  20 
per  cent  more  to  the  journeymen  than  they  ask.  The  clerks  behind  the 
counters  are  paid  better  than  the  splendid  journeymen  tailors. 
Next  there  are  the  clothing  stores.  At  first  we  came  to  the  conclu- 
sion of  not  striking  against  these  houses,  but  we  found  that  they 
were  aiding  the  Southern  establishments,  and  it  became  necessary 
to  strike  against  them  too." 


RISE  OF  THE  MODERN  LABOR  MOVEMENT.  I3 

Mr.  Crawford,  an  employing  tailor,  said  he  attended  the  meeting 
because  he  wished  to  "  sustain  the  workingmen  in  their  just  rights 
and  the  rights  of  their  wives  and  children.  Men  working  sixteen 
hours  a  day  were  earning  but  from  S4  to  $6  a  week,  though  assisted 
by  their  families,  and  yet  they  were  only  contending  for  a  few  shilHngs 
more.  I  am  astonished  at  their  moderation.  Lodgings  that  I 
rented  in  1832  for  $50  now  rent  for  Si 80  a  year,  and  the  price  of 
everything  except  labor  has  increased  in  the  same  ratio.  Wages 
were  better  then  than  they  are  now.  And  what  do  the  workingmen 
get  for  their  wages?  Miserable  provisions  they  ought  not  to  eat, 
but  are  compelled  to  eat  by  poverty.  For  my  own  part  I  do  not 
find  fault  with  the  master  employer  as  much  as  the  people  who  submit 
to  his  tyranny.  The  trades  were  never  so  well  organized  as  they  are 
now.  Let  the  tailors  start  a  large  manufacturing  shop  in  this  city 
at  once  with  the  funds  raised.  There  are  upwards  of  30,000  tradesmen 
in  the  city.  Let  them  go  to  this  establishment  and  purchase  from 
it  whatever  they  want ;  and  so  of  other  trades  on  a  strike.  The  men 
they  want  to  represent  them  in  the  Legislature  are  those  who  will 
turn  their  eyes  to  the  public  lands  as  a  relief  for  this  state  of  things. 
If  this  were  done  there  would  be  no  longer  any  siirplus  lands  and  every 
trade  would  be  benefited  by  it.  The  trades  will  gladly  raise  sub- 
scriptions to  send  their  brethren  to  the  public  lands.  The  American 
people  will  never  be  in  a  right  condition  till  Congress  decrees  the 
freedom  of  the  public  lands." 

The  English-speaking  tailors  had  a  second  mass  meeting  at  the 
Sixth  Ward  Hotel  on  August  6th,  when  they  resolved  "  that  from 
this  hour  we  will  proceed  to  organize  every  shop  in  the  city  —  sale, 
Southern  and  custom."  It  was  then  announced  that  quite  a  number 
of  employers  had  agreed  to  pay  the  bill  of  prices. 

Other  trades  expressed  their  sympathy  with  the  tailors  in  divers 
ways.  They  not  only  donated  funds  for  the  relief  of  the  men  who 
were  on  strike,  but  on  August  12th  57  of  these  associations  had  a 
demonstration  in  City  Hall  Park  in  behalf  of  the  garment  workers 
and  started  a  movement  for  the  creation  of  co-operative  clothing 
shops  and  stores,  subscribing  several  thousand  dollars  for  that 
purpose. 

About  this  time  the  contract  system  began  to  gain  a  foothold  in 
the  clothing  trade.  A  German  residing  in  Thirty-eighth  street  had 
engaged  with  the  master  tailors  to  make  coats  at  reduced  prices, 
and  then  "  peddle  them  out  again  to  journeymen  tailors,  making  25 
cents  on  each  garment. ' '  This  fact  was  communicated  to  the  German 
branch  of  the  association,  and  on  August  sth  a  large  deputation 
was  formed  to  wait  upon  the  contractor  for  the  purpose  of  inducing 


14  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

him  to  return  the  coats  to  the  employers.  Having  obtained  an 
intimation  of  their  coming  he  barred  his  windows  and  bolted  his 
doors,  thus  preventing  their  ingress  to  his  dwelling.  They  retired 
to  the  union  headquarters,  and  after  increasing  their  number  the 
delegation  again  repaired  to  the  contractor's  home,  where,  it  was 
alleged,  they  broke  in  the  door,  seized  the  coats  and  conveyed  them 
away  by  force.  At  this  juncture  the  police  appeared  and  clubbed 
some  of  the  tailors  into  insensibility,  while  39  others  whom  they 
had  beaten  and  bruised  with  their  locusts  were  arrested. 

Some  newspapers  made  this  incipient  riot  a  test  for  an  attack 
upon  the  general  labor  movement.  The  Tribune,  however,  resented 
the  attitude  of  its  contemporaries,  and  on  August  14,  1850,  it  sus- 
tained the  organizations  in  the  following  vigorous  terms: 

When  a  few  ignorant  immigrants,  hardly  one  of  whom  could  speak  the  language 
or  read  the  journals  of  the  country,  were  impelled  by  a  mistaken  idea  of  their 
rights  and  wrongs  to  attack  the  dwelling  and  injure  the  property  of  an  alleged 
underworker  in  their  trade,  the  commercial  press  of  our  city  cried  out  in  chorus, 
"There!  see  what  your  Labor  movements  lead  to!  riot,  robbery  and  destruction." 

The  Tribune  was  directly  accused  by  the  Satanic  press,  and  more  sneakingly 
inculpated  by  the  Courier  and  Enquirer,  as  the  proximate  author  of  these  out- 
rages through  its  Socialistic  inculcations,  when  in  fact  strikes  and  consequent 
violence  against  underworkers  are  part  and  parcel  of  the  vicious  wage  system 
which  we  are  laboring  to  supersede  —  are  at  least  five  centuries  old  —  and  even 
the  journal  most  vindictive  against  us  proved  that  these  law-breakers  had  nearly 
all  been  but  a  few  months  in  the  country  and  scarcely  knew  a  word  of  the 
language  in  which  the  Tribune  is  printed.  But  what  of  that?  The  wealthy  and 
conservative  class  who  take  good  care  not  to  read  the  Tribune  had  been  told  that 
it  advocates  Jacobinic  violence  and  outrage,  and  the  tailors'  mob  came  just  in 
season  to  countenance  that  lie.     So  it  was  let  slide. 

But  when  the  laboring  class  of  our  city,  represented  in  their  several  trades, 
came  together  in  the  park  on  Monday  evening,  and  resolved  to  sustain  the  tailors 
in  their  righteous  resistance  to  starvation  wages,  not  by  abetting  them  in  acts 
of  violence  and  outrage,  not  by  taxing  their  own  industry  to  support  the  striking 
tailors  in  a  fruitless  and  pernicious  idleness  —  but  by  supplying  them  with 
capital  to  work  upon  and  buying  of  them  the  products  of  their  toil  —  the  mer- 
cantile journals  are  suddenly  stricken  dumb! 

One  or  two  of  them  give  a  meagre  outline  of  the  doings  at  the  meeting,  but  in 
a  reluctant,  ungracious  way,  while  the  large  number  pass  it  over  in  utter  silence! 

And  yet  we  feel  sure  that  no  event  has  for  many  months  occurred  in  our  city 
of  greater  intrinsic  consequence  than  that  gathering  of  mechanics  and  laborers 
in  the  park  on  Monday  evening. 

We  demand  for  it  the  attention  of  all  who  have  eyes  and  dare  see  for  themselves. 
We  challenge  to  say  whether  the  Socialist  method  of  dealing  with  the  relations 
of  Labor  to  Capital  is  not  emphatically  pacific  and  conservative.  There  exists 
a  strike  —  a  difference  between  certain  workmen  and  their  late  employers, 
respecting  the  rate  of  wages.  The  employers  say,  "We  can  pay  but  so  much!" 
The  workmen  respond,  "  We  must  have  more  or  famish  —  and  if  we  must  starve 
we  have  no  incitement  to  work."     So  the  old  industrial  machinery  comes  to  a 


RISE  OF  THE  MODERN  LABOR  MOVEMENT.  1 5 

dead  halt,  and  production  along  with  it.  The  employers  cannot  fill  their  orders; 
the  workmen  have  a  like  vacuum  in  their  stomachs.  But  here  step  in  the  active, 
prosperous  trades  and  say  to  the  late  journeymen:  "  No,  you  shall  not  be  forced 
to  stand  idle  and  famish  —  we  will  invest  our  $5,  $10  and  $20  each  in  a  Tailors' 
Co-operative  Union,  and  buy  therewith  cloth,  etc.,  which  you  shall  work  up 
into  garments,  which  we  and  our  fellow-workers  will  buy  of  you  at  such  prices 
as  shall  pay  you  fairly  for  your  labor  and  enable  you  to  support  your  families 
in  comfort.  And  this  generous  resolve,  when  carried  into  practical  effect,  is 
that  appalling  bugbear  called  Socialism. 

Why  should  not  the  workers  unite  thus  to  aid  at  first  and  ultimately  to  emanci- 
pate each  other?  Why  should  not  those  who  have  work  at  decent  wages  invest 
a  few  dollars  in  such  an  enterprise?  Nay,  why  should  not  generous  and  far- 
seeing  capitalists  also  aid  the  movement?  If  $10,000  were  subscribed  for  the 
purpose  it  might  be  so  invested  and  managed  as  to  keep  i  ,000  tailors  constantly 
at  work,  pay  them  satisfactorily  for  their  labor  and  return  a  fair  dividend  to 
the  stockholders.  All  that  is  needed  is  a  resolution  on  the  part  of  those  who 
own  or  control  the  capital  to  give  Labor  a  fair  chance  —  not  to  study  solely 
their  own  profit,  but  to  consider  the  rights  and  welfare  of  the  workers  also  —  not 
to  esteem  Labor  a  mere  commodity  to  be  screwed  down  to  the  lowest  farthing, 
but  to  regard  also  those  who  must  live  by  labor  in  the  spirit  of  Christian  brother- 
hood and  republican  equality. 

We  ask  those  who  possess  wealth  to  read  carefully  the  proceedings  of  the  work- 
ingmen's  meeting  and  say  whether  Capital  ought  not  to  shake  hands  with  Labor 
on  the  pacific  and  constructive  basis  there  laid  down  —  whether  good  men  of 
means  ought  not  to  proffer  their  counsel,  their  influence,  and  if  need  be,  some 
portion  of  their  capital,  to  enable  the  tailors  first,  afterward  other  trades,  to 
organize  their  labor,  dispose  of  its  products  and  apportion  the  proceeds  on  the 
principles  there  set  forth.  We  trust  they  may  do  so;  and  that  the  time  may 
be  thus  hastened  in  which  no  man  shall  depend  on  any  other  for  permission 
to  work  and  to  enjoy  the  fair  and  definite  product  of  his  toil.  But,  workingmen! 
should  all  others  hold  back,  you  can  solve  this  great  problem  of  liberty  in  Labor 
if  you  will.     Do  not  throw  away  so  fair  an  opportunity  as  the  present. 

;The  39  defendants  on  December  3,  1850,  pleaded  guilty  to  riotous 
assault  and  battery,  and  on  December  13th  Recorder  Tallmage  fined 
one  of  the  leaders  $50,  another  $10  and  six  other  participants  in 
the  affair  $5  each,  discharging  the  remaining  31.  Referring  to  these 
sentences  the  Tribune  of  December  1 6th  closed  the  incident  with  the 
following  pointed  remarks: 

It  is  entirely  unnecessary  to  say  a  word  of  this  result;  we  trust  there  is  nO 
one  unsatisfied  with  it,  though  we  presume  it  will  be  cold  comfort  to  the  un- 
scrupulous parties  who  raised  such  a  cry  about  the  "  riot"  and  magnified  it 
into  something  almost  as  frightful  as  the  "  reign  of  terror."  Not  even  these 
parties  ever  believed  that  the  tailors,  all  men  of  good  character  though  unfor- 
tunately unacquainted  with  our  language  and  laws,  were  guilty  of  any  premedi- 
tated outrage.  By  much  bluster,  however,  they  made  the  thing  look  ugly,  and 
excessive  bail  demands  kept  the  greater  portion  of  the  tailors  in  prison  for  two 
or  three  weeks.  But  the  judicial  officers  of  the  city  have  been  too  long  accus- 
tomed to  the  bravado  of  a  notorious  portion  of  the  press  to  be  led  astray  by  it. 
Justice  triumphed,  the  bail  was  reduced  to  the  standard  of  reason  and  the  tailors 


l6  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

were  all  liberated.  The  next  effort  of  the  especial  champions  of  law  and  order 
was  to  secure  evidence  to  make  a  strong  case,  and  testimony  was  in  readiness 
to  prove  almost  anything  from  a  mild  assault  and  battery  to  an  armed  insur- 
rection; but  all  this  was  strangled  by  the  tailors  themselves,  who  filed  a  voluntary 
plea  of  "  guilty  of  riotous  assault  and  battery."  The  trial  that  was  to  send 
them  to  the  public  institutions  and  hold  the  terror  of  the  law  over  "  heretical 
labor  movements  "  was  a  failure;  the  affidavits  offered  to  the  court  in  mitigation 
of  punishment  explained  the  case  as  it  was,  and  the  39  rioters  were 
fined  in  all  $90.  We  trust  that  the  affair  will  prove  quite  as  good  a  lesson  to 
the  guilty  as  though  all  of  them  had  gone  to  the  State  prison  and  that  hereafter 
they  will  refrain  from  breaking  the  law  in  the  name  of  Labor,  since  it  can  be 
done  quite  as  effectually  and  without  fear  of  interruption  in  a  grog-shop  brawl 
or  at  a  primary  election  fight. 

Peace  was  restored  in  the  tailoring  trade  after  a  few  more  weeks 
of  strife,  the  union  finally  succeeding  in  arriving  at  an  amicable  settle- 
ment with  the  employers,  and  on  June  10,  1851,  in  its  call  for  a 
quarterly  meeting  for  the  election  of  officers  the  association  took 
occasion  to  inform  the  public  that  "  there  was  never  a  time  when  the 
society  was  in  a  more  prosperous  condition." 

A  preliminary  meeting  was  held  by  a  number  of  hat  finishers  on 
April  26,  1850,  incident  to  the  construction  of  a  society  similar  to 
those  of  other  workmen.     This  organization  was 
Hat  perfected  on  November  24th.     It  then  comprised 

Finishers.  100  members.  Having  a  capital  of  $7,000  the  asso- 
ciation opened  a  co-operative  store  at  No.  1 1  Park 
Place  on  December  14th.  On  June  10,  185 1,  the  Hat  Finishers' 
Union  announced  that  it  "had  enlisted  all  its  energies  in  the  service 
of  the  people,  making  the  best  and  most  stylish  hats  in  town  and 
selling  a  better  article  for  the  price  than  any  other  establishment. 
This  is  the  only  association  of  practical  hatters  in  the  city." 

Much  interest  was  manifested  in  the  Straw  and  Pamilla  Sewers' 
Association,  which  was  composed  exclusively  of  young  women.     Miss 
Stopford  presided  and  Miss  Roberts  was  secretary. 
Straw  and       This  union  was  represented  in  the  Industrial  Con- 
Pamilla  gress  by  two  delegates,  and  the  principal  leaders  in 

Sewers.  ^^g  organizations  of  men  rendered  valuable  assist- 

ance in  the  work  of  organizing  the  trade  and  securing 
equitable  wages  for  its  members.  A  scale  of  prices  was  adopted  in 
the  latter  part  of  1850.  The  union  met  on  December  17th  and  was 
addressed  by  Captain  Turner,  who  dwelt  upon  the  grievances  of  these 
working  women,  and  denounced  the  employers  for  the  miserable  prices 
they  had  bestowed  upon  their  employees.  Doctor  Young  also  spoke, 
referring  to  the  rapid  accumulation  of  machinery  to  perform  the 
labors  of  the  hand  without  a  corresponding  increase  in  the  varieties 


RISE  OF  THE  MODERN  LABOR  MOVEMENT.  1 7 

of  human  employment  and  the  competition  thence  springing  up 
between  those  in  and  those  out  of  work.  The  doctor  made  mention 
of  the  sewing  machine,  which  had  then  been  invented,  declaring: 
"  One  machine  and  a  child  will  do  the  work  of  six  to  twelve  grown 
persons.  These  with  other  causes  will  drive  into  competition  all 
branches  of  industry,  and,  if  no  relief  comes  shortly,  through  the 
intelligence  of  the  people  and  the  ladies  becoming  politicians  to  make 
their  bread,  the  present  century  will  close  the  doom  and  destiny  of 
mankind,  and  lock  up  the  future  with  the  jail  keys  of  a  moneyed 
aristocracy  baser  than  any  that  ever  before  oppressed  the  race." 
The  speaker  concluded  by  imploring  the  young  women  to  stand  by 
their  rights  and  "  enter  the  field  of  politics  and  the  agitation  of  labor 
and  land  reforms." 

The  sewers  complained  that  the  prices  which  once  ruled  at  75  cents 
had  been  reduced  to  3  2  cents,  and  they  claimed  that  with  an  advance 
equivalent  to  40  cents  for  piecework  the  most  expert  workers  would 
not  average  more  than  $4  per  week,  while  the  less  expert  sewers 
would  not  earn  to  exceed  $2  in  a  week — and  then  for  only  six  weeks 
in  the  year.  They  decided  to  strike  on  January  i ,  1 85 1 ,  if  the  employ- 
ers failed  to  agree  to  the  scale,  because,  they  averred,  during  the 
winter  and  spring  months  their  services  were  required  with  a  cer- 
tainty, and  that  would  be  a  propitious  time  to  act.  At  the  end  of 
the  year  it  was  found  that  some  manufacturers  had  accepted  the 
terms  of  the  union,  but  a  few  had  declined  to  raise  wages.  A  largely 
attended  meeting  of  the  association  convened  in  January,  1851. 
Captain  Turner  was  present  and  commented  strongly  on  the  conduct 
of  the  concerns  that  had  not  complied  with  the  demands  of  the  sewers. 
Eventually  the  society  decided  "  that  in  the  event  of  our  employers 
not  acceding  to  our  scale  of  prices  before  one  week  we  mutually 
pledge  ourselves  to  establish  two  branches  of  a  co-operative  store." 
After  that  about  everv  firm  in  the  city  accepted  the  new  terms. 

Journeymen  Cordwainers'  Society  organized  in  1803  as  a  mutual 
aid  association.     From  that  time  up  to  1850  it  had  on  several  occa- 
sions injected  protective  provisions  into  its  laws, 
but  only  for  brief  periods,  when  it  again  reverted        Boot  and 
to  its  original  practice  of  caring  for  the  sick  and        Shoe 
burying  the  dead.     Its  title  was  derived  from  the         Workers, 
word  cordwain,  which  consisted  of  a  leather  prepared 
from  goat  skin  or  horse  hide  in  Spain  and  fashioned  into  footwear  for 
wealthy  Europeans  in  the  middle  ages.    The  workers  in  this  material 
were  called  cordwainers,  or  boot  and  shoe  makers.     There  were  two 
sections  of  the  organization  in  New  York — one  composed  of  mechanics 
who  made  men's  shoes,  while  members  of  the  other  branch  manu- 


l8  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

factured  footgear  for  women.^  Reorganizing  on  January  i,  1850,  as 
United  Society  of  Operative  Cordwainers,  it  adopted  a  new  constitu- 
tion, under  which  it  was  intended  to  benefit  the  economic  condition 
of  those  who  became  affiliated  with  it.  Each  section  had  some  300 
members,  and  among  the  trustees  who  were  elected  at  the  reorgani- 
zation was  Horace  Greeley,  who  on  April  9th  was  present  at  a  meeting 
of  the  combined  sections  that  decided  to  form  a  co-operative  joint 
stock  company,  and  delivered  a  brief  address,  cautioning  the  journey- 
men against  haste,  but  advising  deliberation  and  prudence,  by  a 
proper  use  of  which  he  was  confident  they  would  succeed. 

A  large  and  spirited  meeting  was  held  by  the  men's  branch  on 
April  8,  1850.  Adam  Gamble,  who  had  been  a  member  of  the  society 
since  1803,  presided  and  Patrick  Burke  was  secretary.  The  latter 
spoke  of  the  rates  of  wages  that  were  paid  by  most  of  the  employers, 
stating  that  the  journeymen,  who  were  pieceworkers,  were  often 
obliged  to  labor  18  hours  out  of  the  24  for  the  mere  pittance  of  $5 
per  week.  Men's  gaiter  boots  were  made  for  33  cents,  while  the 
prices  for  making  Wellington  boots  were  87I  cents,  $1  and  $i.i2§ 
a  pair.  A  new  list  of  prices  was  then  agreed  upon.  Under  its  pro- 
visions no  workman  was  permitted  to  receive  less  than  $7  weekly. 
To  enforce  the  amended  schedule  there  was  a  short  but  successful 
strike,  which  cost  the  society  $250,  only  two  shops  holding  out  against 
its  demands,  and  on  May  gth  it  celebrated  its  victory  by  marching 
through  the  leading  thoroughfares.  Subsequently  the  women's 
branch  raised  its  scale. 

Men  engaged  in  making  mosquito  netting,  cords,  foundations, 

crown  linings,  book  muslins  and  all  other  light  fabrics  organized  in 

1850  under  the  title  of  White  Work  Weavers*  Asso- 

White  ciation,  with  R.  C.  Blair  as  president  and  James 

Work  Scott  as  secretary.    On  January  21,  1 8  5 1 ,  this  union 

Weavers.       notified  "  merchants,  storekeepers  and  other  dealers 

in  dry  goods"  that  it  had  "obtained  an  advance 

of  20  per  cent  in  wages,  and  we  propose  through  the  medium  of  the 

press  to  acquaint  the  public  with  any  advance  or  reduction  which 

shall  take  place  in  our  wages  for  the  future." 

2  This  organization  of  superior  hand  workers  still  flourishes  in  the  Borough  of  Manhattan,  New 
York  City,  and  comprises  two  branches,  the  makers  of  men's  shoes  constituting  the  Manhattan 
Society  of  Custom  Shoe  Makers,  while  the  other  is  known  as  the  Ladies'  Custom  Shoe  Makers' 
Society.  An  official  of  one  of  these  sections  in  1891  described  the  character  of  the  work  of  these 
artisans  and  his  remarks  aptly  apply  to  the  present-day  situation.  Speaking  of  the  membership, 
he  said :  "  They  are  a  body  of  men  quite  distinct  from  the  great  shoe-making  industry  of  the  country. 
They  are  the  artists  of  the  trade.  Their  work  is  so  much  finer  and  costlier  than  that  of  the  men 
who  make  the  shoes  of  the  multitude  that  one  may  say,  without  exaggeration,  their  work  bears 
about  the  same  relation  to  shoe  making  generally  as  frescoing  does  to  whitewashing.  They  are 
called  the  shoe  makers  of  the  Four  Hundred  (the  so-called  affluent  social  set  of  the  city) ,  and  that 
phrase  locates  their  position  in  the  shoe  trade  better  than  any  other  that  I  can  think  of." 


RISE    OF   THE    MODERN    LABOR   MOVEMENT.  ig 

III. 

Metals,  Machinery  and  Shipbuilding. 

Among  this  group  of  trades  was  the  United  Trade  Society  of 
Journeymen  Sail  Makers,  which  continues  to  carry  on  its  protective 
work  in  New  York  City.  In  July,  1849,  it  protested  against  the 
number  of  boys  then  employed  at  the  trade.  The  Joiirneymen 
Horseshoers'  Protective  and  Benevolent  Society,  still  known  by 
that  title,  was  in  a  prosperous  state  in  the  early  fifties;  so  were  the 
Iron  Holders'  Union  and  the  Tin,  Copper  and  Sheet  Iron  Workers' 
Association. 

At  its  meeting  on  May  2,  1850,  130  mechanics  joined  the  Steam 
Boiler  Makers'  Protective  Society,  which  paid  an  unemployed  bene- 
fit, single  members  receiving  $2.50  per  week  and 
married  men  $3  weekly  when  they  were  idle  because        Boiler 
of  lack  of  work.      If  misfortune  not  caused  by  im-         Makers. 
moral  conduct  befell  a  member  in  good  standing  for 
a  year  he  received  a  "  sum  equal  to  a  half  dollar  per  member,  from 
an  assessment  levied  for  that  amount;"  and  if  members  were  "obliged 
to  leave  any  shop  for  the  interests  of  the  society  they  shall  be  en- 
titled to  benefit  as  long  as  the  society  may  see  fit."     John  Wilson 
was  president  and  James  S.  Donaldson  secretary. 

In  July,  185 1,  members  of  the  association  engaged  in  a  strike  at 
the  Morgan  Iron  Works.  The  custom  hitherto  had  been  for  the 
mechanics  employed  on  board  of  the  steamers  and  other  vessels  lying 
at  the  wharf  to  stop  work  at  5  o'clock  p.  m.,  while  those  in  the  shop 
worked  until  6  o'clock  p.  m.  The  point  in  dispute  was  whether  the  men 
employed  on  the  dock  at  the  boilers  of  a  ship,  and  not  on  shipboard 
nor  in  the  shop,  should  cease  operations  at  5  o'clock  or  6  o'clock. 
The  proprietors  insisted  that  the  boiler  makers  should  follow  the  rule 
of  the  shop,  while  the  workmen  maintained  that  they  should  observe 
the  rule  of  the  ship.     They  could  not  agree  and  the  strike  ensued. 3 

A  trade  organization  was  formed  by  block  and  pump  makers  on 
May,  13, 1850,  the  daily  wage  rates  then  ranging  from 
$i.5oto$i.75.    William  Smith  was  chosen  president        Block  and 
and  Isaac  E.  Greenhalg  secretary.     This  union  in       Pump 
185 1  established   the  wages  of  its  members  at  a        Makers, 
uniform  rate  of  $2  per  day  in  the  cities  of  New 
York,  Brooklyn  and  WilHamsburg.     On  April  ist  it  had  a  special 
meeting  and  resolved  "that  the  journeymen  now  at  work  in  the 

•  The  outcome  of  this  dispute  was  not  ascertainable 


20  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

United  States  Navy  Yard,  Brooklyn,  quit  work  until  the  above 
wages  be  given  (as  they  are  now  in  several  shops  in  New  York)  and 
that  no  member  of  this  society  go  to  work  in  the  Navy  Yard  until 
the  above  wages  are  given." 

The  United  Order  of  Manufacturing  Jewelers,  which  had  been  a 
benefit  society  with  170  members,  met  on  May  14,  1850,  and  trans- 
formed itself  into  a  trade  union  on  a  permanent 
Workers  in       basis.     It  was  stated  at  the  time  that  while  New 
Precious  York  jewelers  were  working  under  better  conditions 

Metals.  than  prevailed  among  a  similar  class  of  workers  in 

Europe  they  deemed  it  necessary  to  unite  as  a  pro- 
tective society  to  provide  for  the  future.  The  Journeymen  Watch 
Case  Makers'  Society  (which  demanded  and  obtained  increased 
prices  in  April)  and  the  Silversmiths'  Protective  and  Beneficial 
Association  were  also  important  organizations  in  1850.  But  the 
watch  makers  were  not  well  organized,  and  their  pay  was  small. 
Twenty-five  men  in  this  trade,  all  of  whom  were  Germans,  met  on 
May  3,  1850,  and  held  converse  as  to  wages  and  trade  in  general. 
The  fact  developed  at  this  conference  that  those  working  in  their 
own  rooms  as  watch  makers  for  the  trade  were  in  a  worse  condition 
than  shop  workers,  and  received  barely  enough  to  maintain  their 
families.  They  all  felt  the  urgent  necessity  of  ameliorating  their 
condition  through  associated  effort,  and  determined  to  erect  a 
workshop,  to  be  conducted  upon  the  co-operative  plan. 

For  three  years  the  Riggers'  Union  Association  had  been  a  pros- 
perous beneficial  society,  but  when  it  met  on  May  9,  1850,  it  incor- 
porated protective  provisions  in  its  code  of  laws, 
Ship  and  warned  members  that  if  they  worked  for  less 

Riggers.         than  the  established  rate  of  wages  they  would  be 
fined.     There  were  138  names  on  its  membership 
list  on  that  date. 

Announcement  was  made  on  May  10,  1850,  by  the  Independent 
Society  of  Ship  Sawyers  that  "  any  sawyer  who  works  for  less  than 
the  regular  wages  of  $2  per  day  will  be  subject  to 
Ship  a  fine  of  $12,  and  no  sawyer  can  go  to  a  country 

Sawyers.  boss  under  the  regular  city  price."  The  union  was 
also  strict  in  other  matters  pertaining  to  its  well- 
being,  its  laws  providing  that  "  any  member  proposing  a  person 
who  does  not  belong  to  the  trade  shall  be  fined  $20,"  and  that  the 
"  secretary  must  be  present  at  each  meeting  fifteen  minutes  before 
time  or  fined  25  cents." 


RISE    OP   THE    MODERN    LABOR    MOVEMENT.  21 


IV. 

Wood   Working  and  Furniture. 

The  Mutual  Protective  Society  of  Cabinet  Makers  contained  800 
members  on  April  26,   1850.     It  then  discussed  the  feasibiUty  of 
establishing  a  co-operative  shop,  and  in  May  the 
members  agreed  to  give  a  week's  work  to  the  society         Cabinet 
to  enable  it  to  purchase  a  lot  on  which  to  erect  a         Makers, 
building.     Two  members  of  the  association — Peter 
Green,  chair  maker,  and  John  Dent,  cabinet  maker, —  inserted  a  card 
in  the  newspapers  of  December  20,  1850,  that  "on  behalf  of  the  cabi- 
net makers  in  the  employ  of  Mr.  Baudoine,  No.  335  Broadway,  we 
wish  to  inform  our  fellow-tradesmen  that  we  have  ceased  work  in 
consequence  of  a  proposed  reduction  in  the  price  of  our  labor  on  the 
part  of  Mr.  Baudoine,  and  he  having  threatened  to  discharge  any 
man  belonging  to  the  trade  committee  we  wish  our  fellow-tradesmen 
not  to  make  application  for  emplojrment  until  matters  are  settled, 
of  which  due  notice  will  be  given." 

Weekly  meetings  were  conducted  by  the  association  in  1851  at 
No.  170  Hester  street.  On  March  23d  it  passed  a  motion  that  the 
union  purchase  the  Laws  of  the  State  of  New  York.  At  the  same 
meeting  the  members  were  reminded  of  a  resolution  that  had  been 
adopted  at  a  previous  session,  by  which  "  one  of  the  members  is 
to  stand  every  morning  (Sunday  excepted)  at  170  Hester  street  from 
7  to  7.30  o'clock  in  order  to  inform  the  members  out  of  work  where 
they  will  find  the  same,  and  where  the  bosses  who  pay  the  regvdar 
price  may  apply  to  obtain  good  hands." 

United  Association  of  Coach  Painters  in  April,  1850,  fixed  upon 
$1.50  per  day  as  the  prevaiUng  rate  of  wages  in  that  trade,  and  a 
resolution  was  adopted  against  working  for  less  than 
that  sum,    "  except  for  fulfillment  of  contracts."         Coach 
The  president  of  the  union  was  Selah  H.  Biirtt,  the        Painters. 
secretary  being  Robert  McCafferty.     In  May  it  was 
announced  that  there  were  200  joumejnnen  in  New  York  and  that 
"  the  society  numbers  nearly  all  the  most  respectable  coach  painters." 
Any  craftsman  from  another  town  could  present  his  card  of  mem- 
bership from  a  similar  organization  and  become  a  member  by  paying 
monthly  dues  of  25  cents.     The  by-laws  provided  that  "  when  a 
member  strikes  for  higher  wages  another  member  shall  not  take  his 
place  unless  he  receives  $1.50  per  day."     Workmen  losing  time  by 


22  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

conforming  to  the  rules  of  the  society  were  entitled  to  $3  per  week 
if  married  and  $2  weekly  if  single. 

At  the  third  meeting  of  the  Sash  and  Blind  Makers'  Protective 

Union,  held  at  Convention  Hall,  No.  179  Houston  street,  on  April  3, 

1850,  it  was  decided  to  ask  for  $1.62!  per  day  for 

Sash  and        making  sashes  and  blinds  in  shops  and  $1.75  a  day 

Blind  for  outdoor  work.     A  piece  scale  was  also  adopted. 

Makers.  Thirteen  employers  were  said  to  favor  the  objects 

of  the  association.     One  of  the  daily  journals  of  the 

city  stated  on  April  4th  that  "  this  society  promises  to  be  a  very 

useful  auxiliary  in  the  organization  of  the  New  York  workingmen, 

and  the  justice  of  their  cause  is  proved  by  the  accession  of  so  many 

employers  to  the  demands  of  these  journeymen." 

In  May,  when  the  association  was  thoroughly  organized,  the 
president  being  William  Hosmer  and  the  recording  secretary  Isaac 
Torboss,  the  members  favored  the  establishment  of  co-operative 
shops,  each  to  consist  of  20  journeymen.  Fifteen  members  imme- 
diately agreed  to  organize  such  a  shop  by  subscribing  $50  apiece, 
payable  in  weekly  installments  of  $1. 

Wood,  metal,  bone  and  ivory  turners  were  well  organized  in  1850. 

On  May  nth  it  was  reported  that  the  wood  turners  had  struck  for 

an  increase  of  20  per  cent  in  piece  rates.     It  was  also 

Turners.  then  stated  that  the  metal  turners  were  on  strike 

for  a  raise  in  weekly  wages  from  $7  to  $9,  with  an 

advance  of  20  per  cent  for  pieceworkers.     Workers  in  ivory  and  bone 

sought  to  have  their  rates  changed  from  $7  to  $9  per  week,  with  a 

ten-hour  working  day. 

A  large  meeting  of  the  Association  of  Journeymen  Upholsterers  at 
No.  179  Hester  street  on  April  2, 1850,  had  an  interchange  of  opinions 

regarding  wages  and  the  rights  of  the  trade,  but  no 
Upholsterers,     definite  course  of  action  was  agreed  upon.     There 

were  300  journeymen  engaged  in  this  occupation, 
a  great  portion  of  whom  were  Germans.  By  April  loth  the  members 
of  the  union  had  settled  upon  a  scale  of  prices.  On  that  date  at  a 
meeting  of  the  union,  over  whose  deliberations  George  Hoyt  presided, 
a  motion  was  carried  that  the  minimum  wages  for  journeymen 
should  be  $7  per  week,  with  an  addition  of  25  per  cent  for  superior 
mechanics.  While  a  large  nimiber  of  employers  accepted  this  scale 
there  were  a  few  who  would  not  grant  it.  Their  attitude  precipitated 
a  strike.  Several  days  later  the  New  York  union  advertised  in 
Boston  papers,  warning  upholsterers  at  the  Hub  that  some  of   the 


RISE    OF   THE    MODERN    LABOR   MOVEMENT.  23 

Metropolitan  journeymen  were  on  strike  and  "  cautioning  them  not 
to  mind  any  of  the  numerous  devices  of  employers  to  procure  work 
at  reduced  rates.  Brother  upholsterers  coming  to  this  city  are 
requested  to  call  on  the  society  before  seeking  work."  The  strike 
was  generally  successful. 

An  association  shop  was  opened  in  the  middle  of  May,  1850,  by  the 
Window  Shade  Painters'  Protective  Union,  which  was  founded  on  the 
twenty-first  of  the  previous  March,  when  this  declara- 
tion of  principles  was  put  into  force:     "We  have         Window 
formed  ourselves  into  an  association  for  the  purpose         Shade 
of  protecting  ourselves  from  the  trickish  system  of        Painters. 
speculators  that  make  use  of  us  as  machines,  limit- 
ing the  exercise  of  the  painters'  industry  to  suit  the  demand  or  pushing 
it  to  meet  the  supply ;  or  using  or  abusing  us  as  the  employers  please, 
starving  us  into  low  wages  or  pushing  us  in  their  necessity  to  the  utmost 
toils  that  a  painter's  nature  can  sustain.     They  have  endeavored 
always  to  keep  us  wholly  in  their  power,  driving  us  to  work,  or  throw- 
ing us  into  idleness  as  suits  their  market,  while  they  always  obtain 
and  retain  the  profits  of  our  labor.    We  deem  it  our  duty  to  oppose 
such  a  system;  and  to  carry  out  our  ideas  we  individually  subscribe 
at  least  $2  to  establish  a  fund  for  the  benefit  of  such  of  us  as  are  out 
of  employ  during  the,  season  that  we  may  secure  to  them  through 
their  own  exertions  a  sustenance  for  themselves  and  families."     The 
principal  object  of  the  association,  which  on  April  3,  1850,  numbered 
75  members,  was  the  establishment  of  permanent  wage  rates,  so 
that  in  seasons  when  business  was  dull  the  workers  would  not  be 
obliged  to  "  labor  for  a  mere  trifle,"  as  was  reported  to  be  the  case 
at  the  time  of  the  union's  formation. 


V. 

Food  Products  and  Tobacco. 

For  the  purpose  of  effecting  a  trade  organization  and  adopting 
measures  of  relief  journeymen  bakers  assembled  in  goodly  numbers 
on  Tuesday  night,  March  26,  1850.     Their  griev- 
ances were  fully  discussed,  and  the  fact  was  accen-      Journeymen 
tuated  that  the  men  engaged  in  this  trade  suffered      Bakers, 
a  degree  of  oppression  exceeding  that  of  any  other 
class  of  workmen.     It  was  shown  that  the  time  of  employment 
depended  altogether  upon  the  will  of  the  employer,  being  fourteen. 


24  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

sixteen  and  even  eighteen  hours  per  day.  They  were  deprived  of  a 
rest  day  on  the  Sabbath.  Standard  wages  were  unknown,  their 
remuneration  being  uniform  in  but  one  respect,  and  that  was  in  its 
unreasonably  low  rate.  The  existent  system,  it  was  said,  "  enriches 
the  selfish  at  the  expense  of  the  unfortunate,  and  causes  those  to  be 
oppressors  who  wish  to  be  just."  In  consequence  of  these  conditions 
the  bakers  resolved  to  form  an  association  in  order  to  attain  these 
objects : 

1.  To  limit  the  number  of  hours  of  labor  per  day  to  twelve,  including  meals, 
the  time  of  labor  to  be  from  5  o'clock  p.  M.  to  5  o'clock  A.  M.;  and  that  from  the 
first  of  August,  1859,  night  work  be  abolished. 

2.  The  minimum  rate  of  wages  to  be  $9  per  week. 

3.  Employment  to  all  members  wishing  to  work. 

4.  To  advise  and  protect  newly-arrived  immigrant  bakers. 

5.  Fraternity  with  all  useful  classes. 

In  a  call  issued  by  the  Interim  Committee  for  a  mass  meeting  on 
April  I,  1850,  to  perfect  the  organization  the  workers  were  urged  to 
attend,  and  to  "be  no  longer  stigmatized  as  housemaids  and  slaves, 
but  come  and  take  your  place  in  the  ranks  of  the  mechanics  of  the 
city.  A  glorious  prospect  is  before  you.  A  more  favorable  oppor- 
tunity never  before  occtirred  for  a  redress  of  your  grievances.  Arise 
now,  assert  your  rights  or  be  forever  slaves."  The  meeting  was 
held,  and  the  new  society  was  named  the  Operative  Bakers'  Union, 
which  embodied  German  and  English-speaking  workers.  Having 
consummated  its  organization,  on  May  6th  John  G.  Rennie  was  chosen 
president  and  James  Robertson  recording  secretary.  A  committee 
that  had  been  appointed  to  wait  upon  the  employers  to  apprise  them 
of  the  formation  of  the  society  and  its  objects  reported  that  with 
the  exception  of  two  the  boss  bakers  were  willing  to  advance  wages 
as  soon  as  a  fair  and  equitable  scale  was  established  by  the  union. 

The  chief  grievance,  however,  was  the  excessive  working  time. 
Agitation  of  this  question  continued  throughout  1850,  without  favor- 
able outcome,  and  it  was  again  taken  up  at  the  commencement  of 
1 85 1.  In  the  meanwhile  a  House  of  Call  had  been  opened  at  No. 
127  Grand  street,  where  "  bosses  may  be  supplied  with  good,  steady 
men."  An  appeal  was  sent  on  February  ist  to  "all  operative  bakers 
of  New  York  and  vicinity  who  are  in  favor  of  uniting  for  the  purpose 
of  obtaining  stated  hours  of  labor  —  viz :  twelve  hours  per  day  and 
twelve  hours  per  night  (meal  hours  included)  and  night  and  day 
shifts  if  required  —  are  requested  to  meet  at  the  House  of  Call  this 
(Saturday)  evening,  as  the  arrangements  are  about  being  perfected 
for  obtaining  the  above-mentioned  objects." 


RISE  OF  THE  MODERN  LABOR  MOVEMENT.  2$ 

Another  association,  called  the  Joiimeymen  Bakers'  Industrial 
Union,  sought  to  redress  the  grievances  of  the  workers  in  flour  and 
meal  products  through  the  establishment  of  co-operative  bakeries. 
One  of  these  shops  was  opened  in  1847  and  had  been  of  benefit  to 
the  shareholders.  Horace  Greeley,  writing  in  the  Tribune  of  May 
6,  1850,  thus  described  that  venture: 

It  is  now  something  over  three  years  since  a  few  poor  workingmen,  mainly 
bakers  of  our  city,  united  to  establish  a  union  bakery  on  protective  and  republican 
principles.  They  scraped  together  a  capital  of  $400  to  begin  with  by  paying 
a  small  sum  each  for  the  privilege  of  membership,  agreed  to  pay  a  trifle  periodi- 
cally to  constitute  a  common  fund  out  of  which  any  sick  member  received  $4 
per  week,  while  should  one  die  $30  is  allowed  for  his  funeral  expenses,  and  $25 
in  case  of  death  of  his  wife.  The  union  makes  no  dividends,  but  supplies  its 
members  with  bread  of  all  kinds  at  the  naked  cost  of  the  material  and  baking, 
increasing  or  decreasing  the  size  of  the  loaf  according  to  the  rise  and  fall  of  flour, 
striking  a  rate  every  Monday  and  posting  it  up  so  that  each  customer  may 
know  exactly  how  much  he  is  entitled  to  for  his  money. 

The  union  has  received  from  its  members  for  initiation  fees  $787;  for  dues, 
$543,  of  which  latter  sum  it  has  repaid  $405  in  the  shape  of  relief  to  24 
sick,  burial  expenses  of  one  deceased  member  and  incidental  expenses. 
On  such  a  slender  pecuniary  basis  it  has  gone  steadily  forward  and  is  still  expand- 
ing. Its  active  capital  is  now  $846,  besides  $150  subject  to  repayment.  Its 
receipts  for  bread  in  the  first  week  of  April,  1848,  were  $86;  for  the  last  week  in 
April,  1850,  they  were  $698.  It  now  gives  steady  employment  to  fourteen 
persons  (men,  women  and  boys)  and  pays  them  $118  weekly,  the  highest  wages 
being  $13.50,  and  the  lowest  $3.50  per  week.  The  concern  now  owns  horses, 
carts, etc.,  worth  $1,562, and  its  net  profits  from  the  commencement  are  rated  at 
$1,339,  from  which  say  10  per  cent  should  be  deducted  for  depreciation  of 
fixtures  by  use.  Its  total  receipts  up  to  the  thirtieth  of  April,  1850,  were  $49,- 
010.48;  expenditures,  $48,656.53;  balance  in  hand,  $353.95.  Not  a  great  sum, 
nor  a  great  business,  certainly,  but  how  many  governments  can  show  as 
healthy  a  state  of  finances  for  the  last  three  years? 

All  this  will  seem  to  many  a  small  matter;  to  us  it  appears  full  of  consequence 
and  of  promise.  It  is  the  work  of  laborers  with  very  slender  means,  and  though 
it  gives  steady  employment  as  yet  to  but  fourteen  persons  it  affords  security 
against  extreme  want  to  all  the  associates.  These  fourteen  persons  have  steady 
employment  and  a  moral  certainty  of  its  continuance.  They  call  no  man  master 
and  are  paid  according  to  their  actual  earnings,  fairly  ascertained  and  determined, 
and  the  business  is  still  increasing  and  capable  of  indefinite  increase.  Already 
we  hear  of  negotiations  to  organize  another  bakery  on  the  same  principles,  and 
ere  long  we  hope  to  see  the  entire  baking  business  of  our  city  organized  on  the 
same  basis  so  that  the  workers  shall  no  longer  underbid  and  depress  each  other, 
no  longer  skulk  from  cellar  to  cellar,  begging  employment  at  any  rate  which 
will  afford  them  a  pinched  existence,  and  working  thirteen  and  fifteen  hours, 
including  nearly  all  night,  at  the  caprice  of  employers.  Were  the  baking  business 
thoroughly  organized  on  the  principles  of  work  its  own  master  we  should  have 
all  bread  in  the  oven  by  8  or  at  farthest  9  p.  m.,  and  the  bakers  at  liberty  till 
10  or  II  next  morning;  and  this  is  bound  to  come. 


26  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

But  why  ail  this  tall<  about  bakers?  They  are  a  small  class  anyhow.  Simply* 
sir,  because  all  the  workers  for  wages  are  in  the  same  boat.  The  bakers  have 
been,  as  a  body,  overworked,  underpaid,  and  made  to  work  at  most  unreasonable 
hours;  but  as  have  thousands  besides.  This  little  experiment  is  important 
because  it  shows  how  great  things  may  be  done.  It  is  the  first  landing  of  Co- 
lumbus on  Cat  Island,  with  the  whole  new  world  before  him.  What  has  been 
done  by  and  for  a  few  bakers  may  be  done  for  the  whole  trade  and  for  almost 
if  not  quite  all  other  trades.  The  tailors,  shoe  makers,  hatters,  carpenters, 
masons,  printers,  etc.,  stand  on  substantially  the  same  ground,  are  subject  to 
the  same  necessities,  and  have  like  means  of  overcoming  them.  Not  by  striking 
for  wages  —  though  that  is  sometimes  indispensable  —  but  by  striking  down 
the  system  of  wages,  by  devising  and  reducing  to  practice  a  manifest  substitute 
therefor,  is  the  emancipation  of  Labor  to  be  effected.  And  this  it  is  to  be, 
will  be,  effected.  The  present  agitation,  investigation  and  general  arousing 
among  hired  workers  of  our  city  cannot  be  fruitless.  Thousands  may  have  been 
moved  by  and  drawn  into  it  who  mean  nothing,  or  who  have  no  distinct,  well- 
defined  purpose,  but  the  movement  is  not  in  their  hands,  and  cannot  be  quashed 
by  their  defection.  Its  course  is  steadily  upward  and  onward,  until  Labor  shall 
be  rendered  its  own  master  and  secured  the  entire  fruit  of  its  exertions.  There 
will  be  failures  and  foibles  and  follies  and  mistakes,  but  in  spite  of  all  the  good 
work  will  go  on. 

Receiving  but  $7  and  $8  a  week  the  confectioners  met  on  April 

26,  1850,  and  concluded  that  the  best  means  to  adopt  to  raise  their 

wages    was  to  organize    the  Journeymen  Confec- 

Confectioners.  tioners'  Protective  Union.  This  association  began 
a  systematic  movement  in  1853  to  improve  the  con- 
dition of  its  members.  It  divided  the  workmen  into  grades  and 
demanded  the  following  rates :  First  grade,  $11.25  per  week ;  second, 
$9;  third,  $7.  A  strike  to  enforce  these  prices  occurred  on  December 
12th,  when  the  members  paraded  the  streets  with  banners  and  music. 
On  December  19th  at  a  conference  with  the  employers  the  dispute 
was  partially  adjusted.  The  manufacturers  who  were  present  con- 
curred in  the  necessity  of  a  higher  rate  of  wages  than  had  been  there- 
tofore paid  to  journeymen.  They  appointed  a  committee  to  con- 
fer with  all  employers  in  the  city  relative  to  a  wage  increase,  and 
subscribed  $50  for  the  benefit  of  the  workmen's  society. 

Another  meeting  was  held  by  the  manufacturing  confectioners  on 
January  19,  1854,  when  it  was  resolved  to  advance  a  few  points  in 
favor  of  the  employees.  The  employers  again  assembled  on  January 
26th,  at  which  meeting  a  representative  from  the  jotirneymen's 
organization  made  a  brief  address,  stating  that  he  had  been  deputed 
to  recommend  that  the  employers  agree  to  hire  none  but  union  men 
and  the  members  of  the  association  in  their  turn  wotild  guarantee 
not  to  work  for  a  firm  that  did  not  uphold  the  revised  scale  of  prices. 


RISE  OF  THE  MODERN  LABOR  MOVEMENT.  27 

Both  German  and  English-speaking  cigar  makers  had  unions  in 
New  York  City  in  1850.     The  German  union,  which  numbered  100 
members,  on  May  nth  adopted  a  constitution,  one 
article  of  which  provided  that  every  employer  should         Cigar 
be  obliged  to  bind  each  apprentice  for  three  years.        Makers. 
A  proposal  to  unite  with  the  American  cigar  makers 
was  carried,  and  a  committee  of  three  waited  upon  the  association 
of  the  latter  on  April  12  th  to  urge  its  acceptance.     It  was  then 
agreed  to  hold  a  joint  session,  at  which  a  constitution  was  adopted. 
This  amalgamated    organization    was    named  the   Cigar   Makers' 
Mutual  Protective  Association.     Two  mass  meetings  were  held  by 
it  in  May,  1851,  the  second  one  convening  on  the  thirtieth  of  that 
month  "  for  the  purpose  of  la3ang  before  the  trade  a  scale  of  prices." 


VI. 

Retail    Trade. 

A  very  large  and  influential  meeting  of  dry  goods  clerks  was  held 
in  American  Hall,  at  Broadway  and  Grand  street,  on  December  20, 
1849,  to  listen  to  a  report  of  a  committee  that  had 
been  selected  to  draft  a  constitution  for  a  society       Dry  Goods 
to  be  called  the  Dry  Goods  Clerks'  Mutual  Benefit        Clerks, 
and  Protective  Association.  The  constitution,  which 
had  been  carefully  drafted,  was  read  and  approved.     It  provided 
that  no  one  under  the  age  of  18  years  should  be  admitted  to  mem- 
bership, made  the  initiation  fee    $1,    regular    dues   37^  cents    per 
month,  and  stipulated  that  at  least  $3  per  week  be  paid  to  a  member 
in  case  of  illness,  the  sum  to  be  increased  at  discretion. 

But  the  paramount  object  of  the  association  was  the  reduction 
of  working  time.  The  question  of  the  early  closing  of  stores  was 
brought  up  at  this  meeting  and  gave  rise  to  a  unanimous  expression 
favorable  to  the  movement.  Salesmen  in  those  days  were  required  to 
remain  behind  the  counters  as  long  as  fourteen  hours  daily  in  small 
establishments,  and  even  in  the  large  commercial  emporiums  the 
hours  of  labor  were  excessive.  "  The  clerks  do  not  recognize  coer- 
cive measures,"  said  one  of  the  prime  movers  in  the  agitation,  "  but 
simply  ask  their  employers  to  assist  them  in  persuading  the  public 
to  make  their  purchases  during  the  day,  that  they  may  be  able  to 
close  their  stores  at  an  early  hour  in  the  evening."  There  was  pro- 
noimced  opposition  to  night  shopping  and  the  salesmen  urged  that 
the  stores  be  closed  not  later  than  8  o'clock  p.  m. 


28  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

Election  of  officers  on  January  ii,  1850,  completed  the  organi- 
zation of  the  society.  W.  H.  Ross  was  chosen  president  and  George 
Sheldon  recording  secretary.  Measures  were  then  put  into  opera- 
tion to  accomplish  the  needed  reform.  The  Industrial  Congress 
appointed  a  committee  to  co-operate  with  the  union  of  clerks,  and 
workingmen  and  working  women  were  requested  to  refrain  from 
shopping  at  night. 

Reporting  to  the  Mutual  Benefit  and  Protective  Association  on 
January  12,  1851,  the  recording  secretary  emphasized  the  fact  that 
the  early  closing  of  the  dry  goods  stores  had  been  accomplished. 
He  stated  that  from  December  i,  1850,  the  retail  houses,  with  but 
few  exceptions,  had  been  closed  at  8  o'clock  p.  m.,  and  that  during 
the  year  the  working  time  had  been  decreased  from  15  to  25  hours 
per  week.  The  membership  of  the  association  at  the  start  of  the 
new  year  was  313. 

Presently  the  crusade  for  the  early  closing  of  dry  goods  stores 
spread  outside  of  Manhattan.  Over  in  Brooklyn  on  November  21, 
1850,  a  notable  gathering,  composed  of  "  a  most  nimierous  and  highly 
respectable  audience,"  as  noted  in  the  public  jovirnals,  "  assembled  to 
promote  the  7  o'clock  closing  of  the  stores."  Many  women  were 
present.  Mayor-elect  Conklin  Brush  presided  and  on  the  platform, 
among  some  of  Brooklyn's  foremost  citizens,  was  the  Rev.  Henry 
Ward  Beecher,  the  distinguished  pastor  of  Plymouth  Church,  who 
was  then  prominently  identified  with  the  movement  for  the  abolition 
of  slavery.  The  Brooklyn  Dry  Goods  Clerks'  Association,  of  which 
W.  B.  Jones  was  president  and  Spencer  C.  Blake  secretary,  was 
instrumental  in  having  the  meeting  called.  J.  M.  Van  Cott,  attomey- 
at-law,  delivered  an  eloquent  address,  in  which  he  pointed  out  the 
evils  of  late  hours  and  urged  the  meeting  to  aid  in  destroying  evening 
shopping  by  which  alone  this  system  could  be  abrogated.  The  Rev. 
J.  W.  B.  Wood,  pastor  of  the  Forsyth  Street  M.  E.  Church,  New  York 
City,  followed  in  a  most  happy  strain.  He  said  that  he  himself 
when  a  young  man  had  worked  behind  a  counter,  and  therefore  knew 
well  how  to  sympathize  with  those  who  were  situated  as  he  was. 
A  letter  from  John  W.  Corson,  M.  D.,  addressed  to  Secretary  Blake, 
was  read.  That  eminent  physician,  after  expressing  regrets  that  his 
professional  engagements  prevented  his  attendance,  wrote  as  follows : 

I  am  free  to  state  that  every  day  of  professional  experience  convinces  me  more 
and  more  that  as  a  community  we  are  emphatically  living  too  fast.  Scarcely 
a  week  passes  but,  in  common  with  my  professional  brethren,  I  am  compelled 
to  gaze  upon  the  haggard  visage  of  some  miserable  dyspeptic,  or  listen  to  the 
tremulous  voice  and  sepulchral  cough  of  some  pale  consumptive  victims  of  Mam- 


RISE  OF  THE  MODERN  LABOR  MOVEMENT.  ZQ 

mon,  slowly  sacrificed  by  long  confinement  and  unremitting  toil  amid  the  dust 
and  heated  air  of  the  sales  room.  We  can  point  all  around  to  widows  and 
orphans  untimely  bereaved,  scarcely  conscious  of  the  place  where  the  spoiler 
lurked.  You  are  right  in  thus  appealing  to  public  opinion.  Hundreds  and 
thousands  of  our  fellow-citizens  if  their  attention  were  called  to  it  would  join 
with  me  in  preferring  those  establishments  who  favor  this  just  and  benevolent 
movement  by  closing  early.  Once  that  the  truth  is  known  the  ladies,  your  most 
liberal  patrons,  in  the  natural  kindness  of  their  hearts  will  remember  that  the 
thin  forms  they  see  flitting  by  gaslight  among  muslins  and  silks,  and  the  sickly 
faces  that  as  in  mockery  smile  at  night  from  the  counter,  are  children  and  hus- 
bands robbed,  as  far  as  possible,  of  home  and  its  joys;  and  the  Christians  of  this 
City  of  Churches  will  be  brought  to  feel  that  these  are  of  flesh  and  blood  like 
themselves  and  have  the  same  right  thankfully  to  breathe  the  pure  air  of  heaven, 
spend  a  short  hour  or  two  in  useful  study,  or  gather  with  other  fellow-Christians 
at  the  weekly  evening  sanctuary. 

The  assemblage  gave  expression  to  the  sentiment  that  "  the  long 
hotirs  of  business  which  prevail  among  the  great  majority  of  the 
merchants  of  Brooklyn  are  pronounced  by  the  highest  medical 
authorities  to  be  destructive  of  both  health  and  life ;  while  they  pre- 
clude those  engaged  therein  from  all  opportunities  of  moral  and 
mental  culture,  as  well  as  from  the  discharge  of  their  religious  obli- 
gations, and  the  means  hitherto  adopted  to  bring  about  a  reduction 
of  these  hours  have  failed  to  produce  the  desired  effect."  It  was 
therefore  unanimously  resolved  by  the  audience  that:  — 

1.  This  meeting  is  deeply  impressed  with  the  belief  that  the  evils  pro- 
duced by  the  present  late  hours  of  business  are  of  a  most  serious  character, 
affecting  the  health,  the  morals  and  the  highest  interests  of  the  clerks  as  well  as 
the  merchants,  and  that  those  evils  in  their  various  aspects  can  be  removed  only 
by  a  diminution  of  those  hours  of  business. 

2.  The  great  obstacle  to  a  uniform  and  an  early  hour  of  closing  retail  establish- 
ments is  to  be  found  in  the  practice  of  evening  shopping;  that  this  meeting 
therefore  pledges  itself  to  exercise  its  influence,  individually  and  collectively, 
to  discontinue  and  discountenance  evening  shopping,  so  that  there  may  be  no 
inducements  held  out  to  merchants  to  keep  open  their  stores  after  7  o'clock 
during  the  forthcoming  winter  months. 

3.  The  opinions  of  men  of  great  practical  experience  in  different  branches  of 
retail  trade  have  favored  the  belief  that  as  much  business  might  be  done  in  ten 
hours  a  day  as  is  now  spread  over  a  much  larger  space  of  time ;  and  that  eminent 
theorists  have  not  only  confirmed  that  belief,  but  have  suggested  that  a  still 
more  limited  period  would  accomplish  all  the  business  now  done,  provided 
diligence  and  good  management  prevailed. 

4  This  meeting  is  firmly  persuaded  that  by  the  limitation  of  the  hours  of 
business  to  7  o'clock  in  the  evening  the  real  and  permanent  interests  of  the 
merchants  would  be  promoted,  that  the  clerks  would  become  a  more  elevated 
class  of  men,  the  efficiency  of  whose  services  would  be  thus  increased;  and  that 
any  temporary  inconvenience  which  might  be  experienced  by  the  adoption  of 
this  arrangement  would  be  more  than  compensated  by  the  great  and  permanent 


30  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

advantage  resulting  from  the  consummation  of  the  7  o'clock  closing  of  the 
stores. 

5.  In  seeking  to  gain  so  desirable  an  end  the  clerks  do  not  contemplate  the 
immediate  attainment  of  all  they  conceive  to  be  fair  and  reasonable,  but  inspired 
by  a  sentiment  of  benevolence  and  justice  towards  all,  desire  only  to  gain  the 
summit  of  their  wishes  by  gradual  and  progressive  steps,  and  that  to  receive 
this  onward  progress  untiring  thought  and  persevering  labor  can  alone  avail  to 
remove  the  obstacles  of  prejudice  and  custom  which  beset  the  path  to  that 
eminence  which  God  has  intended  his  creature,  man,  to  occupy. 

6.  This  meeting  hails  with  delight  the  measures  which  have  emanated  from 
the  dry  goods  merchants  of  this  city,  whereby  they  have  resolved  to  close  their 
establishments  at  7  o'clock  from  the  first  of  December  next  to  the  first  of  April, 
and  at  8  o'clock  during  the  summer  months — and  that  they  purpose  hereafter 
to  take  further  measures  to  secure  the  closing  of  the  stores  at  7  o'clock  every 
evening  (Saturday  excepted)  throughout  the  year.  That  this  meeting  is  desirous 
to  express  its  approval  of  these  measures,  and  calls  upon  the  public  of  Brooklyn 
to  sanction  their  proceedings  by  extending  to  those  who  adopt  the  early  closing 
principle  their  patronage  and  support. 

By  November  25,  1850,  the  great  majority  of  Brooklyn's  dry 
goods  merchants  had  consented  to  close  their  stores  at  7  o'clock 
p.  M.  during  the  winter  (Saturdays  and  evenings  previous  to  the 
holidays  excepted),  commencing  on  Monday,  December  2d.  This 
continued  until  April  i,  1851,  after  which  until  November  ist  the 
closing  time  was  8  o'clock,  in  accordance  with  an  agreement  with 
the  association. 

Clerks  in  other  commercial  lines  in  New  York  City,  impressed 
with  the  successful  outcome  of  the  efEorts  inaugurated  by  the  dry 
goods  men,  also  entered  the  field  to  shorten  their  hours  of  work. 
Hat  store  salesmen  formed  a  union  in  185 1  and  actively  engaged  in 
the  early  closing  agitation.  The  agent  of  this  union  on  April  12th 
issued  a  circular,  in  which,  "  with  the  considerate  permission  of  the 
Dry  Goods  Clerks'  Mutual  Benefit  and  Protective  Association,"  he 
availed  himself  of  the  "  opportunity  of  promulgating  the  following 
so  that  a  generous  majority  may  coincide  in  and  act  with  the  views 
therein  expressed,  a  proceeding  which  will  gain  for  a  hard  working 
and  numerous  class  many  an  extra  hour  of  rational  enjoyment  and 
leisure."  He  then  quoted  these  resolutions  that  had  been  passed 
by  the  organized  dry  goods  people,  adding  that  "  further  comments 
being  unnecessary,  the  foregoing  is  submitted  for  approval  and  a  fair 
conclusion:" 

In  the  hatters'  clerks  of  the  City  of  New  York  we  recognize  brothers  in  a  com- 
mon cause  (that  of  abridging  the  hours  of  labor)  and  that  it  is  no  less  a  pleasure 
than  a  duty  to  assist  them  in  the  permanent  establishment  of  the  8  o'clock  system 
of  closing  stores. 


RISE  OF  THE  MODERN  LABOR  MOVEMENT.  3 1 

We  hereby  appeal  to  all  members  of  this  association,  and  all  dry  goods  clerks, 
whether  wholesale  or  retail,  as  they  value  early  closing  themselves,  "  to  do  unto 
others  as  they  would  that  others  should  do  unto  them  "  by  refraining  from 
purchasing  hats  after  8  p.  M. 

As  one  of  the  surest  preventives  to  the  accursed  evils  of  late  hours  of  business 
we  would  respectfully  advise  that  all  hatters  who  do  not  close  their  stores  at 
8  o'clock  are  unworthy  the  patronage  of  dry  goods  clerks  until  they  adopt  the 
specified  hour  of  the  hatters'  clerks. 

Boot  and  shoe  store  clerks  soon  followed  the  example  set  by  their 
fellow-salesmen,  and  in  January,   1852,  the  asso- 
ciation of  the  former,   whose  president  and  sec-     Boot  and 
retary  were,  respectively,   Selleck  Waterbury  and     Shoe  Clerks. 
John  C.  Graham,  noted  its  achievements  in  the 
following  card  to  the  public: 

The  retail  boot  and  shoe  dealers  in  the  following  streets,  viz:  Catharine,  Cherry, 
Chatham,  Grand  and  the  Bowery,  having  acquiesced  in  the  movement  made  by 
the  clerks  in  their  employ  relative  to  the  early  closing  of  their  stores,  and  the 
employers  having  signified  their  assent  to  the  above  object,  the  first  closing 
at  8  p.  M.  (Saturday  evening  excepted)  will  commence  on  Monday  evening, 
January  19,  1852.  Employers  and  clerks  will  please  attend  to  the  same  without 
further  notice.    Let  all  others  imitate  our  example. 


VII. 

Miscellaneous   Trades. 

A  demand  for  an  advance  in  wages  was  made  on  May  27,  1850, 
by  members  of  the  theatrical  profession  engaged  at  the  Astor  Place 
Theatre.    A  session  of  the  company  was  held,  and, 
although  a  benefit  had  been  announced  for  that         Actors, 
evening,  all  came  to  the  conclusion  not  to  appear. 
"  This  serious  interruption  of  public  expectation  was  borne  by  our 
citizens  with  their  usual  fortitude,"  commented  one  newspaper,  "  and 
we  presimie,  when  the  house  is  opened  again  on  Monday  next,  with 
the  Havana  opera  troupe,  that  we  shall  return  to  our  wonted  spirits 
and  enthusiasm." 

Employees  in  tonsorial  shops  were  prompted  to  better  their  con- 
dition through  organization,  and  on  August  2,  1850,  a  news  item 
appeared  in  a  morning  paper  that  *'  the  barbers  of 
the  city  are  about  to  strike  for  higher  wages,  and         Barbers, 
especially  against  three-cent  shops."     How  far  the 
men  engaged  in  this  trade  proceeded  in  their  endeavors  does  not 
appear  in  the  records  of  the  transactions  of  Labor  in  the  fifties. 


32  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

Drivers  of  coaches  had  an  effective  union  in  1850.  It  was  called 
the  Liberty  Stable  Coachmen's  Association,  and  on  December  31st 

it  printed  a  card  announcing  that "  it  is  with  pleasure 
Coachmen.       we  return  our  sincere  thanks  to  our  employers, 

Frederick  Roe,  No.  6  University  Place,  and  Martin 
Philbin,  No.  118  Clinton  Place,  for  their  promptness  in  advancing 
our  wages  to  the  amount  fixed  by  the  association."  Again,  on  Jan- 
uary 6,  185 1,  the  union  expressed  to  George  T.  Ludlam  and  James 
H.  Ludlam,  liverymen,  its  appreciation  of  "  the  prompt  manner  in 
which  they  acceded  to  the  demand  for  the  wages  of  $7  per  week, 
which  were  adopted  by  the  association." 

Early  in  May,  1850,  various  plans  were  proposed  through  pulpit 

and  press  for  alleviating  the  wretched  condition  of  these  youths,  who 

were  known  as  "  baggage  smashers,"  it  being  the 

Public  general  opinion  that  something  should  be  done  for 

Porters.       their  protection.     They  met  on  May  17th,  formed 

the    Licensed    Public    Porters'    Association,    and 

adopted    protective  measures,   which  were  immediately  put  into 

effect. 

At  the  second  quarterly  meeting  of  the  New  York  Saddle  and 

Harness  Makers'  Association,  at  MiUtary  Hall,  No. 

Saddle  and      ^93  Bowery,  on  May  12,   1851,  the  new  book  of 

Harness  prices  was  distributed  among  the  members.     This 

Makers.  scale  had  been  adopted  at  a  meeting  in  the  previous 

February,  and  was  accepted  by  the  employers. 

Other  leather  workers  were  the  morocco  dressers  and  finishers, 

the  union  of  which  trade  gave  notice  on  August  20,  1851,  "that 

the  men  lately  employed  by  E.  M.  Garner  are  now  out  on  strike 

for  the  defense  of  their  rights,  and  hope  neither  men  nor  stout 

boys  will  do  anything  to  injure  the  trade  or  forestall  the  rights  of 

others." 

The  union  of  tobacco  pipe  makers  assembled  on  May  i,  1850,  and 
resolved  "  to  memorialize  Congress  for  a  higher  and  specific  duty 
on  imported  pipes,  which  are  now  pouring  in  in 
Tobacco         ^^^^  quantities  and  at  such  low  valuations  as  to 
Pipe  depress  pipe  making  in  this  country  and  threaten 

Makers.         it  with  extinction.    We  respectfully  ask  the  co- 
operation of  workingmen  similarly  situated  and  our 
fellow-citizens  generally."     Reuben    Smith    was    president   of   this 
association  and  Dennis  Murray  was  its  secretary. 


RISE  OF  THE  MODERN  LABOR  MOVEMENT.  33 

At  a  meeting  of  the  joiirneymen  type  founders,  at  No.  65  Beek- 
man  street,  on  April  25,  185 1,  it  was  unanimously  resolved,  "  in  con- 
sequence of  the  type  founders  of  New  York  being 
for  a  length  of  time  compelled  to  labor  under  a      Joxirneymen 
great  many  grievances  and  constant  attempts  to      Type 
reduce  their  wages,  employers  availing  themselves      Founders, 
of  the  disorganized  state  of  their  men,  renders  it 
necessary  that  we  form  a  society  for  the  protection  of  our  labor; 
that  the  name  of    the  society  be  the  New   York  Type  Founders' 
Trade  Protective  Union."  Joseph  M.  Harper  was  the  first  presi- 
dent and  Christopher  Shaw  was  secretary. 


CHAPTER  II. 
UNIONS  OF  PRINTERS  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY. 

NO  less  than  six  protective  organizations  of  printers  preceded 
Typographical  Union  No.  6,     Three  of  these  were  founded 
in  the  eighteenth  century  and  three  in  the  nineteenth  century. 
With  three  exceptions  the  duration  of  these  unions  was  com- 
paratively brief.     Their  aims  and  objects  were  clear  and  broad  enough ; 
the  members  were  familiar  with  their  own  physical  requirements, 
and  strove  to  heighten  their  economic  status  through  combination, 
but  difficulties  usually  arose  that  prevented  the  development  of 
their  ideas  and  the  permanent  betterment  of  their  trade  conditions. 
In  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  it  was  customary  in  each 
occupation  to  convoke  a  general  meeting  whenever  a  momentous 
trade  question  was  evolved.^    The  calls  for  these 
Transitory  gatherings  were  signed  by  a  few  workmen  of  recog- 

Labor  nized   ability  and   probity.     Sessions  were  invari- 

Combinations.  ably  held  in  their  homes.  Organization  was  effected 
by  the  election  of  officers.  Then  the  purposes  of 
the  meetings  were  enunciated.  Following  discussion  demands  were 
formulated  for  presentation  to  employers,  and  the  journeymen  in 
attendance  signed  a  compact  to  remain  loyal  to  one  another  diiring 
the  progress  of  the  controversy.  If  it  were  a  prolonged  dispute 
committees  were  appointed  to  assume  charge  of  its  conduct,  and 
meetings  of  the  strikers  were  of  frequent  occurrence,  thus  lending 
color  to  the  impression  that  an  enduring  society  had  been  created. 
Either  in  the  event  of  an  attainment  of  the  demands  of  the  workers, 
or  the  collapse  of  the  strike,  these  associated  efforts  as  a  rule  were 
only  temporary. 

I. 

Original  Organization   of  Typographers. 

Such  was  the  character  of  the  first  organization  of  printers  in  the 
Metropolis.  It  was  in  the  Revolutionary  War  period  that  a  small 
number  of  craftsmen  came  together  one  winter  evening  with  the  sole 


1  Ethelbert  Stewart,  "  Early  Organization  of  Printers,"  in  United  States  Bulletin  of  the  Bureau 
of  Labor,  No.  6i,  for  November,  1905,  page  859. 

[34I 


UNIONS    OF    PRINTERS    IN   THE    EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  35 

design  of  insisting  upon  an  advance  in  their  wages.  Times  were 
hard  during  the  occupancy  of  the  city  by  the  British.  Scarcity  of 
provisions  forced  prices  to  exorbitantly  high  figures.  The  supply  of 
firewood,  which  was  the  most  universally  known  variety  of  fuel,  was 
at  a  low  ebb,  and  the  cordage  rates  soared  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
average  purse.^  Clothing  was  dear  and  even  rents  were  affected  by 
the  disturbed  state  of  the  country. 

The  compositors  who  engaged  in  this  initial  attempt  at  organi- 
zation were  employed  on  Rivington's  Gazette.^    They  could  not  live 
on  the  wages  they  were  receiving  and  undertook 
to  raise  the  rate  by  combining.     Fixing  upon  a    pirst  strike  of 
scale,  the  record  of  which  is  not  extant,  they  sub-    Printers  in 
mitted  it  to  the  employer,  whose  refusal  to  accept    America. 
the  measure  precipitated  a  turn-out,  VN^hich  lasted 
for  a  short  time,  but  terminated  in  their  favor.     Having  accomplished 
its  purpose  the  association  forthwith  dissolved.     Doubtless  this  was 
the  first  strike  in  the  printers'  trade  in  America,  and  although  its 
issue  was  successful  it  did  not  prove  a  means  of  holding  the  journey- 
men together. 

II. 

The    Typographical    Society. 

So  far  as  length  of  life  was  concerned  the  next  union  of  printers 
was  more  successful  than  the  ephemeral  organization  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary epoch.  This  second  ventiire  of  the  craft  was  the  Typo- 
graphical Society.  Evidently  it  was  not  called  into  being,  like  its 
predecessor,  by  a  pressing  need,  at  the  removal  of  which  exigency 


'  Early  New  York  often  suffered  from  a  dearth  of  firewood,  and  the  fuel  question  frequently 
became  a  serious  problem  to  its  citizens.  Prices  fluctuated  in  accordance  with  the  supply.  If 
it  were  ample  the  rates  were  reasonable,  but  when  it  became  low  the  amount  charged  to  consumers 
was  so  great  that  many  were  unable  to  purchase  it.  Vessels  laden  with  firewood  entering  the 
harbor  during  these  lean  wintry  seasons  were  hailed  with  great  rejoicing  throughout  Manhattan 
Island,  and  prices  for  the  commodity  instantly  dropped. 

•  James  Rivington  was  the  King's  printer  in  New  York  City.  His  journal  was  so  bitter  in  its 
denunciation  of  the  patriots,  whom  the  editor  daily  and  derisively  characterized  as  "  rebels," 
that  a  troop  of  75  horsemen  from  Connecticut  commanded  by  Capt.  Isaac  Sears  destroyed 
his  printing  plant  in  1775.  In  1777  the  royalist  printer  resumed  publication  of  the  newspaper. 
About  1 78 1 ,  it  is  said,  he  began  to  play  the  part  of  spy  for  General  Washington,  and  after  the  Revolu- 
tionary War  ended  he  abandoned  the  publishing  business,  but  continued  to  live  quietly  in  New 
York  as  a  bookseller,  stationer  and  tobacconist.  It  is  believed  he  owed  his  exemption  from  molesta- 
tion to  the  favor  of  Washington  because  of  the  valuable  service  rendered  to  the  latter.  One  writer 
says:  "  His  easy  manner,  his  former  connections  in  Great  Britain,  his  present  ardor  in  the  conflict, 
all  would  conspire  to  give  him  the  intelligence  he  wished  almost  as  soon  as  it  was  possessed  by 
Sir  Guy  Carleton  or  the  other  British  generals.  It  is  certain  that  some  one  high  in  favor  revealed 
the  secrets  of  the  English  camp  regularly  to  the  Americans."  Rivington  died  in  July,  1802,  aged 
78  years. 


36  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

the  latter  became  extinct.  Though  not  a  powerftil  institution  the 
society  nevertheless  tirelessly  promoted  the  interests  of  the  trade 
during  its  existence  of  two  years  and  six  months.'*  Founded  in  the 
spring  of  1794,  it  had  a  constitution  from  the  beginning.  The  first 
secretary  was  Walter  Hyer,  who  on  July  3d  of  that  year  issued  a 
call  to  the  members  that  "  the  first  quarterly  meeting  of  the  Typo- 
graphical Society  will  be  held,  agreeable  to  the  constitution,  on 
Saturday  evening  next  at  Mr.  Still  well's,  near  the  ferry  stairs,  Fly 
Market  —  at  which  time  and  place  the  members  are  requested  punc- 
tually to  attend."* 

Accounts  of  the  work  and  aspirations  of  the  members  of  this  asso- 
ciation are  somewhat  meagre,  yet  enough  has  been 
Eighteenth      gleaned  about  its  affairs  to  warrant  the  statement 
Century  that  the  scale  of  prices    was   under  consideration 

Wages.  repeatedly,  the  outgrowth  of  which  agitation  was 

an  increase  of  wages  to  $1  per  day  for  the  working 
printers  in  the  city.^ 

These  were  the  officers  of  the  Typographical  Society  in  the  first 
part  of  1796:  President,  Thomas  Ringwood;  secretary,  Henry  C. 
Southwick;  treasurer,  Peter  Slote;  directors,  J.  H.  Williams  and 
Robert  Packard.     Officers  were  elected  quarterly. 

Other  Trades  Quiescent. 

Sporadic  indeed  was  the  movement  of  Labor  in  the  last  decade  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  Records  at  hand  denote  that  few  organi- 
zations besides  the  Typographical  Society  gained  recognition.  The 
coopers  had  a  society  in  1796.  Its  chairman  was  John  M.  Utt; 
deputy  chairman,  John  Bogart;  secretary,  John  Ming;  treasurer, 
Jacob  Morris. 

Only  two  trades  in  New  York's  constructive  industry  were  organ- 
ized strongly  enough  in  1795  to  demand  and  obtain  an  advance  in 
wages.     "  The  carpenters  and  masons  of  this  city, 
Building         having  combined  and  raised  their  wages  two  shil- 
Industry.       lings  a  day  beyond  the  price  of  last  season,"  wrote 
a  citizen^  who  was  displeased  with  the  attitude  of 
the  unions  of  these  mechanics  to  better  themselves,  "  it  behooves 
the  citizens  in  general,  but  particularly  those  who  intend  to  build 
the  present  year,  to  oppose  designs  as  unjust  as  they  are  impolitic. 

*  R.  H.  Cressingham,  in  The  Official  Annual  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  March.  iSq3. 
*From  the  New  York  Diary,  or  Evening  Register,  Thursday,  July  3,  1794. 

•  Ethelbert  Stewart,  in  Bulletin  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  61,  November,  190S.  page  863. 
»  "A.  B.,"  in  a  card  inserted  in  the  New  York  Daily  Advertiser,  March  30,  I79S. 


GEORGE  BRUCE, 

First   Secretary   of   Franklin   Typographical   Association 

of  New  York,  in  1799,  and  Afterward  a 

Celebrated  Typefounder. 


UNIONS    OF    PRINTERS    IN   THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  37 

An  acquiescence  on  the  part  of  the  citizens  on  this  occasion  will  in 
all  probability  not  only  excite  similar  attempts  among  all  other 
descriptions  of  persons  who  live  by  manual  labor,  but  induce  reiter- 
ated efforts  to  increase  their  wages  at  seasons  when  they  find  their 
services  most  wanted.  That  a  trifling  addition  to  their  former 
wages  may  by  some  be  deemed  proper  will  not  be  disputed,  but  when 
a  combination  is  formed  to  extort  an  unreasonable  advance  every 
man  will  deem  it  an  imposition  and  set  his  face  against  the  measure. 
Those  who  conceive  themselves  affected  by  the  present  combina- 
tion are  requested  to  meet  at  Batten's  Tavern,  near  the  theatre,  on 
Wednesday  evening  at  7  o'clock  to  consider  the  means  that  ought 
to  be  adopted  on  this  occasion." 

III. 

Frzuiklin  Typographical   Association. 

For  some  five  years  the  Franklin  Typographical  Association,  which 
was  the  title  of  the  third  union  instituted  by  New  York  printers  in 
the  eighteenth  century,  remained  active  and  succeeded  in  placing 
the  devotees  of  the  art  preservative  upon  a  higher  plane  than  they 
had  hitherto  occupied.  Though  its  basic  law  set  forth  that  it  was 
established  for  "  the  promotion  of  harmony  among  journeymen  and 
for  philanthropic  piirposes,"  it  went  a  step  farther  and  pursued  a 
protective  course  that  proved  to  be  beneficial  to  the  membership. 

The  first  inkling  of  the  foundation  of  this  association  was  contained 
in  a  notice  printed  in  a  newspaper^  on  November  24,  1798.  This 
call  was  signed  "A  nimiber  of  journeymen,"  and  read:  "All  the 
jotirneymen  printers  in  this  city  are  particularly  requested  to  attend 
a  meeting,  to  be  held  at  the  house  of  A.  B.  Martling,  comer  of  George 
and  Nassau  streets,  on  Saturday,  November  24th,  on  business  of 
the  utmost  importance."  It  was,  however,  in  1799  before  it  was 
fully  constituted,  having  then  the  names  of  50  members  in  its  con- 
stitution. George  Bruce  was  the  first  secretary,  his  selection  being 
"  an  evidence  of  the  substantial  standing  which  already  he  had 
attained  in  his  craft."*  He  continued  in  that  position  through  1801, 
during  which  year  the  other  officers  of  the  association  were:  Presi- 
dent, John  Clough;  vice-president,  David  Bruce;  corresponding  sec- 
retary, Thomas  Ringwood;  standing  committee,  David  Bruce, 
Thomas   Ringwood,    John   Hardcastle,    Daniel   Dodge,   Henry  C. 

8  Greenleaf  s  New  York  Daily  Advertiser. 

'  Lyman  Horace  Weeks,"  Book  of  Bruce,"  page  32a. 


38  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Southwick.^"  In  1801  the  union  met  at  Philip  Becanon's  public 
house,  No.  87  Fair  street,  while  in  1803  the  place  of  meeting  was  at 
No.  63  Stone  street.  Regular  sessions  were  held  on  the  first  Saturday 
of  each  month. 

Two  of  the  most  diligent  members  of  the  organization  were  the 
Bruce  brothers,  who  afterward  became  prominently  identified  with 

the  business  life  of  New  York.     They  were  natives 
Eminent  of  Scotland.     David  came  to  America  about  1793; 

Members.        going  to  Philadelphia,  in  which  city  be  procured 

employment  in  the  printing  office  of  Hall  &  Sellers, 
the  successors  of  Benjamin  Franklin.  George  followed  his  brother 
to  this  country  when  he  was  but  14  years  of  age,  obtaining  a  place 
with  a  firm  of  Quaker  City  booksellers.  In  1797  he  was  employed 
on  the  Philadelphia  Gazette,  remaining  there  about  a  year.  From 
Pennsylvania  the  brothers  proceeded  to  New  York  City,  thence  to 
Albany,  where  they  worked  on  the  Sentinel,  which  performed  the 
official  printing  for  the  New  York  State  Legislature.  They  removed 
to  the  Metropolis  in  the  spring  of  1799.  George  was  then  in  his 
1 8th  year.  He  secured  a  situation  as  compositor  on  the  Mercantile 
Advertiser,  but  owing  to  his  youth  he  was  enabled  to  obtain  only 
three-fourths  of  a  journeyman's  pay.  Subsequently  he  was  employed 
on  bookwork  in  the  offices  of  Isaac  Collins,  James  Crane,  and  F.  & 
J.  Woods.  He  became  connected  in  1802  with  the  office  of  the  Daily 
Advertiser,  of  which  within  a  year  he  was  made  foreman.  Later 
he  assimied  entire  responsibility  for  the  publication  of  the  paper, 
his  name  appearing  as  its  printer  in  the  volumes  of  1803-4-5.  David 
found  employment  as  a  pressman.  About  the  end  of  1805  the  Bruces 
formed  a  copartnership  and  established  themselves  in  the  printing 
business.  So  successfully  was  their  plant  conducted  that  in  1809 
it  was  understood  that  "  they  had  the  largest  printing  office  in  New 
York  City,  furnishing  work  to  nine  double-pull  wooden  hand  presses." 
They  became  interested  in  stereotyping  in  181 2,  but  in  18 13  both 
abandoned  printing  and  embarked  in  type  founding,  which  assured 
their  permanent  prosperity  and  fame. 

Some  of  Its  Achievements. 

The  wage  question  was  ever  paramount,  one  of  the  objects  of  the 
association  being  the  maintenance  of  an  equitable  scale  of  prices. 
Employing  printers  were  not  then  numbered  among  the  wealthy 

>«  It  is  quite  probable  that  all  of  these  men  constituted  the  ofiBcial  staff  of  the  association  at 
its   inception. 


DAVID  BRUCE, 

Vice-President  of  Franklin  Typographical  Association  of 

New  York,  in  1799,  and  Subsequently  a  Noted 

Inventor  and  Typefounder. 


UNIONS   OF   PRINTERS   IN   THE   EIGHTEENTH    CENTURY.  39 

denizens  of  the  city.  They  "  were  in  financial  straits  so  frequently 
that  the  ownership  of  an  office  was  hard  to  determine,"  observes  an 
authority.speakingof  the  period  prior  to  1800.  "A  journeyman  one 
month  was  an  employer  the  next,  and  frequently  two  or  three  journey- 
men would  pool  their  cash  and  publish  a  book,  divide  the  profits 
on  its  publication,  and  then  dissolve  partnership.  Printers  were 
generally  members  of  the  boss's  family,  and  boarded  with  him  while 
the  job  lasted.  Of  course,  the  newspaper  printers,  like  those  of  our 
day,  had  the  best  situations,  but  there  were  very  few  newspapers. 
The  employers  were  extremely  eager  for  an  organization,  for  it 
meant  better  prices  for  themselves."" 

Notwithstanding  these  drawbacks  the  association  in  1800  prepared 
the  first  complete  wage  scale  ever  adopted  by  New  York  City  printers 
and  inaugurated  a  strike  for  its  enforcement.^^     It 
successfully  demanded  25  cents  per  1,000  ems  for    First  Complete 
pieceworkers,  at  least  $7  per  week  in  book  and  job    Wage  Scale, 
offices  and  S8  a  week  on  newspapers.     Neither  copies 
of  this  schedule  of  rates  nor  the  records  and  constitution  of  the  society 
have  been  preserved. 

A  few  other  accomplishments  of  the  Franklin  Typographical  Asso- 
ciation were  mirrored  in  an  address  delivered  by  Thomas  Ringwood 
before  the  organization  and  a  select  company  on  July  5,  1802,  "  in 
commemoration  of  the  27  th  anniversary  of  American  independence 
and  the  third  of  the  association."  The  orator  viewed  with  satis- 
faction the  high  standing  that  the  union  had  then  attained  in  the  com- 
munity and  noted  the  rapid  progress  that  printing  had  begun  to  make 
in  America  in  the  opening  years  of  the  nineteenth  century :  He  said : 

Our  institution  is  in  a  much  more  flourishing  state  than  its  warmest  friends 
could  have  expected.  In  its  infancy  it  had  many  difficulties  to  encounter; 
but  its  members,  by  a  persevering  spirit  and  propriety  of  conduct,  have  rendered 
futile  every  obstruction  opposed  to  it  in  its  progress  to  maturity,  and  we  may 
now  consider  it  as  established  on  a  basis  so  firm  as  to  warrant  the  most  sanguine 
hopes  of  its  durability. 

The  organization  of  a  society  which  has  for  one  of  its  primary  objects  the 
relief  of  its  members  when  distressed  will  be  allowed  by  all  to  be  a  laudable 
undertaking;  as  there  is  no  situation  in  life  which  secures  us 
from  the  arrows  of  adversity:  to-day  we  may  be  blessed  with  Distressed 

the  enjoyment  of  perfect  health,  to-morrow  we  may  be  laid  Members 

on  the  bed  of  sickness.     Unforeseen  events  may  incapacitate  Rebeved. 

us  to  meet  such  a  misfortune  in  a  suitable  manner;  it  there- 
fore behooves  us  to  make  some  provision,  as  a  shield  against  calamity,  and  in 
what  way  can  it  be  better  done  than  by  associating  in  the  bonds  of  friendship 
and  brotherly  love? 

"  R.  H.  Cressingham,  in  Official  Annual  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  March,  1892. 

"  Ethelbert  Stewart,  in  Bulletin  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  61,  for  November,  1905,  page  863. 


40  NEW  YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL  UNION   NUMBER  SIX. 

Well-regulated  societies  also  have  a  great  tendency  to  correct  and  guide  the 
conduct  of  their  members,  both  in  moral  and  professional  points  of  view:  and 
as  justice  to  our  employers,  as  well  as  to  ourselves,  is  the  professional  tenet  of 
our  constitution,  great  care  should  be  taken  strictly  to  adhere  to  it,  as  our  asso- 
ciation will  thereby  support  that  credit  which  it  has  been  gradually  attaining 
since  its  establishment. 

I  believe  I  may  with  truth  affirm  that  our  conduct  has  effectually  obliterated 

any  evil  impressions  which  might  have  been  entertained  against  us  as  a  society. 

We   have   clearly   evinced   that   we  associated,  not  for  the 

Good  Conduct        purpose  of  extorting  extraordinary  salaries,  but  from  motives 

1  era  ea    v        .^{(Jely  different,  and  it  remains  with  ourselves  to  maintain 
Impressions.  ^  '  .  ...  ,      ,.  . 

the  ground  we  have  gamed  or  deviate  from  the  Ime  of  con- 
duct we  have  hitherto  pursued,  and  fall  into  discredit. 

At  no  time  since  its  first  introduction  into  this  country  has  printing  been 

so  liberally  encouraged  as  at  present;  never  has  there  been  so  many  professors 

of  the  typographic  art  in  America  as  at  this  time.     Formerly 

Rapid  Advance       j-j^g  extent  of  the  business  carried  on  in  our  line  went  not  be- 

T     *     h"  A  t     yo"d  ^^6  daily  newspaper,  and  a  few  of  the  lower  order  of 

books  for  the  use  of  schools.     Now  we  not  only  supply  the 

market  with  editions  of  the   useful,   but   with  almost   all   the   elegant  works; 

numbers  of  which  are  executed  in  a  style  equal  to  any  from  Europe.     It  is 

also  a  subject  of  congratulation  to  us  that  the  efforts  of  the  associated  printers 

and  booksellers  have  been  so  far  successful  as  to  produce  American  editions  of 

several  classical  works  of  considerable  magnitude,  which  would  not  have  been 

otherwise  undertaken. 

From  the  same  truly  laudable  and  patriotic  spirit  we  are  warranted  in  cherish- 
ing the  expectation  that  the  art  of  printing  will  shortly  arrive  to  a  degree  of 
eminence  in  America,  equal  (at  least  comparatively)  to  what  has  arisen  in  Europe. 
We  are  now,  brethren,  a  numerous  society;  let  us  endeavor  to  conciliate  the 
esteem  of  our  employers;  let  us  continue  to  be  united  as  we  have  heretofore 
been  and  we  shall  soar  above  the  malevolent  attacks  of  any  who  may,  from 
principle  or  prejudice,  profess  themselves  our  enemies. 

There  was  an  epidemic  of  yellow  fever  in  New  York  City  during 
1803,  and  the  Philadelphia  society  of  printers  in  June,  that  year, 
contributed  $83.50  for  the  relief  of  its  afflicted  MetropoHtan  brethren. 
On  September  19,  1803,  the  president  of  the  New  York  union  acknowl- 
edged receipt  of  the  donation  "  for  the  relief  of  such  of  our  members 
as  may  be  distressed  in  consequence  of  the  prevailing  epidemic." 
Whether  or  not  the  scourge  depleted  the  ranks  of  the  Franklin 
Association  to  a  degree  that  its  vitality  could  not  withstand  the  drain 
is  notjknown,  but  the  society  dissolved  in  1804.  The  last  mention 
of  it  appeared  ,in  the  New  York  Daily  Advertiser  of  May  8,  1804, 
when  its  president,  Jacob  Frank,  -advertised  a  request  to  the  mem- 
bers to  "  attend  a  special  meeting  at  their  hall  this  evening  at  8  o'clock 
on  business  of  importance."  Its  scale  of  prices  continued  to  be 
the  standard  wages  for  the  succeeding  five  years. 


CHAPTER  III. 

NEW  YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL  SOCIETY,  1809-1818. 

PROGRESSION  distinguished  the  opening  decade  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  in  America.  National  prosperity  had  reached 
a  height  not  before  attained  in  this  country.  War's  waste 
had  retarded  the  advance  of  other  nations,  but  in  the  United  States 
peace  reigned  and  the  development  of  resources  had  proceeded  with 
celerity.  Vast  improvements  had  taken  place  in  agrioilture,  com- 
merce, manufactures  and  the  useful  arts. 

When  President  Madison  was  inaugurated  on  March  4,  1809,  the 
fact  that  he  was  "  clad  in  a  plain  suit  of  black,  entirely  of  American 
manufacture,"  was  an  event  of  historic  moment,  exampling  not  only 
the  rapid  strides  that  had  been  made  in  industry,  but  bespeaking 
the  achievement  of  greater  things  by  the  people. 

These  improved  conditions  had  wrought  a  change  in  the  mode  of 
living.  The  standard  had  gradually  increased.  Enlarging  needs 
of  the  producers  demanded  a  greater  return  for  their  labor.  Printers 
especially  were  alive  to  their  requirements,  and  felt  that  the  wage 
scale  which  had  been  handed  down  by  the  association  that  had 
lapsed  in  1804  was  inadequate  to  meet  the  exactions  of  the  period. 

A  small  company  of  these  craftsmen  assembled  in  the  home  of 
David  H.  Reins  at  No.  49  Barclay  street.  New  York  City,  in  June, 
1809.  They  deliberated  upon  the  subject  of  organization,  and 
resolved  upon  the  necessity  of  founding  a  protective  and  benevolent 
society.  A  committee  on  constitution  was  selected,  and  the  prelimi- 
nary meeting  adjourned  with  the  understanding  that  a  session  would 
be  held  on  the  evening  of  Saturday,  July  ist,  to  receive  and  act 
upon  the  report  of  the  men  charged  with  the  duty  of  drafting  the 
basic  law.  There  were  49  printers  present  at  the  first  gathering  in 
July,  when  the  committeemen  submitted  the  result  of  their  labors, 
and  the  constitution  as  written  by  them  was  adopted.  John  H. 
Sherman  was  elected  president,  and  his  signature  was  the  first  to 
be  affixed  to  the  constitution.  At  a  special  meeting  on  July  3d 
S.  W.  Andrews  was  elected  vice-president  and  these  twelve  directors 
were  chosen:  Walter  W.  Hyer,  Henry  H.  Gird,  Edward  Innet, 
George  H.  Lincke,  Thomas  Thompson,   Thomas  O'Neill,   Daniel 

[41] 


42  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   Nl'MHER   SIX. 

Fanshaw,  J.  W.  Palmer,  John  Forbes,  George  Asbridge,  Nathaniel 
Gray  and  David  H.  Reins.  The  directors  convened  the  same  night, 
and  consonant  with  the  constitutional  provision  (requiring  that  the 
board  shall  choose  for  financial  officer  one  of  three  members  nominated 
by  the  association  in  general  meeting,  which  had  already  announced 
the  candidates,  the  two  others  being  Thomas  Thompson  and  John 
Johnston)  made  John  Hamill  treasurer.  Organization  was  perfected 
by  the  Board  of  Directors  on  July  8th,  when  David  H.  Reins  was 
elected  secretary  of  the  new  union,  which  was  ushered  into  the  indus- 
trial world  under  the  appellation  of  the  New  York  Typographical 
Society. 

By  the  end  of  July,  1809,  it  had  a  membership  of  54,  and  at  the 
close  of  its  initial  year,  on  June  30,  1810,  it  was  noted  that  120 
journeymen  had  subscribed  to  the  constitution  during  the  first 
twelve  months  of  its  career. 

I. 

Initial  Constitution. 

The  original  fundamental  law  of  the  society  was  a  model  of  sim- 
plicity and  strength.  This  interesting  instrument  severely  penalized 
members  who  worked  for  less  than  established  prices,  provided 
means  for  the  relief  of  the  sick  and  distressed,  and  clearly  defined  the 
duties  of  officers.  Reproduced  below  is  the  full  text  of  the  first 
constitution : 

Article  i.  This  society  shall  be  known  and  called  by  the  name  of  the  New 
York  Typographical  Society. 

Article  2.  The  concerns  of  the  society  shall  be  managed  by  a  board  to  consist 

of  a  president,  vice-president,  twelve  directors,  a  treasurer  and  secretary,  the 

two  former  of  whom  to  be  elected  by  ballot  and  to  hold  their  respective  offices 

as  follows: 

Article  3.     The    president  and  vice-president  shall  be    elected  by  ballot  in 

general  meeting  on  the  first  Saturday  in  the  month  of  June 

Officers.  of  every  year  by  a  majority  of  the  members  then  present 

and  shall  hold  their  respective  offices  during  the  term  of  one 

year. 

Article  4.  The  directors  shall  be  elected  on  the  first  Saturday  of  July,  1809, 

and  immediately  after  their  election  and  installation  shall   divide  themselves 

into   four  classes;   the  members  of  the  first  class  shall  hold 

Board  of  their  office  during  the  term  of  one  month ;  those  of  the  second 

Directors.  class  during  the  term  of  two  months;  those  of  the  third  class 

during  the  term  of  three  months;   and  those  of  the  fourth 

class  during  the  term  of  four  months  —  so  that  at  every  monthly  meeting  there 

sViall  be  an  election  for  three  directors;  and  in  case  of  the  death,  resignation 


NEW    YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY.  43 

or  disability  of  any  director  or  directors  then  the  president  for  the  time  being 
shall  give  notice  thereof  and  at  the  first  monthly  meeting  thereafter  another 
person  shall  be  elected  to  fill  the  vacancy  occasioned  by  such  death,  resigna- 
tion or  disability  aforesaid. 

Article  5.  The  treasurer  shall  hold  office  during  the  term  of  six  months  and 
be  elected  as  follows:  On  the  first  Saturdays  of  July  and  September  in  every 
year  at  general  meeting  or  on  the  first  Saturday  thereafter  three  candidates  for 
the  office  shall  be  elected  by  ballot,  and  at  the  first  meeting  of  the  board  there- 
after one  of  the  three  persons  so  elected  shall  be  appointed  by  a  majority  of  the 
directors,  and  those  directors  who  shall  vote  for  him  shall  become  sureties  for 
the  faithful  performance  of  the  duties  of  his  office  in  manner  following:  Before 
the  treasurer  enters  on  the  duties  of  his  office  he  shall  give  an  obligation  to  the 
president,  vice-president  and  secretary  for  the  time  being,  thereby  promising  to 
refund  the  amount  of  all  moneys  belonging  to  the  society  on  his  resignation  or 
removal  from  office,  which  obligation  shall  be  signed  by  and  be  equally  obligatory 
on  those  directors  who  by  their  votes  may  have  selected  him  for  the  office. 

Article  6.  The  secretary  shall  be  appointed  by  the  Board  of  Directors  and 
hold  his  office  during  the  term  of  six  months. 

Article  7.  All  acts  of  the  Board  of  Directors  shall  be  in  the  name  of  the  New 
York  Typographical  Society,  signed  by  the  president  for  the  time  being  and 
attested  by  the  secretary. 

Article  8.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  president  to  preside  at  all  meetings  of 
the  society  and  Board  of  Directors,  to  keep  order  therein,  and  generally  to  do 
all  such  things  as  to  his  office  may  of  right  appertain  and  belong. 

Article  9.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  vice-president  to  attend  all  meetings  of 
the  board  and  general  society  and  to  assist  in  keeping  order  therein.     In  the 
absence  of  the  president,  or  in  case  of  his  disability,  death 
or  resignation,  the  vice-president  shall  preside  until  the  re-  Duties  of 

moval  of  such  obstacle  or  until  a  person  be  elected  to  fill  Oflacers. 

the  vacancy.     And  in  case  of  the  absence,  disability,  death 
or  resignation  of  both  president  and  vice-president  the  board  shall  appoint  a 
president  pro  tempore. 

Article  10.  The  board  shall  have  power  to  pass  by-laws  for  the  government 
of  themselves  and  of  the  society  in  general  meeting,  resolutions  and  acts  not 
derogatory  to  the  true  interests  and  meaning  of  the  constitution,  and  generally 
to  transact  all  and  every  such  business  for  the  welfare  of  the  society  as  is  not 
in  this  constitution  determined  to  be  done  in  general  meeting.  It  shall  also 
keep  a  list  of  the  prices  of  work,  subject  to  revision  and  alteration  as  may  become 
necessary,  and  if  any  member  of  this  society  shall  be  convicted  of  working  for 
less  than  the  established  wages  he  shall  be  expelled  and  the  secretary  shall  trans- 
mit his  name  with  the  nature  of  his  offense  to  the  other  corresponding  typo- 
graphical societies  in  the  United  States. 

Article  11.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  treasurer  to  receive  all  dues,  fines  and 
forfeitures  collected  by  the  secretary  and  receipt  to  him  therefor;  to  keep  exact 
and  true  accounts  of  all  moneys  received  and  expended;  but  he  shall  make  no 
disbursements  of  moneys  unless  authorized  so  to  do  by  a  majority  of  the  directors 
who  voted  the  appropriation,  expressed  in  their  own  handwriting  on  the  warrant 
directed  to  him  for  that  purpose;  and  shall  also,  when  thereto  required  by 
a  majority  of  the  board  or  the  society  in  general  meeting,  make  out  and  present 
a  just  and  true  account  of  his  receipts  and  expenditures  and  the  amount  of  the 


44  NEW  YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION  NUMBER  SIX. 

moneys  in  the  treasury;  and  on  his  resignation,  disability  and  expiration  of  his 
term  of  ofBce,  deliver  over  to  the  board  all  moneys  and  amounts  in  his  possession 
belonging  to  the  society  under  pain  of  forfeiting  his  and  the  directors*  security 
aforesaid.  And  in  case  of  the  death  of  the  treasurer  then  the  receipts  and  amounts 
of  the  secretary  shall  be  sufficient  vouchers  against  his  heirs,  executors  or  adminis- 
trators; and  the  board  shall  appoint  a  treasurer  pro  tempore  to  fill  the  vacancy 
until  the  next  election  and  general  meeting. 

Article  12.  The  secretary  shall  attend  all  meetings  of  the  society  and  Board 
of  Directors  and  shall  keep  a  record  of  all  transactions  in  the  society,  issue  notices 
for  stated  and  special  meetings,  receive  initiation  fees  and  monthly  dues  and 
deposit  the  same  with  the  treasurer,  for  which  he  shall  take  a  receipt;  at  the 
opening  of  every  meeting  read  the  minutes  of  the  preceding  one,  and  generally 
do  all  such  things  when  thereunto  required  by  the  board  or  the  society  in  general 
meeting  as  to  them  shall  seem  proper  (for  which  services  if  punctually  performed 
he  shall  be  exempted  from  monthly  dues). 

Article  13.  Immediately  after  their  election  the  respective  officers  shall  take 

their  seats  on  subscribing  to  the  following  declaration:     "I ,  do 

solemnly  declare  that  I  will  to  the  best  of  my  abilities  execute 

«!.,•    ^  the  office  of ;  and  that  I  will  not  divulge 

Obugatioii. 

any  of  the  proceedings  of  my  brethren  required  by  them  to 

be  kept  secret;  and  I  will,  to  the  utmost  of  my  power,  pro- 
cure employment  for  any  member  or  members  of  this  society,  in  preference  to 
any  other  person  or  persons  when  occasion  may  require." 

Article  14.  Any  person  wishing  to  become  a  member  of  this  society  must 
make  application  to  the  Board  of  Directors  for  that  purpose,  and  it  shall  be  the 
duty  of  the  board  to  make  other  proper  enquiries  respecting  such  person  and 
lay  the  result  of  the  same  before  the  society  in  general  meeting;  who  shall  there- 
upon proceed  to  ballot,  and  three-fourths  of  the  votes  of  the  members  present 
shall  entitle  him  to  admission.  Immediately  after  being  admitted  he  shall  be 
called  upon  to  answer  such  questions  as  shall  be  put  to  him  by  the  president, 
and  should  they  prove  satisfactory  he  shall  sign  the  constitution  and  receive 
a  certificate  of  membership. 

Article  15.  Every  person  on  subscribing  to  this  constitution  shall  pay  into 
the  hands  of  the  secretary,  to  be  by  him  delivered  over  to  the  treasurer,  the 
sum  of   $2,  which  may  hereafter  be  increased  to  any  sum 
InitationFee         not  exceeding  $5,  and  in  addition  thereto  the   sum    of    25 
and  Dues.  cents  a  month  until  he  shall  have  been  ten  years  a  member 

of  the  society  or  be  rendered  incapable  by  sickness,  or  other- 
wise, in  the  opinion  of  the  board,  to  pay  such  installment. 

Article  16.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  president  for  the  time  being  to  appoint 

three  fit  and  qualified  persons  to  preside  as  judges  at  any  election  to  be  held  in 

general  meeting  for  officers  of  the    society,   and    the    said 

Judges  of  judges  shall  make  out  an  exact  and  true  return,   certified 

Election.  under  their  hands,  of  the  number  of  votes  given  for  every 

person  voted  for  and  deliver  such  return  to  the    president, 

who  shall  thereupon  declare  the  person  or  persons  having  the  greatest  number 

of  votes   to   be   elected;    and  in  case  of  a  tye  between  any   two   or  more 

candidates  the  board  shall  declare  which  of  them  is  to  exercise  and  hold  the 

office. 


NEW    YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL  SOCIETY.  45 

Article  17.  When  the  funds  of  the  society  shall  have  amounted  to  $100  the 
Board  of  Directors  may  award  such  sum  to  sickly  and  distressed  members, 
their  widows  and  children  as  to  them  may  seem  meet  and 
proper.      Provided,    that    such    sum    shall    not  exceed  $3  sick  and 

per  week.    And   in   every   case   wherein   a   member   may  Distressed 

be  thrown  out  of  employ  by  reason  of  his  refusing  to  take  Members, 

less  than  the  established  prices  they  shall  advance,  if 
required,  on  his  own  security,  at  their  discretion,  such  a  sum  per  week  as  is 
sufficient  to  defray  his  ordinary  expenses.  And  if  such  member,  by  sickness  or 
otherwise,  shall  be  rendered  unable  to  refund  the  amount,  or  part  of  the  sum 
so  advanced,  the  board  may  levy  a  tax  upon  every  other  member  of  the  society, 
which  shall  be  sufficient,  or  in  part  sufficient  to  defray  the  amount  advanced 
as  aforesaid.  And  further,  no  person  shall  receive  the  benefit  arising  from  this 
article  until  he  shall  have  been  six  months  a  member  of  the  society,  unless  he 
is  a  stranger  and  in  absolute  distress. 

Article  18.  Applications  for  relief  in  case  of  sickness  shall  be  made  to  the 
president,  who  shall  thereupon  immediately  (if  the  exigency  of  the  case  shall 
require  it)  direct  the  Board  of  Directors  to  draw  upon  the  treasurer  such  sum 
as  shall  relieve  his  immediate  distress  and  at  the  next  meeting  take  the  applicant's 
situation  into  consideration. 

Article  19.  A  general  meeting  of  the  society  shall  be  held  on  the  first  Saturday 
in  every  month,  for  the  purpose  of  hearing  the  proceedings 
of  the  board,  making  monthly  payments  and  of  transacting  Meetings 

such  other  business  as  may  legally  come  before  them. 

Article  20.  At  all  meetings  of  the  society  20  shall  be  a  quorum  to  proceed  to 
business,  which  shall  be  conducted  according  to  such  rules  of  order  as  may  from 
time  to  time  be  adopted  by  the  Board  of  Directors.     Motions 
may  be  made  by  any  member,  and  if  seconded  shall  be  Quorum 

considered  and  the  voice  of  the  society  taken  thereon. 

Article  21.  No  amendment  or  alteration  shall  be  made  in  this  constitution 
unless  by  two-thirds  of  the  members  present  at  a  meeting 
specially  held  for  that  purpose,  when  30  members  shall  be  a       Amendments, 
quorum,    and   all    motions  for   amendments   or  alterations 
shall  be  laid  on  the  table  in  writing  one  month  previous  to  the  same  being 
debated  on. 

II. 

First  By-Laws. 

Discussion  of  a  set  of  by-laws  occupied  the  attention  of  the  society 
for  several  months.  Though  amendments  were  made  to  these  on 
August  7,  181 1,  and  the  whole  "  ordered  read  every  three  months  in 
general  meeting,"  the  alterations  were  of  minor  importance.  The 
most  noted  addition  was  an  article  which  provided  that  "  no  member 
of  this  society  shall  be  permitted  to  take  with  him  as  a  companion 
at  press  a  person  who  is  of  full  age  with  a  view  of  teaching  him  the 
business,  under  the  pain  of  expvdsion."  The  complete  original 
by-laws  were  as  follows: 


46  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

Article  I .  Meetings  of  this  society  shall  be  held  according  to  the  constitution 
on  the  first  Saturday  of  every  month.     The  hours  of  meeting  of  the  society 
and  Board  of  Directors  shall  be  as  follows:     From  the  tenth 
Meetings.  of  March  to  the  tenth  of  October  at  8  o'clock,  and  from  the 

tenth  of  October  to  the  tenth  of  March  at  6  o'clock  ^  in  the 
evening,  and  in  no  case  whatsoever  shall  the  society  be  in  session  for  the  trans- 
action of  business  after  1 1  o'clock. 

Article  2.  The  president,  or  in  his  absence  the  vice-president,  as  soon  as  a 
quorum  appears  after  the  hour  above  specified,  shall  take  the  chair;  and  in  the 
absence  of  both  a  chairman  shall  be  appointed  for  the  evening. 

Article  3;  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  president  to  call  an  extra  meeting  of 
the  society  at  any  and  at  all  such  times  when  a  majority  of  the  Board  of  Directors 
or  society  in  general  meeting  shall  think  proper  by  issuing  a  warrant  directed 
to  him  for  that  purpose. 

Article  4.  Every  person  immediately  after  being  elected  a  member  of  this 
society  and  previous  to  his  signing  the  constitution  must  give  satisfactory 
answers  to  the  following  questions,  and  to  such  others  as  the  president  may  deem 
proper: 

"  Have  you  suffered  yourself  to  be  proposed  as  a  member  of  this  society  with 
a  view  of  supporting  the  interests  thereof  ? 
Obligation  of  "  Do  you  promise  to  attend  all  meetings  of    this  society 

Members.  when  it  shall  be  in  your  power  so  to  do,  provided  it  be  not 

detrimental  to  yourself  or  family  ? 
"  Do  you  hereby  declare  and  affirm  that  you  will  support  the  constitution 
and  by-laws  of  this  society  and  hold  yourself  amenable  to  all  legal  acts  and 
proceedings  of  the  society  and  Board  of  Directors;  that  you,  when  thereunto 
required,  keep  all  such  matters  and  proceedings  of  the  society  or  Board  of  Directors 
a  profound  secret,  as  shall  be  deemed  necessary  by  a  majority  of  either;  and 
furthermore,  do  you  declare  that  you  will  procure,  or  cause  to  be  procured,  if 
within  your  power,  employment  for  all  such  members  of  this  society  as  may 
be  in  want  thereof,  in  preference  to  any  other  person  or  persons?  " 

Article  5.  When  a  member  speaks  he  shall  rise  and  address  the  chair,  and, 
avoiding  desultory  or  irrelevant  remarks,  shall  confine  himself  strictly  to  the 
merits  of  the  question  under  consideration.     He  shall  not 
Rules  of  be  interrupted  while  speaking  unless  by  the  presiding  officer. 

Order.  when  he  shall  think  proper  to  call  him  to  order,  or  admonish 

him  to  a  closer  adherence  to  the  subject.  Nor  shall  a 
member  be  allowed  to  speak  oftener  than  twice  on  the  same  question  with- 
out permission  from  the  chair. 

Article  6.  While  a  member  is  speaking  or  other  business  of  the  society  trans- 
acting, all  the  other  members  shall  preserve  silence.  In  case  of  a  breach  of  this 
rule  by  talking,  whispering  or  other  improper  conduct,  the  chairman  shall  call 
to  order;  and  on  persisting  in,  or  repetition  of  such  disorderly  conduct,  the  chair- 
man shall  call  the  offending  member  to  order  by  name,  and  should  he  further 
offend  he  shall  be  compelled  to  leave  the  room  for  that  evening. 

Article  7.  When  a  question,  resolution  or  motion  is  under  debate  no  other 
motion  shall  be  admitted  by  the  chairman  unless  to  postpone  the  further  con- 
sideration thereof,  to  divide  the  question,  to  amend,  or  to  adjourn;  and  no  amend- 


*  Subsequently  changed  to  7  o'clock. 


NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL  SOCIETY.  47 

ment  shall  be  admitted  that  shall  appear  to  the  chairman  to  destroy  the  spirit 
or  principle  of  the  resolution  or  motion  under  consideration. 

Article  8.  Questions  of  order  shall  be  decided  by  the  chairman;  but  in  case 
of  an  appeal  from  his  decision  of  any  three  members  the  society  shall  determine 
by  vote  without  debate. 

Article  9.  A  motion  to  reconsider  any  former  resolution  or  vote  can  only  be 
made  or  seconded  by  a  member  who  then  voted  in  the  majority. 

Article  10.  In  ordinary  cases  questions  may  be  determined  by  the  simple 
aye  or  no  of  the  metnbers,  or  by  the  members  rising  at  the  option  of  the  pre- 
siding officer. 

Article  11.  If  any  member  shall  neglect  to  pay  up  his  dues  for  three  months 
he  shall  be  debarred  the  right  of  voting  upon  any  question  which  may  come 
before  the  society  or  Board  of  Directors  until  such  arrears 
are  paid;  and  if  such  delinquent  continues  such  neglect  for         Members  in 
six  months  his  name  shall  be  erased  from  the   books  and         Arrears, 
he  be  debarred  all  right  of  membership.     Provided,  however, 
the  above  restriction  shall  not  extend  to  such  as  are  absent  from  the  city  or  out 
of  employment,  nor  to  those  who  are  sick  or  in  distress;  in  all  which  cases  the 
Board  of  Directors  shall  be  considered  as  competent  judges. 

Article  12.  Should  any  member  of  this  society  be  detected  in  undermining  or 
supplanting  a  brother  member,  or  supplying  the  place  of  him 
who  may  be  discharged  by  an  employer  in  consequence  of         Penalty  for 
supporting  the    rules    of    this  society,  by  refusing  to  work         "Ratting." 
for  less  than  the  established  prices,  he  shall  be  expelled  there- 
from and  reported  to  the  different  typographical  societies  in  the  United  States. 

Article  13.  No  member  of  this  society  shall  work  for  less  than  the  wages 
which  may  be  established;  neither  shall  he  engage  or  continue  in  any  office 
where  there  is  a  journeyman  working  for  less  than  the  established  prices. 

Article  14.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  secretary  to  notify  all  members  to  attend 
the  general   meetings   of   this   society,   whether  regular  or 
extra,  and  do  all  such  other  business  relative  to  his  office  Salary  of 

as  is  pointed  out    by    the  constitution,  for  which  services  Secretary. 

he  shall  receive  over  and  above  his   dues   the  sum   of  $9 
per  annum;  and  in  case  of  his  absence  the  person  so  acting  shall  receive  in 
proportion. 

Article  15.  No  person  shall  leave  the  room  while  the  society  are  transacting 
business,  unless  he  obtain  permission  from  the  chairman. 

Article  16.  Should  any  member  of  the  society  conceive  any  of  the  by-laws 
objectionable   and    wish    to    have    the    same   repealed    or 
amended  he  may  apply  to  the  Board  of  Directors  for  that        Amendments, 
purpose,    in    writing,    at  any  of   their  meetings;   and  the 
result  of  their  determination  therein   shall   be  made  known   to   the  society 
at  their  next  monthly  meeting. 

III. 

Geographical  Jurisdiction. 

Jurisdictional  lines  did  not  engage  the  attention  of  the  society  till 
April  21,  18 10,  on  which  occasion  it  established  a  rule  that  the  Inter- 
national Typographical  Union  initiated  some  years  since  of  confining 


48  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER  SIX. 

the  operations  of  its  subordinate  bodies  to  the  localities  in  which 
they  meet.  It  resolved  on  the  date  named  that  "  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  New  York  Typographical  Society  shall  extend  only  to  the  City 
and  County  of  New  York,  except  as  in  cases  hereinafter  specified. 
Any  person  who  now  is  or  hereafter  may  become  a  member  of  this 
society  may  be  employed  in  any  office  without  the  jurisdiction  thereof 
and  shall  be  considered  a  regular  member;  he  conforming  with  the 
general  rules  of  the  society.  Provided,  that  while  he  shall  be  so 
employed .  without  the  jurisdiction  of  the  society  he  shall  not  be 
allowed  to  vote  on  any  question  or  resolution  to  alter  or  regulate 
the  price  of  work  in  this  city." 

IV. 

Upbuilding  Efforts. 

Almost  at  the  beginning  a  vigorous  policy  was  instituted  for  the 
upbuilding  of  the  society  and  the  encouragement  of  its  members. 
As  early  as  July  29,  1809,  the  Board  of  Directors  adopted  measures 
the  fruits  of  which  were  immediately  perceptible,  its  first  work  of 
consequence  being  the  passage  of  a  resolution  "  that  it  is  earnestly 
recommended  that  every  member  of  this  society  exert  himself  in 
augmenting  our  nimiber  by  procuring  the  signatures  of  those  persons 
who  have  not  yet  come  forward,  to  the  end  that  we  may  effect  our 
grand  piurpose  —  the  raising  and  establishing  of  our  prices." 

Complaint  was  made  at  the  same  meeting  by  Mr.  Murray,  a  press- 
man, that  he  and  his  "  partner,  Mr.  Gullen,"  while  working  on  the 
American  Citizen  had  given  the  employer  notice 
First  that  "  the  wages  they  were  paid,"  to  quote  from  the 

Lockout.  minutes,  "  did  not  compensate  them  for  their  labor, 

they  receiving  but  $8.25,  whereas  it  would  amount 
to  $9  by  the  piece,  at  the  customary  wages  paid  in  other  offices; 
which  sum  they  demanded,  and  in  consequence  thereof  they  were 
discharged."  He  also  stated  that  "  their  places  had  been  supplied 
by  a  Mr.  Wells  and  a  Mr.  Stone,  who  were  strangers  in  the  city." 
The  board  at  once  enshrouded  the  two  complainants  with  the  mantle 
of  protection,  appointing  a  committee  of  three  to  "  wait  on  the 
above  gentlemen  and  inform  them  of  the  impropriety  of  retaining  their 
situations  at  less  than  the  ordinary  wages  given  for  the  proportion 
of  labor."  In  due  time  the  committeemen  reported  that  they  had 
"  waited  on  those  gentlemen,  and  after  acquainting  them  with  the 
purport  of  their  visit  were  informed  that  they  would  present  a  written 


NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY. 


49 


answer  to  the  society  at  the  next  meeting."  In  their  communication 
the  writers  repHed  that  the  price  previously  paid  was  $8.25;  but  this 
was  denied  by  Director  Thompson,  who  reasoned  that  "  by  a  calcu- 
lation at  372  cents,  which  was  the  customary  price  per  token 2  for 
super-royal  paper,  it  amounted  to  $9."  The  letter  was  ordered  to  be 
laid  aside,  and  on  August  19th  the  board  directed  the  secretary  "to 
inform  the  pressmen  in  the  office  of  the  Citizen,  by  letter,  that  they 
have  been,  and  are,  working  under  the  established  prices,  and  state 
to  them  what  the  prices  are ;  and  also,  as  they  express  their  willing- 
ness to  act  in  such  manner  as  will  support  the  *  honor  and  dignity 
of  the  trade,'  the  best  manner  in  which  they  could  evince  their 
sincerity  would  be  by  joining  the  society,  whose  object  and  conduct 
those  gentlemen  seemed  to  have  mistaken."  Secretary  Reins 
obeyed  the  injunction  by  addressing  the  following  courteous  com- 
munication on  August  25th  to  Messrs.  Stone  and  Wells,  who  evidently 
did  not  give  the  matter  further  consideration,  as  neither  joined  the 
society: 

Gentlemen: — The  Board  of  Directors  of  the  New  York  Typographical  Society 
by  resolution  passed  on  the  19th  inst.  have  directed  me  to  inform  you  that  the 
customary  price  per  token  for  working  super-royal  paper  is  37^  cents;  and  48 
tokens  (which  is  supposed  to  be  the  number  you  work  per  week)  at  that  price 
will  amount  to  $18.  The  present  society,  however,  have  yet  no  established 
prices  either  for  presswork  or  for  composition,  but  the  price  which  is  here  men- 
tioned is  that  which  was  instituted  by  a  former  association  in  this  city  and  which 
we  believe  is  now  generally  conformed  to. 

The  Board  of  Directors,  however,  passing  over  some  expressions  in  the  first 
part  of  your  letter,  which  are  calculated  to  give  offense  to  some,  are  actuated 
by  motives  of  interest  for  the  profession,  and  have  directed  me  to  inform  you 
that,  having  expressed  your  determination  "  to  use  all  honorable  means  to  increase 
the  wages  both  of  compositors  and  pressmen,  if  necessary,  and  to  support  and 
maintain  the  honor  and  dignity  of  the  trade,"  the  best  manner  in  which  you 
could  evince  your  sincerity  would  be  by  joining  the  society,  whose  objects  and 
conduct  you  seem  to  have  mistaken. 

To  establish  equitable  prices  for  our  labor  is  the  principal  object  for  which 
we  have  recently  associated,  and  which  we  hope  in  a  short  time  to  accomplish. 
The  first  step  toward  this  is  an  increase  of  our  number,  and  we  conceive  it  to  be 
the  duty  and  the  interest  of  every  journeyman  printer  in  this  city  to  come  for- 
ward and  unite  with  us,  feeling  gratified  in  promoting  an  object  which  has  for 
its  end  the  benefit  of  the  whole. 

Should  you,  gentlemen,  conceive  the  above  observations  satisfactory  and  have 
a  desire  to  promote  the  objects  we  have  in  view,  I  would  observe  that  the  Board 
of  Directors  meet  every  Saturday  evening  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Clark  (Harmony 
Hall),  to  whom  application  can  be  made  at  any  of  the  meetings. 


•  Denoting  a  measure  of  quantity  of  paper  used  in  presswork,  commonly  250  sheets. 


50  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER    SIX. 

About  the  same  time  the  aggressiveness  of  the  society  was  mani- 
{ested  in  another  direction.     Its  action  pertained  to  an  exchange 
with  other  printers'  unions  of  lists  of  unfair  journey- 
Exchange  of       men,*   the    Board    of    Directors    on    August    19th 
Unfair  Lists.       instructing  the  secretary  "  to  open  a  correspondence 
with  the  different  typographical   societies  in  the 
United  States  and  request  them  in  cases  where  persons  may  have 
acted  dishonestly  towards  their  societies,  and  might  be  departing  for 
this  city,  that  they  would  transmit  information  thereof  to  us,  the 
favor  of  which  would  be  reciprocated."*    Secretary  Reins  read  to 
the  board  on  September  9th  the  following  letter  that  he  had  prepared, 
and  the  same  being  approved,  was  mailed  on  September  i8th  to 
the  presidents  and  directors  of  organizations  in  other  cities : 

Gentlemen:  —  In  all  classes  of  society  experience  has  proved  that  there  have 
been  men  who,  laying  aside  those  principles  of  honor  and  good  faith  which  ought 
to  govern  their  conduct  towards  their  brethren,  and  for  a  mere  gratification  of 
private  interest,  have  set  aside  the  obligations  they  were  under  by  violating 
the  ordinances  which  they  had  pledged  themselves  to  maintain.     It  is  for  the 


'  In  after  years  a  printer  of  this  class  was  contemptuously  termed  a  "  rat,"  being  defined  as  a 
workman  who  accepted  wages  lower  than  the  established  rate,  or  one  who  refused  to  strike  at 
the  instigation  of  a  trade  union,  or  who  took  the  situation  of  a  striker. 

"  The  first  use  of  the  term  in  the  United  States  in  the  society  records  is  in  the  minutes  of  the  New 
York  society  in  a  letter  from  the  Albany  society,  dated  November  20,  1816." —  George  E.  Barnett, 
"  The  Printers,"  page  23. 

The  Albany  society  had  on  October  3,  1816,  sent  to  the  New  York  society  a  letter  containing 
the  names  of  several  persons  "  who  have  for  months  past  been  working  in  the  office  of  E.  &  E. 
Hosford,  in  this  city,  below  the  prices  established  by  the  society."  Finding  that  it  had  unin- 
tentionally done  an  injustice  to  one  of  these  printers,  the  Albany  association  exculpated  him  and 
did  what  it  could  to  remove  the  stigma  it  had  placed  upon  his  name,  writing  as  follows  to  the  presi- 
dent of  the  society  in  New  York  November  20,  1816:  "  Since  forwarding  the  names  of  irregular 
workmen  employed  in  this  city  to  your  society  we  have  become  more  fully  acquainted  with  the 
causes  which  compelled  Mr.  Stephen  Dorion  to  accept  the  illegitimate  prices  of  composition.  It 
appears  he  was  among  one  of  the  first  of  those  who  refused  to  comply  with  the  views  of  the  employ- 
ers, and  consequently  lost  his  situation.  He  went  to  New  York  in  pursuit  of  work,  but  unfortunate- 
ly could  not  procure  any.  He  returned  again  to  this  city,  and  after  sacrificing  all  his  property, 
amounting  to  about  $100,  besides  contracting  a  heavy  debt  for  the  support  of  his  family,  with 
starvation  staring  him  in  the  face;  without  the  least  hope  or  possibility  of  procuring  any  assistance 
from  our  society,  in  consequence  of  the  depressed  state  of  its  fiscal  concerns,  and  from  the  convic- 
tion that '  rats  '  in  great  abundance  could  be  procured  to  carry  on  the  work  of  destruction,  he  chose 
rather  to  accept  of  the  reduced  wages  than  to  become  the  inhabitant  of  a  gaol  or  a  poorhouse. 
We  hope,  sir,  that  you  will  communicate  these  facts  to  your  society  for  their  deliberate  considera- 
tion, and  if  it  should  be  thought  that  he  has  acted  honorably,  we  hope  he  may  be  again  permitted 
to  participate  in  the  privileges  of  regular  workmen,  and  be  exonerated  from  the  odious  appellation 
of  '  rat.'  "  This  request  was  complied  with  at  a  general  meeting  of  the  Metropolitan  organiza- 
tion on  December  7th,  when,  according  to  the  minutes,  after  the  communication  had  been  read. 
"  a  motion  was  then  made  that  Mr.  Stephen  Dorion  be  exonerated  from  the  appellation  of  '  rat,' 
which  was  passed  unanimously." 

♦  The  course  thus  pursued  by  the  New  York  society  represented  an  entirely  new  idea  in  trade 
unionism.     To  a  limited  extent  the  practice  is  still  in  vogue. 

In  1838  '■  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  protested  against  a  too  strenuous  hounding  of  *  rats,'  and  it  was  one 
of  the  first  acts  of  the  national  organization  [of  printers)  of  1852  to  call  a  halt  on  the  abuse  of  this 
custom  by  local  societies."—  Ethelbert  Stewart,  in  Bulletin  of  the  Bureau  of  Labor,  No.  61,  Novem- 
ber, 1905,  page  890. 


NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY.  5 1 

interest  of  the  profession  that  such  persons  (if  any  there  are)  should  be  dis- 
countenanced, and  to  the  end  that  the  knowledge  of  their  sins  should  follow 
them,  the  directors  of  the  New  York  Typographical  Society  have  directed  me 
to  open  a  correspondence  with  you  by  requesting,  if  compatible  with  the  pro- 
visions of  your  constitution,  that  in  cases  where  members  of  your  society  or 
others  in  the  profession  may  have  acted  dishonorably  towards  it  and  should 
have  started  for  this  city  you  would  be  so  good  as  to  transmit  information  thereof 
to  us,  the  favor  of  which  on  a  like  occasion  will  be  reciprocated. 

The  directors  of  the  New  York  Typographical  Society  sincerely  hope  that  an 
instance  of  this  nature  may  never  have  to  be  recorded.  It  appears  to  them 
the  adoption  of  a  rule  like  the  above  might  be  attended  with  mutual  benefit. 
There  is  nothing  which  acts  more  forcefully  on  the  human  mind  than  shame. 
It  makes  the  coward  bold,  the  miser  generous,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  it  will 
ever  deter  a  journeyman  printer  from  conducting  himself  unworthily  towards 
his  brethren  wherein  a  principle  is  wanting. 

A  response  to  the  foregoing  was  indited  by  President  John  Childs, 
of  the  Philadelphia  society,  under  date  of  October  28th,  and  while 
the  proposition  was  not  sanctioned  by  him  his  association  neverthe- 
less set  the  seal  of  approval  upon  it.  This  answer  was  read  at  a 
special  general  meeting  in  New  York  on  November  ist.  Mr.  Childs 
wrote  that  the  request  of  the  New  York  society  "  expressed  a  prin- 
ciple which  was  not  readily  acceded  to  and  the  consideration  of  it 
was  twice  referred  to  the  opinion  of  a  selected  committee;  a  report 
was  made  this  evening  and  finally  adopted  in  the  following  words: 
*  The  committee  think  proper  to  report  that  they  have  considered 
the  letter  referred  to  them  and  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  principle 
set  forth  therein  is  a  good  one  and  will  have  a  tendency  to  promote 
the  interests  of  the  two  societies.  Therefore,  resolved,  that  whenever 
any  member  of  this  society  shall  act  derogatory  to  the  principles  of 
this  institution  and  shall  leave  this  city  for  New  York  information 
shall  immediately  be  forwarded  to  the  New  York  Typographical 
Society.'  As  I  am  decidedly  opposed  to  the  principle  it  cannot  be 
expected  that  I  should  dilate  upon  it.  I  beg  leave,  however,  to 
assure  you  that  the  will  of  the  majority  is  my  guide  and  I  shall 
consider  it  my  duty  to  act  in  strict  conformity  to  the  resolution." 

V. 

Struggles  for  Increased  Wages. 

In  less  than  two  months  after  the  formation  of  the  society  the 
wage  question  came  to  the  fore  and  caused  considerable  debate. 
From  the  minutes  of  the  Board  of  Directors  it  is  gleaned  that  on 
August  26, 1809,  "  Mr.  Thompson,  seconded  by  Mr.  Hyer,  moved  that 


52  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

a  committee  of  seven  should  be  appointed  to  draw  up  a  list  of  prices. 
The  vice-president  opposed  the  motion  on  the  ground,  he  said,  that 
the  committee  of  inquiry  should  be  previously  instructed  in  order 
to  ascertain  what  were  the  prices  now  given  at  each  office.  Mr. 
Thompson,  Mr.  Hyer  and  Mr.  O'Neill  warmly  advocated  the  motion; 
contending  that  almost  every  member  of  the  board  and  the  society 
was  already  in  possession  of  as  much  information  on  that  point  as 
could  be  obtained  by  the  committee.  The  time  was  at  hand  when 
the  business  would  be  at  its  height,  and  now  was  the  proper  time  to 
prepare  ourselves,  in  order  that  we  might  strike,  as  Mr.  O'Neill 
observed,  *  before  our  irons  got  cool.'  The  question  was  taken  and 
carried  in  the  affirmative  and  Messrs.  Gird,  Thompson,  O'Neill, 
Innet,  Sherman,  Hyer  and  Fanshaw  were  nominated  and  unani- 
mously chosen." 

A  scale  of  prices  was  prepared  by  the  committee  and  submitted 
on  September  i6th.  It  regulated  rates  for  composition  and  press- 
work.  The  report  was  twice  read  and  after  a  few  amendments 
had  been  made  all  articles  but  one  were  adopted.  On  September 
2oth  the  schedule  was  completed,  and  on  the  27th  instant  a  com- 
mittee was  appointed  to  draft  a  communication  to  accompany  it. 
The  directors  convened  on  September  30th,  when  the  following 
circular,  addressed  "  to  the  master  printers  of  the  City  of  New  York," 
was  presented  and  unanimously  approved: 

Gentlemen: — Between  employers  and  the  employed  there  are  mutual 
interests  dependent;  mutual  duties  to  be  performed.  To  the  end  that  these 
may  result  in  harmony  certain  rules  and  regulations  should  be  adopted. 

Therefore,  we,  the  journeymen  printers  of  the  City  of  New  York,  have  duly 
and  deliberately  taken  into  consideration  the  present  irregular  state  of  the 
prices  in  many  of  the  printing  offices,  and  conceiving  that  they  are  inadequate 
to  a  comfortable  subsistence  have  united  ourselves  into  an  association  for  the 
purpose  of  regulating  and  establishing  the  same.  The  annexed  list,  formed 
with  a  due  deference  to  justice  and  equability,  is  presented  with  a  view  that  it 
may  meet  your  approbation. 

Minor  changes  were  again  made  in  the  new  bill  of  prices  on  October 
7  th,  and  finally  on  the  fourteenth  of  that  month  it  was  adopted  as  a 
whole  and  forwarded  to  the  employers. 

Meeting  on  October  21st  the  directors  again  discussed  the  scale, 
and  resolved  "  that  the  secretary  be  authorized  to  transmit  a  copy 
of  the  list  of  prices  to  each  of  the  typographical  societies  in  the 
United  States  and  inform  them  of  our  intention  of  standing  out  for 
the  wages  mentioned  therein,  in  order  that  their  members  might  not 
be  deceived  by  advertisements  for  journeymen."     This  action  was 


NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY.  53 

put  into  effect  on  October  23d,  on  which  date  Secretary  Reins  sent 
the  following  to  unions  in  other  places: 

Gentlemen:  —  Inclosed  is  a  list  of  prices  of  the  New  York  Typographical 
Society,  by  which  they  intend  to  be  governed  after  the  29th  inst.  As  some 
of  the  employers  may  be  unwilling  to  conform  to  the  regulations  of  the  society, 
in  hopes  of  procuring  journeymen  from  other  parts,  I  am  directed  to  make 
this  communication  to  you,  in  order  that  the  members  of  your  society  might  not 
be  deceived  by  advertisements  for  journeymen  in  this  city. 

That  this  effort  to  raise  wages  was  pleasing  to  other  societies  is 
indicated  in  the  reply  to  the  foregoing  from  President  Childs  of  the 
Typographical  Society  of  Philadelphia,  whose  letter  of  October  28th 
also  mirrored  the  conditions  that  then  existed  in  the  printing  trade 
in  New  York.     He  wrote  thus: 

Your  letter  of  the  23d  inst.  has  given  inexpressible  pleasure  to  the  members 
of  the  board  and  of  the  society  in  general.  The  energetic  measures  you  have 
taken  and  had  been  so  long  wanting  in  the  respectable  City  of  New  York  that 
the  friends  of  equal  rights  reflect  with  disgust  upon  the  humiliating  conditions 
in  which  our  brethren  suffered  themselves  to  remain  there;  and  the  flattering 
hope  now  held  forth  that  they  have  broken  their  manacles  with  a  determination 
that  they  shall  never  be  riveted  again  will  be  fostered  and  cherished  —  nay, 
assisted,  as  far  as  constitutionally  may  lay  in  our  power.  But  the  old  adage 
will  here  apply  and  should  be  attentively  considered:  "  He  that  will  not  help 
himself  shall  have  help  from  nobody." 

Persevere,  then,  in  your  laudable  struggle,  and  remember  that  no  great  end 
was  ever  yet  attained  without  danger  and  difficulty. 

Upon  receipt  of  the  notification  from  the  joume5niien's  society  the 
master  printers  convened  on  October  2Sth  to  consider  the  claims  of 
the   workmen.     The   meeting   adopted    a    counter 
proposal,  and  appointed  a  committee  consisting  of  Master  Printers' 
J.  Swords,  J.  Crooks  and  G.  Bruce  to  submit  it  to  Counter 
the  union.     On  the  following  day  the  employers'  Proposal. 
representatives  sent  their  scale  to  the  men's  organi- 
zation, prefacing  it  with  the  statement  that  "  the  master  printers  of 
the  City  of  New  York,  having  convened  on  the  25th  inst.,  by  public 
notice,  to  deliberate  upon  certain  propositions,  which  have  been  made 
to  them  by  the  joumejrmen  for  an  increase  of  wages,  unanimously 
(except  in  two  or  three  trifling  instances)  adopted  the  subsequent 
resolutions.     In  presenting  them  to  the  consideration  of  the  Typo- 
graphical Society  they  think  it  proper  to  remark  that,  although  no 
circumstances  have  come  to  their  knowledge  which  would  justify 
on  the  part  of  the  journeymen  a  demand  for  more  than  the  customary 
wages,  yet,  desirous  of  meeting  them  in  the  spirit  of  conciliation  and 


54  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

harmony,  and  to  remove  every  obstacle  that  might  have  a  tendency 
to  interrupt  a  mutual  good  understanding,  the  master  printers  have 
mg,de  considerable  advances  on  the  prices  hitherto  given,  and  to  as 
great  an  extent  as  the  present  state  of  the  printing  business  would 
admit.  The  scale  which  is  now  offered  may,  therefore,  be  considered 
as  a  maximum,  beyond  which  it  would  be  highly  injurious,  if  not 
ruinous,  to  the  interests  of  the  trade  to  venture." 

Following  is  the  complete  scale  that  was  formulated  by  the 
employers : 

Composition. 

Article  i.  That  works  done  in  common  matter,  on  brevier  or  larger  type, 
be  paid  for  by  ems  at  24  cents,  on  nonpareil  27  cents,  on  pearl  29  cents  per  1,000 
(except  such  as  hereafter  provided  for),  and  those  done  in  common  matter  on 
type  larger  than  English  be  counted  as  English. 

Article  2.  That  side,  bottom,  or  cut-in  notes,  be  each  of  them,  whether  occur- 
ring together  or  separately,  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  25  cents  per  sheet,  and  should 
they  exceed  what  is  considered  as  moderate,  the  price  shall  be  struck  by  the 
journeymen  of  the  office  and  the  employer.  No  charge,  however,  to  be  made 
for  bottom  or  cut-in  notes,  unless  they,  in  the  course  of  the  volume,  exceed  in 
folio  or  quarto  one  page,  octavo  or  duodecimo  one  and  one-half  pages,  and  in 
eighteens  or  smaller  works  two  pages. 

Article  3.  That  works  done  in  a  different  language  from  the  English  (though 
common  type)  be  paid  30  cents  for  minion  and  larger  type,  and  33  cents  for 
smaller  type. 

Article  4.  If  a  quantity  of  Hebrew,  Greek,  or  other  dead  characters,  should 
be  intermixed  in  a  work,  so  as  to  be  troublesome  to  the  compositor,  there  shall 
be  an  additional  charge  according  to  the  trouble.  Works  done  in  Hebrew  shall 
be  paid  double,  and  in  Greek  shall  be  charged  12  J  cents  per  1,000  higher  than 
common  matter;  but  if  with  separate  accents  iSf  cents.  The  asper  not  to  be 
considered  an  accent. 

Article  5.  That  making  up  a  set  of  furniture  for  a  work  of  five  sheets  or  under, 
if  an  octavo,  be  paid  25  cents.  All  other  impositions  to  be  paid  3  cents  extra, 
progressively,  in  proportion  to  the  size. 

Article  6.  That  works  done  partly  in  figures  and  partly  plain,  such  as  arith- 
metical works,  etc.,  be  paid  in  proportion  to  the  trouble;  and  that  rule  and  figure 
work  be  paid  double. 

Article  7.  That  broadsides,  such  as  leases,  deeds,  etc.,  done  on  English  or 
smaller  type,  be  paid  30  cents  per  1,000  ems.  Play-bills,  posting  bills,  etc.,  to 
be  paid  for  as  may  be  agreed  upon  between  the  journeymen  and  employer. 

Article  8.  That  head  and  direction  lines  (the  blank  after  the  running  title 
included)  be  calculated  in  the  text;  and  that  where  there  shall  be  a  blank  at 
the  foot  of  the  page,  the  same  shall  be  calculated  in  the  text. 

Article  9.  Scabbard  works  (when  the  scabbards  are  not  thinner  than  four 
to  an  em  of  the  text)  shall  be  charged  2  cents  less  than  the  solid  matter.  No 
more  than  one  em  shall  be  charged  for  blanks  at  the  beginning  and  end  of  lines. 

Article  10.  That  algebraical  works,  or  those  where  characters  of  music  are 
the  principal  part,  and  works  containing  physical,  astronomical,  or  other  signs, 
be  paid  for  at  a  medium  to  be  agreed  upon  by  the  journeymen  and  the  employer. 


NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL  SOCIETY.  55 

Article  1 1.  That  time  lost  by  alteration  from  copy  or  by  casing  or  distributing 
letter,  be  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  125  cents  per  hour. 

Article  12.  Journeymen  employed  on  a  daily  paper  by  the  piece  shall  receive 
25  cents  per  1,000  ems. 

Article  13.  Journeymen  employed  in  book  offices,  or  on  evening  daily  papers, 
shall  receive  $7  for  their  weekly  services,  and  those  on  morning  daily  papers  $8. 
Eleven  hours  to  be  considered  a  day  in  a  book  or  evening  paper  office. 

Presswork. 

Article  i.  That  bookwork  on  brevier  or  larger  type,  on  medium  or  smaller 
paper,  be  paid  29  cents  per  token;  on  smaller  type  31!  cents.  Royal  paper, 
on  brevier  or  larger  type,  31 J  cents  per  token;  on  smaller  type  34  cents.  Super- 
royal  paper,  on  brevier  or  larger  type,  34  cents  per  token;  on  smaller  type  37^ 
cents. 

Article  2.  That  jobs,  folios,  quartos,  etc.,  be  paid  30  cents  per  token. 

Article  3.  That  cards,  if  50  or  under,  be  paid  18  cents;  any  additional  pack 
or  packs,  at  10  cents  per  pack. 

Article  4.  That  broadsides  on  foolscap  be  paid  30  cents  per  token;  on  medium 
33  cents;  on  larger  paper  40  cents. 

Article  5.  That  3  cents  per  token  be  paid  on  works  containing  wood  engravings. 

Article  6.  That  26  cents  be  paid  for  putting  a  parchment  or  linen  tympan 
on  a  press  at  which  the  person  who  put  it  on  is  not  employed;  but  nothing  shall 
be  charged  when  it  is  done  by  a  pressman  who  works  at  the  press. 

Article  7.  If  at  any  time  it  shall  be  requisite  to  take  down  a  press,  or  any 
part  thereof,  an  allowance  of  12  J  cents  per  hour  shall  be  made  to  each  pressman 
employed  at  it,  during  the  time  they  shall  be  prevented  from  proceeding  in 
their  regular  work. 

Article  8.  If  a  pressman  be  obliged  to  lift  his  form  before  it  is  finished  he  shall 
be  allowed  12^  cents  for  the  same. 

Article  9.  That  no  journeyman  working  at  press  on  a  morning  daily  paper 
shall  receive  a  less  sum  than  $8  for  his  weekly  services;  nor  those  on  an  evening 
paper  a  less  sum  than  $7.  If  the  quantity  of  work  should  exceed  eight  tokens 
per  day,  to  be  charged  if  a  morning  paper  at  34  cents,  if  an  evening  paper  at 
31  i  cents  per  token. 

The  Typographical  Society  met  in  general  session  on  October  28th 
and  received  a  report  from  the  Scale  Committee,  the  members  of 
which  informed  the  association  "  that  they  had  delivered  a  printed 
list  of  the  prices  to  each  master  printer,  agreeable  to  instructions; 
that  the  master  printers  themselves  made  a  list  of  prices,  which  they 
presented  for  the  consideration  of  the  society,  and  that  they  had  re- 
ceived a  note  directed  to  the  committee  of  journeymen  printers  in 
which  they  requested  that  a  committee  of  the  society  might  be 
appointed  to  confer  with  their  committee  in  order,  if  possible,  to 
effect  an  accommodation."  The  reading  of  the  communication 
from  the  master  printers  elicited  an  observation  by  one  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  society,  as  described  in  the  minutes,  "  that  though  he 


S6  NEW  YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER  SIX. 

disliked  the  stile  of  the  note,  which  savored  much  of  despotism,  yet 
he  thought  it  consistent  that  we  should  comply  with  their  request; 
he  therefore  moved  that  a  committee  of  three  from  our  body  be 
appointed  to  confer  with  the  committee  of  master  printers."  This 
was  carried.  Then  it  was  "  moved  that  the  list  of  prices  be  read  by 
articles  and  the  voice  of  the  meeting  taken  on  each,  in  order  that  the 
committee  might  be  instructed  wherein  to  adhere  to  the  list,  and  in 
what  article  they  would  be  willing  to  relax;  which,  after  some 
opposition,  being  carried,  the  list  was  read  and  considered  by  articles. 
The  committee  were  then  instructed  to  adhere  strictly  to  the  original 
list,  excepting  the  third  article  of  composition  and  the  fifth,  eighth 
and  tenth  of  presswork,  which  articles  the  society  were  of  the  opinion 
might  be  modified." 

A  special  meeting  was  held  by  the  society  on  October  30th.  The 
committeemen,  through  Mr.  Gleason,  their  chairman,  "  reported 
that  they  had  waited  on  the  committee  of  master  printers,"  says 
the  minutes,  "  who  met  them  with  a  frankness  which  was  highly 
creditable  to  themselves  and  pleasing  to  the  committee.  They  had 
made  many  concessions,  and  the  committee,  desirous  of  putting  a 
speedy  termination  to  our  differences,  has  also  consented  to  advocate 
some  trifling  concessions  on  our  part  of  points  which  they  conceived  to 
be  in  some  measure  unjust  and  which,  in  the  present  state  of  our  affairs, 
were  not  worth  contending  for.  Some  points,  however,  insisted  on 
by  them,  in  the  opinion  of  the  committee,  were  not  proper  to  be 
conceded,  and  hope  that  the  meeting  will  be  of  the  same  opinion; 
but  respectfully  submitted  the  whole  to  the  consideration  of  the 
meeting.  Mr.  Gleason  then  proceeded  to  read  the  articles  of  the 
list  and  explain  the  objections  of  the  master  printers  and  likewise 
their  concessions  in  a  stile  and  manner  which  did  him  much  honor. 
After  some  observations  from  Mr.  Eaton  respecting  the  infancy  of 
our  society,  our  want  of  funds,  and  the  inability  of  some  of  the  mem- 
bers to  stand  out  a  great  length  of  time,  he  moved  that  the  meeting 
adopt  the  whole  list  of  prices  so  far  as  the  two  committees  had  agreed. 
This  motion  was  strenuously  opposed;  not  being  seconded,  another 
motion  was  made  to  have  it  considered  by  articles,  which  was  carried. 
It  would  be  impossible  to  follow  the  members  in  their  arguments 
in  the  course  of  the  debate  that  ensued,  in  which  was  displayed  a 
spirit  worthy  of  the  cause  in  which  we  are  engaged,  and  an  eloquence 
that  would  have  graced  a  senate  house.  It  is  only  necessary  to 
observe  that  in  many  points  they  were  willing  to  conform  to  the 
propositions  of  the  master  printers;  but  in  the  principal  items  set 
forth  in  our  original  list  they  determined  to  adhere  to  at  all  hazards. 


NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL  SOCIETY,  1809-1818.  57 

It  was  also  moved  that  the  list  of  prices  as  settled  this  evening  be 
returned  to  the  committee,  by  them  to  be  again  presented  to  the 
committee  of  master  printers  for  their  deliberation,  and  that  this 
be  considered  the  ultimatum  of  our  deliberations  on  the  subject." 

Further  conferences  with  the  employers  resulted  in  a  satisfactory 
adjustment  of  the  points  at  issue,  although  some  members  of  the 
society  had  "  turned  out  "  to  enforce  the  scale  and 
received  strike  pay  during  the  term  of  their  idleness         ,  ^ 
for  sustaining  the  principles  of  the  union,  while  a       j^  porce. 
few  others  were  disciplined  for  working  for  less  than 
the  prescribed  rates.     The  wage  schedule  as  finally  established  by 
the  association  and  accepted  by  the  master  printers  in  1809  consisted 
of  piece  rates  and  a  minimum  for  time  work,  whereas  the  employers' 
tentative  scale  provided  that  the  compensation  named  by  them  for 
work  performed  by  the  week  should  be  the  maximum,  albeit  their 
figure  was  $1  less  than  that  advocated  by  the  journeymen.     Addi- 
tional prices  were  specified  for  different  kinds  of  extra  work,  although 
in  a  few  exceptional  instances  the  question  of  payment  for  extras 
was  left  to  the  judgment  of  the  journeymen  and  the  employer  for 
settlement. 

This  interesting  first  wage  scale  of  the  society  follows  in  complete 
form: 

Composition. 

Works  done  in  common  matter,  on  minion  or  larger  type,  25  cents;  nonpareil, 
27  cents;  pearl.  30  cents  per  i ,000  ems.     Above  English  to  be  counted  as  English. 

Side,  bottom,  or  cut-in  notes,  be  each  of  them,  whether  occurring  together  or 
separately,  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  25  cents  per  sheet;  and  should  they  exceed 
what  is  considered  as  moderate,  the  price  shall  be  struck  by  the  journeymen  of 
the  office  and  the  employer.  No  charge,  however,  to  be  made  for  bottom  or 
cut-in  notes,  unless,  in  the  course  of  the  volume,  they  exceed  in  folio  or  quarto 
one  page,  octavo  or  duodecimo  one  and  an  half  page,  and  in  eighteen  or  smaller 
works  two  pages. 

Works  done  in  a  different  language  from  the  English  (though  common  type) 
be  paid  31  cents  for  minion  and  larger  type,  and  34  cents  for  smaller  type. 

If  a  quantity  of  Hebrew,  Greek,  or  other  dead  characters  should  be  intermixed, 
so  as  to  be  troublesome  to  the  compositor,  there  shall  be  an  additional  charge 
according  to  the  trouble.  Works  done  in  Hebrew,  without  points,  shall  be  paid 
double;  and  in  Greek,  without  separate  accents,  shall  be  paid  15  cents  per  1,000 
higher  than  common  matter.     The  asper  not  to  be  considered  an  accent. 

That  making  up  a  set  of  furniture,  for  a  work  of  five  sheets  or  under  if  an 
octavo,  be  paid  25  cents.  All  other  impositions  to  be  paid  3  cents  extra,  pro- 
gressively in  proportion  to  the  size. 

Works  done  partly  in  figures  and  partly  plain,  such  as  arithmetical  works, 
etc.,  to  be  paid  in  proportion  to  the  trouble.  Rule  and  figure  work  to  be  paid 
double. 


58  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

Broadsides,  such  as  leases,  deeds,  etc.,  done  on  English,  or  smaller  type,  be 
paid  30  cents  per  1,000  ems.  Play-bills,  posting  bills,  etc.,  to  be  paid  for  as 
may  be  agreed  upon  between  the  journeyman  and  employer. 

Head  and  direction  lines  (the  blank  after  the  running  title  included),  be  cal- 
culated in  the  text;  and  where  there  shall  be  a  blank  line  at  the  foot  of  the  page 
the  same  shall  also  be  calculated  in  the  text. 

Algebraical  works,  or  those  where  characters  of  music  are  the  principal  part, 
and  works  containing  physical,  astronomical  or  other  signs,  be  paid  for  as  may 
be  agreed  upon  by  the  journeymen  and  the  employer. 

Time  lost  by  alteration  from  copy,  or  by  casing  or  distributing  letter,  be  paid 
for  at  the  rate  of  1 5  cents  per  hour. 

On  a  daily  paper,  by  the  piece,  to  receive  not  less  than  30  cents  per  i  ,000  ems. 

In  book  or  evening  daily  paper  offices,  to  receive  not  less  than  $8  per  week. 
On  morning  daily  papers  $9. 

Presswork. 

Bookwork,  done  on  minion  or  larger  type,  on  medium  or  smaller  paper,  30 
cents  per  token;  on  smaller  type,  33  cents.  Royal  paper,  on  minion  or  larger 
type,  33  cents  per  token;  on  smaller  type,  36  cents.  Super- royal  paper,  on  minion 
or  larger  type,  36  cents  per  token;  on  smaller  type,  39  cents. 

Jobs,  folio,  quarto,  etc.,  be  paid  30  cents  per  token. 

Cards,  if  100  or  under,  be  paid  30  cents;  each  additional  pack,  I2§  cents. 

Broadsides  to  be  paid  for  at  a  rate  to  be  fixed  upon  by  the  employer  and 
journeyman. 

Three  cents  per  token  extra  to  be  paid  on  forms  containing  wood  engravings. 

If  at  any  time  it  shall  be  requisite  to  take  down  a  press,  or  any  part  thereof, 
an  allowance  of  1 5  cents  per  hour  shall  be  made  to  the  pressmen  during  the  time 
they  shall  be  prevented  from  proceeding  in  their  regular  work. 

If  pressmen  be  obliged  to  lift  their  form  before  it  is  finished  they  shall  be  allowed 
30  cents  for  the  same. 

No  journeyman  working  at  press  on  a  morning  daily  paper  shall  receive  a 
less  sum  than  $9  for  his  weekly  services;  nor  those  on  an  evening  paper  a  less 
sum  than  $8.  If  the  quantity  of  work  should  exceed  eight  tokens  per  day,  to 
be  charged,  if  a  morning  paper,  at  the  rate  of  372  cents  per  token;  if  an  evening 
paper,  335  cents  per  token. 

Presently,  however,  the  joumejrmen's  organization  had  niisgi\-ings 

that    some  employers    were  about  to  violate  their  agreement  to 

pay  the  scale.     In  truth,  it  was  the  judgment  of 

Surmounting     the  society  that  these  master  printers  had  accepted 

Difficulties.       the  terms  of  the  union  merely  to  gain  time    to 

recruit  a  sufficient  force  of  workmen  outside  the 

city  to  take  the  places  of  members  when  an  opportune  moment 

arrived.     These  proprietors,  in  fact,  had  begun  to  advertise  in  other 

localities  for  compositors  and  pressmen,  offering  permanent  positions 

at  good  wages.     The  situation  became  so  serious  that  Secretary 

Reins,  mainly  to  nullify  the  effect  of  an  unfounded  rumor  that  had 

gone  abroad  that  the  New  York  society  had  collapsed,  issued  the 


NEW  YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL  SOCIETY.  59 

following  warning  on  November  13,  1809,  to  societies  in  various  parts 
of  the  country : 

The  Board  of  Directors,  concerned  for  the  honor  of  the  members  of  this  asso- 
ciation, and  in  order  to  counteract  the  evil  tendency  of  a  report  that  this  society 
has  dissolved  and  the  members  returned  to  their  situations  at  the  original  prices 
(which  we  are  told  by  persons  arrived  from  Philadelphia  have  been  circulated 
there),  have  directed  me  to  inform  you  that  they  continue  to  persevere  in  the  way 
they  have  begun.  Most  of  the  master  printers  have  consented  to  give  the  prices, 
yet  we  have  reason  to  believe  that  they  only  wait  a  favorable  opportunity  to 
destroy  the  society.  Circular  letters  have  been  sent  throughout  this  State, 
Connecticut  and  Massachusetts,  with  a  view  to  supplying  the  daily  papers  with 
hands  in  the  first  instance  and  afterwards  the  book  offices.  But  we  are  rejoiced 
to  say  that  as  yet  they  have  been  defeated  in  their  dishonorable  designs.  Several 
journeymen  who  arrived  last  week  took  the  situations  of  those  who  had  been 
discharged  from  one  of  the  daily  paper  offices;  but  upon  coming  to  a  knowledge 
of  their  situation  immediately  came  forward  and  joined  the  society. 

We  know  of  no  falling  off  yet,  and  believing  that  the  society  will  eventually 
succeed  in  their  laudable  struggle,  would  thank  you  to  correct  any  wrong  informa- 
tion which  may  have  been  received  on  the  subject. 

Response  to  the  foregoing  was  promptly  made  by  the  Philadelphia 
society,  and  at  the  meeting  of  the  New  York  directors  on  December 
16,  1809,  the  communication  from  the  former  was  read,  acknowledg- 
ing that  "  a  member  of  that  body  and  lately  from  New  York  was  the 
author  of  the  report."  The  directors  thereupon  resolved  that  the 
offender  "  be  debarred  from  ever  becoming  a  member  of  the  society." 

But  the  society  succeeded  in  maintaining  its  standard  of  wages, 
although  it  became  apprehensive  at  times  that  employers  would 
endeavor   to  defeat  its  efforts  to  uphold   prices. 
The  Board  of  Directors  on  May  26,  1810,  with  a     Scale  of 
view  to  frustrating  such  designs,   instructed   the     Prices 
secretary   "  to  inform  the  different  typographical     Maintained, 
societies  in  the  United  States  that  this  board  have 
reason  to  believe  that  it  is  the  object  of  the  master  printers  in  this 
city,  by  advertising  for  a  great  number  of  workmen,  to  fill  the  city 
with  hands  and  thereby  be  enabled  to  reduce  the  prices  of  work  in 
this  city  to  their  former  standard;  and  also  that  it  be  the  duty  of 
every  member  of  the  society  who  is  acquainted  with  journeymen 
out  of  the  city  to  give  the  same  information  by  letter." 

Pressmen  evidently  were  not  entirely  satisfied  with  the  part  of  the 
scale  that  affected  their  work,  for  it  is  learned  from  the  minutes  of 
the  general  meeting  of  September  i,  18 10,  that  an  attempt  was  made 
to  induce  the  society  to  legislate  further  in  the  interest  of  these 
workers.  Mr.  Seymour  offered  a  resolution  "  that  a  committee 
consisting  of  three  pressmen  and  two  compositors  be  appointed  to 
inquire  into  the  necessity  of  adopting  any  further  resolutions  respect- 


6o  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

ing  the  prices  of  presswork,  and  they  be  instructed  to  report  to  the 
board  at  their  next  meeting."  It  was  either  beHeved  by  the  majority 
of  the  association  that  the  pressmen  were  reasonably  compensated 
for  their  labor,  or  that  it  was  an  inauspicious  time  to  make  another 
move  in  the  matter  of  a  wage  increase,  for  the  motion  was  promptly 
defeated  and  the  subject  of  changing  the  scale  was  not  again  broached 
for  a  period  of  five  years. 

Meanwhile  the  society  was  constantly  on  the  alert  to  prevent 
reductions.  Infomiation  was  laid  before  the  Board  of  Directors  on 
June  IS,  1811,  "  that  some  of  the  master  printers  in  this  city  had 
refused  to  give  the  established  prices  and  that  in  consequence  thereof 
some  of  the  members  of  this  society  now  were,  or  shortly  would  be, 
out  of  employ."  To  meet  this  contingency  it  was  "  resolved  that 
it  be  recommended  to  the  general  society  to  levy  a  tax  of  $1  on  each 
member  who  now  holds  a  situation,  the  money,  in  case  of  a  turn-out 
for  wages,  to  be  appropriated  towards  increasing  the  funds,  after- 
wards to  be  returned  to  those  who  may  pay  it." 

The  expected  difficulty  did  not  arise  until  more  than  two  years 
afterward,  and  it  was  confined  to  one  large  office.  Some  details  of 
the  dispute  are  found  in  a  letter  addressed  by 
A  Minor  Secretary  John  Broderick  to  the  Philadelphia  society, 
Lockout.  on  November  4,  18 13,  showing  that  members  had 
been  locked  out  because  of  their  constancy  to  the 
principles  of  the  association  and  the  preservation  of  prevalent  rates. 
"  By  an  order  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  New  York  Typographi- 
cal Society,"  wrote  the  secretary,  "  I  am  directed  to  inform  you  that 
a  number  of  its  members  have  been  discharged  from  the  office  of 
Mr.  Collins  of  New  York  for  refusing  to  work  for  less  than  the  estab- 
lished wages  of  our  city,  not  for  any  exorbitant  demand;  in  conse- 
quence of  which  Mr.  Collins  has  advertised  for  several  compositors 
and  pressmen.  I  would  therefore  request  you  to  make  this  circum- 
stance known  among  your  respectable  body,  to  prevent  any  of  your 
members  being  duped  by  his  flattering  advertisement." 

The  storm  of  war,  which  had  been  brewing  over  the  country  for 
a  long  time,  burst  into  fury  in  June,  18 12.  This  conflict  "  between 
the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
Effect  of  and  the  dependencies  thereof,  and  the  United  States 
1812  War.  of  America  and  their  territories,"^  particularly 
affected  the  Typographical  Society.  For  months 
previous  to  the  opening  of  hostilities  there  had  been  intense  excite- 
ment in  New  York  City.     Lack  of  a  quorum  prevented  a  meeting 


*  From  Act  of  Congress  declaring  war,  June  i8,  1812. 


NEW  YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL  SOCIETY.  6 1 

of  the  association  on  September  7,1811.    It  was  the  first  time  that  this 
had  occurred  since  the  formation  of  the  association,  but  it  happened 
frequently  thereafter.     In  fact,  the  printing  trade  in  the  MetropoHs 
reached  so  low  an  ebb  in  18 12  that  two-thirds  of  the  members  of 
the  society  departed  from  the  city,  leaving  a  number  insufficient  to 
constitutionally  transact  business.     Those  who  remained  rendered 
important  services  to  the  Federal  Government  during  the  progress 
of  the  war,  at  the  commencement  of  which  David  H.  Reins,  who 
was  then  president  of  the  association,  organized  an  artillery  company 
composed  exclusively  of  printers  for  the  defense  of  New  York  harbor. 
Sailing  under  a  flag  of  truce  the  British  sloop  of  war  Favorite 
entered  New  York  Bay  on  Saturday  evening,  February  11,  18 15, 
bearing  a  treaty  of  peace  that  ended  the  war  of  1 8 1 2 . 
Restoration  of  pacific  relations  between  the  United      Prosperity 
States  and   Great   Britain,   though   coming   unex-      Accompanies 
pectedly,  was  universally  welcomed.     "  Its  effect      Peace. 
upon  the  different  classes  of  the  community  was 
very  great  and  very  various.     On  some  it  brought  speedy  ruin,  while 
it  raised  others  from  gloomy  forebodings  to  wealth  and  importance."  ® 
During  18 14  foreign  commodities  were  scarce  and  dear,  while  staples 
and  the  principal  farm  products  had  been  reduced  in  price  to  a  low 
point.     Domestic  manufactures  had,  however,  flourished  and  large 
amounts  of  capital  had  been  invested  in  them.     With  the  close  of 
the  conflict  commerce  sprang  into  activity,  prices  of  all  kinds  of 
articles  rose,   land  values  advanced,   and  the  demand  for  labor 
increased.     Yet  the  Typographical  Society  did  not  exercise  undue 
haste  in  seeking  to  profit  by  this  suddenly  improved  condition.     It 
had  appointed  a  committee  to  revise  the  list  of  prices,  and  on  June  3, 
181 5,  in  general  meeting  it  approved  a  resolution  reported  by  the 
committee  "  that  it  is  inexpedient  at  this  time  to  attempt  any 
revision  of  the  present  list  of  prices."     With  the  approach  of  the 
busy  autumnal  season  of  that  year  the  society  began  to  debate  the 
question  of  an  amended  scale,  and  on  October  7th,  having  adopted 
new  prices,  the  same  were  ordered  "  printed  at  the  expense  of  the 
society,  and  that  every  member  pay  6j  cents  each 
for  them."     Compositors'  piece  rates  were  raised       New  Scale 
2  cents  per  1,000    ems  and    time   workers'  wages       of  Prices 
were  advanced  $1  weekly  —  to  $9  in  book  offices       ^^  ^^*5- 
and  on  evening  papers  and  $10  on  morning  papers. 
Prices  for  extras  were  also  augmented,  and  the   system    of    type 
measurement  for  piecework  v/as  made  more  equitable  by  an  added 


•J.  A.  Spencer,  D.D.,  "  History  of  the  United  States,"  V  !.  Ill,  page  293- 


62  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

regulation  —  "an  odd  en  in  width  or  length  to  be  reckoned  an  em; 
if  less  than  an  en,  not  to  be  counted."'  Increases  in  piece  prices 
on  bookwork  for  pressmen  ranged  from  2  to  3  cents  per  token, 
while  on  newspapers  the  rates  were  from  63-  to  7I  cents  per  token 
higher  than  they  were  in  the  scale  that  was  put  into  effect  in  1809. 
Week  workers'  pay  went  up  to  $10  on  morning  newspapers  and  $9 
on  evening  journals  —  being  an  increase  of  Si.  To  insure  the 
proper  instruction  of  apprentices  in  the  art  the  scale  introduced  an 
innovation  by  requiring  that  pressmen  be  paid  a  prescribed  amount 
for  teaching  the  trade  to  a  beginner  during  the  first  six  months  of 
his  apprenticeship.  Most  of  the  employers  conceded  the  demands. 
So  many  new  features  were  contained  in  the  scale  of  181 5  that  its 
full  text  is  here  reprinted: 

Composition. 

1.  All  works  in  the  English  language, common  matter, from  English  to  minion, 
inclusive,  27  cents  per  i  ,000;  in  nonpareil,  29  cents;  in  pearl,  372-  cents;  in  diamond, 
50  cents;  in  all  cases  headlines  and  directions,  or  signatures  and  blank  lines  to 
be  included.  An  odd  en  in  width  or  length,  to  be  reckoned  an  em;  if  less  than 
an  en,  not  to  be  counted. 

2.  All  works  done  in  foreign  languages,  common  matter,  to  be  paid  4  cents 
extra  per  i  ,000  ems. 

3.  Works  printed  in  great  primer,  or  larger  type,  to  be  computed  as  EngUsh. 
Script,  30  cents  per  1,000. 

4.  All  workmen  employed  by  the  week  shall  receive  not  less  than  $9  in  book 
offices  and  on  evening  papers,  and  on  morning  papers  not  less  than  $10. 

5.  Works  done  in  the  EngUsh  language,  in  which  words  of  Greek,  Hebrew, 
Saxon,  etc.,  or  any  of  the  dead  characters  occur,  should  they  average  one  word 
per  page,  it  shall  be  considered  sufficient  to  become  a  charge,  which  shall  be  settled 
between  the  employer  and  employed. 

6.  Works  done  in  Hebrew  and  Greek,  without  points,  shall  be  paid  15  cents 
per  1,000  ems  higher  than  common  matter;  with  points,  to  be  counted  half  body 
and  half  points,  and  paid  double. 

7.  That  making  up  a  set  of  furniture  for  a  work  of  five  sheets  or  under,  if  an 
octavo,  be  paid  25  cents.  All  other  impositions  to  be  3  cents  extra,  progressively, 
in  proportion  to  the  size  —  a  single  form  shall  constitute  a  set. 

8.  Works  done  partly  in  figures  and  partly  plain,  such  as  arithmetical  works, 
etc.,  to  be  paid  30  cents  per  1,000  ems.     Rule  and  figure  work  to  be  paid  double, 

9.  Broadsides,  such  as  leases,  deeds,  etc.,  done  on  EngUsh  or  smaller  type,  to 
be  paid  27  cents  per  1,000  ems.  Play-biUs,  posting  bills,  etc.,  to  be  paid  for  at 
the  rate  of  15  cents  per  hour. 


'  A  conservative  ruling  was  made  by  the  Board  of  Directors  on  January  24,  18 18,  regarding  the 
measurement  of  type  the  face  of  which  represented  a  larger  size  than  the  body.  According  to  the 
proceedings  of  that  date,  "  an  inquiry  was  made  respecting  that  description  of  type  which  repre- 
sents upon  a  minion  body  a  brevier-faced  type,  when  it  was  resolved  that  it  be  counted  as  brevier 
in  the  width  and  as  minion  in  the  length  of  the  page  in  which  it  is  used."  Other  typographical 
unions  in  after  years  based  the  unit  of  measurement  exclusively  upon  the  body  of  the  type  — 
in  Other  words,  a  brevier  face  upon  a  minion  body  counted  as  minion  both  in  length  and  width. 


NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY.  63 

10.  Algebraical  works,  or  those  where  characters  of  music  are  the  principal 
part,  and  works  composed  principally  of  medical,  astronomical,  or  other  signs, 
to  be  paid  double. 

11.  Time  lost  by  alteration  from  copy,  or  by  casing  or  distributing  letter,  to 
be  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  15  cents  per  hour. 

12.  All  works  composed  from  manuscript  copy,  2  cents  extra. 

13.  Side,  bottom,  or  cut-in  notes,  to  be  agreed  on  between  the  employer  and 
employed. 

Presswork. 

1.  Bookwork  done  on  brevier  or  larger  type,  on  medium  or  smaller  paper, 
33  cents  per  token;  on  smaller  type,  35  cents.  Royal  paper,  on  brevier  or  larger 
type,  35  cents  per  token;  on  smaller  type,  37^  cents  per  token.  Super-royal 
paper,  on  brevier  or  larger  type,  36  cents  per  token;  on  smaller  type,  39  cents 
per  token. 

2.  A  token  of  paper,  if  on  bookwork,  to  consist  of  no  more  than  105  quires; 
and  if  on  a  daily  paper,  no  more  than  10.  For  covering  tympans,  373  cents 
each;  tympan  and  drawer  to  be  considered  as  two. 

3.  Jobs,  folio,  quarto,  etc.,  to  be  paid  33  cents  per  token. 

4.  Cards,  if  100  or  under,  30  cents;  for  each  additional  pack,  if  not  more  than 
5,  125  cents;  if  over  5,  10  cents.* 

5.  Broadsides,  on  bourgeois  or  larger  type,  45  cents;  on  smaller  type,  50  cents 
per  token. 

6.  Three  cents  extra  to  be  paid  on  forms  containing  wood  engravings. 

7.  No  journeyman  working  at  press  on  a  morning  daily  paper  shall  receive 
a  less  sum  that  $10  for  his  weekly  services;  nor  those  on  an  evening  paper  a  less 
sum  than  $9.  If  the  quantity  of  work  should  exceed  eight  tokens  per  day,  the 
whole  to  be  charged,  if  on  a  morning  paper,  at  the  rate  of  45  cents  per  token; 
if  on  an  evening  paper,  40  cents  per  token.  Daily  papers  not  exceeding  six 
tokens  per  day,  if  a  morning  paper,  $9  per  week;  if  an  evening  paper,  $8  per 
week. 

8.  All  works  done  on  parchment  to  be  settled  between  the  employer  and 
employed. 

9.  Working  down  a  new  press  to  be  settled  between  the  employer  and 
employed. 

10.  If  at  any  time  a  pressman  should  be  obliged  to  lift  his  form  before  it  is 
worked  off,  he  shall  be  allowed  33  cents  for  the  same. 

11.  A  pressman  shall  receive  for  teaching  an  apprentice  presswork  for  the 
first  three  months  5  cents  per  token,  and  for  the  three  months  following  3  cents 
per  token. 

After  the  acceptance  of  the  new  wage  scale  by  the  employers  the 
society  debated  the  question  of  uniform  prices  in  the  printing  trade 


'  Originally  one  playing  card  was  printed  at  a  time,  but  the  introduction  of  the  method  of  imposing 
two  cards  in  a  form  prompted  employers  to  ask  for  a  reduction  in  the  price  of  this  kind  of  presswork. 
The  society  on  June  7,  1817,  in  answer  to  this  query  of  a  member,  "  If  two  cards  of  the  same, 
be  set,  and  worked  two  at  a  pull,  shall  they  be  charged  less  than  if  they  were  worked  singly?  " 
settled  the  problem  by  deciding  "  that  every  52  cards  so  worked  be  charged  a  pack,  in  conformity 
to  the  list  of  prices." 


64  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

throughout  the  country.     Master  printers  in  New  York  had  con- 
tended "  that  unless  journeymen  in  other  places  would  raise  their 
prices  to  an  equilibrium"  with  those  in  the  Empire 
Uniform  City,  "it  would  induce  the  booksellers  to  send  their 

Wage  Rates  work  out  of  the  city,  as  the  difference  in  the  price 
Recommended,  for  which  work  could  be  done  elsewhere  would  more 
than  pay  for  the  transportation.'"*  Such  an  argu- 
ment doubtless  prompted  the  association  at  a  general  meeting  on 
November  4,  18 15,  to  adopt  a  resolution  calling  for  the  appointment 
of  a  committee  to  confer  with  the  different  typographical  societies 
in  the  United  States  for  the  purpose  of  persuading,  "  if  possible,  the 
journeymen  printers  of  Philadelphia  and  Albany  to  raise  their  prices 
to  the  same  standard  as  ours."  The  minutes  of  the  general  meeting 
of  December  2,  181 5,  record  the  outcome  of  this  request,  stating 
that  "  the  committee  appointed  to  correspond  with  the  several  typo- 
graphical societies  in  the  United  States,  and  particularly  those  of 
Philadelphia  and  Albany,  reported  that  they  had  written  to  that  of 
Philadelphia  and  had  received  no  answer;  that  from  authentic  in- 
formation the  journeymen  of  Albany  had  already  raised  their  prices 
to  the  same  standard  as  ours  and  we  deemed  it  inexpedient  to  address 
them."  A  communication  from  Boston,  dated  March  2,  18 16,  and 
read  at  the  session  of  March  16,  181 6,  declared  that  the  society  in 
the  Massachusetts  capital  would  put  a  new  scale  of  prices  into  effect 
and  sought  the  co-operation  of  the  New  York  association. 

Although  the  Philadelphia  society  did  not  make  reply  to  the  com- 
munication addressed  to  it  with  reference  to  the  establishment  of 
an    unvarying    standard    of    prices    universally,  it 
Singleness       already  had  regulated  the  rates  in  that  city,  and  the 
of  Purpose      New  York  printers,  believing  in  unity  of  interest, 
Advocated.      endorsed  the  action  of  their  Philadelphia  brethren 
when  the  latter  took  a  stand  for  an  increase  in  18 10. 
The  minutes  of  the  session  of  the  New  York  society's  Board  of  Direc- 
tors, on  September  2 2d  of  that  year,  chronicled  the  intelligence  that 
a  "  letter  was  read  from  the  journeymen  printers  of  Philadelphia, 
accompanied  with  a  circular  list  of  prices,  which  they  are  now  stand- 
ing out  for  and  urge  us  to  co-operate  with  them  in  order  to  obtain 
their  just  demands;  and  the  board,  conceiving  the  nature  of  the 
communication  of  the  utmost  importance,  came  to  the  immediate 


'  Writing  to  the  Boston  Typographical  Society  in  March,  1816,  the  president  of  the  New  York 
society  remarked  in  regard  to  the  contention  of  the  employers:  "  Independent  of  this  argument, 
as  also  several  others  of  greater  weight  with  them,  we  obtained  our  prices,  and  I  have  never  been 
able  to  perceive  that  we  have  sustained  any  injury  from  it." 


NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY.  6$ 

resolution  of  convening  the  general  society,  and  the  following  was 
immediately  passed:  Resolved,  that  a  general  extra  meeting  of  the 
society  be  called  on  Monday  evening,  the  twenty-fourth  instant,  for 
the  purpose  of  giving  general  information  to  the  members  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  journeymen  printers  of  Philadelphia."  That 
meeting  was  held,  and  it  was  unanimously  resolved  that :  — 

We  highly  approve  of  the  proceedings  of  our  typographical  brothers  of  the 
City  of  Philadelphia  and  their  attempts  to  raise  the  price. 

We  pledge  ourselves  to  each  other  that  we  will  not  take  any  situation  vacated 
by  any  of  our  brothers  in  Philadelphia  under  the  present  circumstances. 

We  will  use  every  exertion  in  our  power  to  prevent  their  defeat  through  the 
typographical  brethren  of  the  City  of  New  York. 

It  is  recommended  to  the  members  of  this  society  to  make  the  proceedings  of 
this  meeting  known  as  general  as  possible. 


VI. 

Regulating  Apprenticeship  System. 

Superabundance  of  learners,  runaway  apprentices  and  "  half-way 
jotimeymen  "  were  matters  that  seriously  confronted  the  society 
from  its  inception.     Boys  were  then  indentured,  but 
they  frequently  left  the  employ  of  master  printers,    Futile  Effort 
and   their   places   were   promptly   filled   by   other    to  Fix  Term  of 
beginners,  the  runaways  obtaining  situations  else-    Apprenticeship. 
where  and  becoming   "  half-way  journeymen  "  at 
compensation  slightly  in  advance  of  that  which  they  had  been  receiv- 
ing.    There  were  also  in  this  category  adults  who  had  served  less 
than  half  time  at  the  trade.     This  state  of  things,  which  had  a 
depressing  effect  upon  the  wages  of  full-fledged  workers,  called  for  a 
better  regulation  of  the  apprenticeship  system.     Some  effort  was 
made  to  solve  the  problem  at  an  early  stage  in  the  society's  life, 
the  Board  of  Directors  on  December  23,  1809,  resolving  that  "no 
person  shall  be  admitted  a  member  unless  he  shall  have  duly  and 
regularly  served  the  term  of  three  years  as  an  apprentice  to  one 
branch,  namely,  either  as  a  compositor  or  as  a  pressman."     This 
procedure  was  attacked  at  the  general  meeting  of  the  society  on 
January  6,  18 10,  being  opposed  on  the  ground  that  the  board  had 
not  the  power  to  make  such  a  law,  which  "  was  detrimental  to  the 
constitution."     On  the  other  hand,  some  contended  "  that  the  board 
had,  according  to  the  constitution,  a  right  to  adopt  such  by-laws 
for  the  government  of  themselves  and  of  the  society  generally  as 
they  should  deem  most  expedient,  with  the  concurrence  of  the  society 
3 


66  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

in  general  meeting."  The  latter  view  was  not  sustained,  and  the 
action  of  the  directors  was  rejected.  Again,  the  subject  of  appren- 
ticeship came  to  the  surface  at  a  general  meeting  on  August  4,  18 10, 
when  Mr.  Barber  offered  a  resolution,  which  after  being  recorded  was 
ordered  to  lie  over  for  one  month.  It  provided  "  that  pressmen 
bringing  up  apprentices  at  press  shall  be  entitled  to  all  their  labor 
for  the  term  of  three  months  and  be  obligated  to  work  with  them 

at  the  rate  of cents  ^°  per  token  extra  for  the  term  of 

nine  months,  the  pressmen  in  all  cases  to  be  accountable  for  their 
work."  The  general  session  of  September  ist  following  committed 
the  question  to  the  Board  of  Directors,  which  on  the  fifteenth  of 
that  month,  after  a  long  discussion,  decided  "  that  it  is  inexpedient 
to  act  upon  it  at  this  time."  It  was  therefore  laid  aside  for  future 
consideration  and  was  not  settled  until  October  7,  18 15,  when  this 
section  was  added  to  the  scale  of  prices:  "  A  pressman  shall  receive 
for  teaching  an  apprentice  presswork,  for  the  first  three  months,  5 
cents  per  token,  and  for  the  three  months  following  3  cents  per 
token." 

Inquiry  into  the  subject  of  "  half-way  journeymen  "  was  ulti- 
mately deemed  necessary  by  the  directors,  who  on  September  29, 
18 10,  appointed  a  committee  to  ascertain  the  number 
"  Half-Way        of  young  men  working  in  the  city  as  journeymen 
Journeymen."     whose  age  does  not  entitle  them  to  work  as  journey- 
men."   Evidently  the  committeemen  did  not  under- 
take the  investigation,  for  the  directors  on  October  26th  discharged 
them  and  selected  a  new  committee,  with  instructions  to  submit  its 
findings  on  November  3d.     Progress  was  reported  on  that  date,  but 
on  December  2 2d  the  committee  made  a  partial  statement.    Light 
was  shed  upon  the  direct  competition   produced  by   "  half-way 
journeymen  "  that  competent  craftsmen  were  compelled  to  encounter. 
Another  notable  fact  presented  was  that  in  one  office  the  inquiry 
revealed  "  a  man  working  at  press  who  occupies  the  situation  of 
two  journeymen,  but  it  is  understood  has  not  served  as  apprentice 
to  the  printing  business."    The  report,  which  was  "  accepted  by 
the  board  and  the  committee  allowed  further  time  to  complete  the 
same,"  is  of  such  an  interesting  nature  that  its  full  text  is  given  here: 

The  committee  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  situation  of  such  persons  as  are 
working  at  the  printing  business  in  the  capacity  of  journeymen  and  who  are 
not  considered  as  such  by  this  society  make  the  following  report  in  part: 

Your  committee  have  made  all  the  inquiry  within  their  power,  but  from  the 
extreme  difficulty  of  obtaining  correct  information  they  have  been  obliged  to 

w  Amount  not  stated  in  original  text. 


NEW  YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL  SOCIETY.  67 

rely  principally  upon  hearsay  evidence.  The  following  is  the  situation  of  the 
different  offices  where  persons  of  the  above  description  are  employed  as  far  as 
has  come  to  the  knowledge  of  your  committee: 

In  Blunt's  office  C.  Farr  is  obhgated  to  stay  six  months  at  20  cents  per  i  ,000 
ems.  William  McDougal  and  Michael  Flanagan  are  to  receive  20  cents  per 
1,000  ems;  to  stay  as  long  as  they  please.  Joshua  Hardcastle  to  receive  25 
cents  per  token ;  no  stated  time  to  stay. 

At  the  office  of  the  Morning  Post  there  are  three  boys  who  are  to  stay  six 
months  at  $4.50  per  week. 

At  Van  Winkle's  office  J.  Thompson  and  George  King  are  to  receive  $4  per 
week;  no  stated  time  to  stay. 

At  Long's  office  there  are  one  or  two  persons  who  are  working  for  less  than 
established  prices,  but  your  committee  have  not  been  able  to  obtain  the  par- 
ticular circumstances  under  which  they  are  employed. 

At  the  office  of  the  Public  Advertiser  there  is  a  man  working  at  press  who 
occupies  the  situation  of  two  journeymen,  but  it  is  understood  has  not  served 
as  apprentice  to  the  printing  business. 

The  above  is  the  most  correct  information  that  your  committee  have  been 
able  to  collect.  They  decline  giving  any  instructions  or  advice  with  respect  to 
the  measures  to  pursue,  but  submit  that  entirely  to  the  wisdom  of  the  board. 

There  was  not  any  disposition  to  restrict  the  number  of  regular 
apprentices,  neither  was  there  a  desire  on  the  part  of  the  society  to 
establish  an  age  limit  for  the  admission  of  capable  printers  to  its 
ranks,  as  was  demonstrated  by  the  action  of  the  directors  on  January 
26,  181 1,  when  "the  motion  made  at  the  last  meeting  of  the 
board  for  a  rule  not  to  admit  any  person  under  2 1  years  of  age  was 
taken  up  and  lost."  But  opposition  to  the  employment  of  "  half- 
way joumejrmen  "  was  most  pronounced,  and  continued  to  engross 
the  attention  of  the  society,  the  Board  of  Directors  of  which  finally, 
on  June  15,  181 1,  appointed  a  committee  to  draft  a  circular  letter 
on  the  subject  to  the  employers.  The  following  vigorous  and  graphic 
form,  which  was  submitted  by  the  committee  and  approved  by  the 
board  on  July  13,  181 1,  was  "ordered  to  be  printed  and  a  copy 
handed  to  each  master  printer  by  the  committee:" 

To  the  Master  Printers  of  the  City  of  New  York : 

Gentlemen: —  Viewing  with  deep  concern  the  improper  practices  in  many  of 
the  printing  offices  in  this  city  the  journeymen  composing  the  New  York  Typo- 
graphical Society  have  appointed  the  undersigned  a  committee  to  address  you 
on  the  subject  and  represent  the  many  evil  effects  they  have 
on  the  art  of  printing  in  general  and  the  demoraUzing  effects       Practice 

on  the  professors.  Encouraged 

The  practice  of  employing  what  is  usually  styled  "  half-way         unaways. 
journeymen  "  in  preference  to  those  who  have  served  their 
time,  while  it  holds  encouragement  to  boys  to  elope  from  their  masters  as  soon 
as  they  acquire  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  art  to  be  enabled  to  earn  their  bread, 
is  a  great  grievance  to  the  jotuneymen  and  almost  certain  ruin  to  the  boys 


68  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER  SIX. 

themselves.  Becoming  masters  of  their  own  conduct  at  a  period  of  life  when 
they  are  incapable  of  governing  their  passions  and  propensities  they  plunge 
headlong  into  every  species  of  dissipation  and  are  often  debilitated  by  debauch- 
ery before  they  arrive  at  the  age  of  manhood;  and  it  also  tends  to  an  unneces- 
sary multiplication  of  apprentices,  inasmuch  as  the  place  of  every  boy  who 
elopes  from  his  master  is  usually  supplied  by  another,  while  at  the  same  time 
the  runaway  supplies  after  a  manner  the  place  of  a  regular  journeyman  and  one 
who  probably  has  a  family  dependent  on  his  labor  for  support. 

We  also  beg  leave  to  call  your  attention  to  a  practice  as  illiberal  and  unjust 

as  the  former  and  attended,  perhaps,  with  evils  of  a  more  aggravated  nature. 

We   mean   that  of   taking   full-grown   men    (foreigners)    as 

FuU-Grown  apprentices  for  some  twelve  or  fifteen  months,  when  they 

Men  Among        are  to  be  turned  into  the  situations  of  men  who  are  masters 

Incompetents.      ^f  tiieij.  business,  which  men  are  to  be  turned  out  of  their 

places  by  miserable  botches  because  they  will  work  for  what 

they  can  get.     By  these  means  numbers  of  excellent  workmen  who  ought  to  be 

ornaments  to  the  profession  are  driven  by  necessity  to  seek  some  other  means 

of  support. 

When  a  parent  puts  out  a  child  to  learn  an  art  it  is  with  the  pleasing  idea  that 

a  knowledge  of  that  art  will  enable  him  when  he  becomes  a  man  to  provide  for 

himself  a  comfortable  subsistence.     Did  he  know  that  after 

Overstocked  laboring  from  his  youth  to  manhood  to  acquire  an  art  he 

Trade  the  would  be  compelled  to  abandon  it  and  resort  to  some  business 

Outcome.  ^^  which  he  was  totally  unacquainted  to  enable  him  to  live, 

he  would  certainly  prefer  that  he  should  in  the  first  instance 

seek  a  livelihood  on  the  sea  or  by  some  other  precarious  calling  than  trust  to 

the  equally  precarious  success  of  a  trade  overstocked  by  its  professors.     Of  the 

number  that  have  completed  their  apprenticeship  to  the  printing  business  within 

the  last  five  years  but  few  have  been  enabled  to  hold  a  situation  for  any  length 

of  time,  and  it  is  an  incontrovertible  fact  that  nearly  one-half  that  learned  the 

trade  are  obliged  to  relinquish  it  and  follow  some  other  calling  for  support. 

Under  the  direful  influence  of  these  unwarranted  practices  the  professors  of 

the  noblest  art  with  which  the  world  is  blessed  have  become  birds  of  passage, 

seeking  a  livelihood  from  Georgia  to  Maine.     It  is  owing  to 

Produced  such  practices  that  to  acknowledge  yourself  a  printer  is  to 

Birds  of  awaken  suspicion  and  cause  distrust.     It  is  owing  to  such 

Passage.  practices  that  the  professors  of  this  noble  art  are  sinking  in 

the  estimation  of  the  community.     And  it  is  owing  to  such 

practices,  if  persisted,  that  to  see  a  book  correctly  printed  will  after  a  few  years 

be  received  as  a  phenomenon. 

To  render  an  art  respectable  it  is  indispensably  necessary  that  professors 

should  be  perfect  masters  of  their  calling,  which  can  only  be  acquired  by  serving 

a  proper  apprenticeship.     And  in  our  art  it  is  not  always 

Proper  true   that   time   will   perfect   the   printer.    Regard  should 

Apprenticeship       always  be  paid  to  the  capacity  and  requirements  of  a  boy 

Required.  before  he  should  be  suffered  to  learn  the  art  of  printing;  for 

it  is  too  often  the  case  that  boys  of  little  or  no  education  are 

taken  as  apprentices,  which  the  first  services  as  devil  frequently  preclude  the 

knowledge  of,  until  they  are  bound,  when  the  discovery  is  too  late  to  be  remedied. 

Owing  to  this  deficiency  they  make  the  sorry  printers;  whereas,  had  they  learned 


NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY.  69 

some  trade  which  does  not  particularly  require  a  good  education  they  might 
have  been  perfect  masters  of  it  and  better  able  to  gain  a  livelihood. 

These  are  evils,  gentlemen,  which  we  sorely  feel,  and  which  it  is  in  your  power 
to  remedy,  and  we  sincerely  hope  that  this  appeal  to  your  justice  and  your 
humanicy  may  meet  with  that  consideration  which  its  importance  demands. 

D.  H.  Reins, 

W.   BURBIDGE, 

S.  Johnston, 

Committee. 

That  the  foregoing  appeal  did  not  relieve  the  situation  may  be 
inferred  from  the  action  taken  by  the  Board  of  Directors  on  March 
23,  18 16,  in  appointing  another  committee  "  to  propose  a  method 
to  discourage  the  practice  of  master  printers  employing  '  half-way 
journeymen.'  "  Such  committee  subsequently  recommended  that 
the  subject,  with  other  matters  pertaining  to  the  well-being  of  the 
society,  be  referred  to  a  regularly  constituted  Vigilance  Committee. 
The  suggestion  was  adopted,  but  scarcely  anything  was  accompHshed. 

Notwithstanding  the  care  that  the  society  exerted  not  to  admit  to 
membership  a  person  who  could  not  conclusively  prove  his  com- 
petency, it  was  imposed  upon  while  agitating  against 
the  employment  of  "  half-way  joumejTnen,"  but  Deception 
the  deception  was  speedily  revealed  and  summary  Practiced, 
action  taken.  At  the  meeting  of  the  directorate  Then  Exposed, 
on  July  10,  1 8 13,  the  board  was  informed  that  "  a 
newly-admitted  member  has  not  worked  a  sufficient  length  of 
time  to  entitle  him  to  membership."  Strange  to  relate,  he  had  been 
proposed  by  one  of  the  oldest,  most  painstaking  and  conscientious 
members  of  the  society,  who  evidently  had  been  misled  as  to  the 
capability  of  the  appHcant.  The  committee  to  which  the  matter 
was  submitted  for  investigation  reported  to  the  board  on  July  24th 
that  a  leading  master  printer  for  whom  the  delinquent  had  first 
worked  had  testified  that  he  "  did  not  serve  more  than  one  year, 
and  that  his  office  was  the  first  he  ever  entered."  It  was  also  learned 
that  when  he  went  to  work  in  that  printing  office  "  he  did  not  know 
how  to  scrape  a  ball  or  anything  else  about  the  business,"  having 
been  "  employed  at  a  livery  stable  immediately  preceding  his  coming 
to  the  business,"  which  was  in  June,  181 1.  Before  the  expiration 
of  the  time  he  had  promised  to  serve  he  left  and  secured  employment 
as  a  journeyman  in  another  establishment.  One.  witness  stated 
that  the  man  "  was  by  trade  a  weaver  and  had  worked  in  Spring- 
field, N.  Y. ;  that  he  quit  that  trade  on  account  of  a  pain  in  his  breast, 
frequently  saying  that  if  the  printing  business  got  dull  he  could 
again  go  into  the  country  and  get  work  at  his  old  trade."  Called 
before  the  board  to  explain,  the  fraudulent  member  was  questioned 


70  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL  UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

by  the  president,  and  after  hearing  the  replies  it  was  the  unanimous 
opinion  that  he  was  not  entitled  to  membership.  The  case  was 
referred  for  consideration  to  the  general  society,  which  on  August 
7th  expelled  him  "for  having  deceived  them,"  and  the  treasurer  was 
empowered  to  return  his  initiation  fee. 

Not  only  was  good  workmanship  a  prime  requisite  of  the  society, 
but  members  were  obliged  to  deal  honestly  with  their  employers. 
The  penalty  for  unworkmanlike  conduct  was  severe, 
Honest  as  was  shown  in  the  case  of  a  pressman  who  on 

"Workmanship     November  i,  1817,  was  accused  of  "  turning  wrong 
Required.  ^  half  sheet  of  twenty-fours,  and  without  mention- 

ing the  circumstances  to  his  employer,  leaving  the 
city,  even  neglecting  to  note  down  the  signature  letter  in  his  bill  — 
conduct  highly  derogatory  to  the  character  of  the  New  York  Typo- 
graphical Society  and  disgraceful  to  himself  as  a  member."  Suffi- 
cient proof  having  been  laid  against  him  he  was  expelled,  and  it  was 
ordered  that  "  his  name,  with  the  nature  of  his  offense,  be  trans- 
mitted to  the  different  typographical  societies  in  the  United  States." 

VII. 

In  the  Interest  of  the  Unemployed. 

Unemployment  received  the  serious  attention  of  the  society  imme- 
diately after  the  opening  of  the  18 12  war.  On  July  i8th  of  that  year 
the  directors  ordered  the  secretary  to  procure  a  book  to  be  left  with 
the  proprietor  of  the  meeting  hall,  "  for  the  purpose  of  registering 
the  names  of  members  who  may  be  out  of  employ,  which  book  shall 
at  all  times  be  open  for  the  inspection  of  members  and  persons 
wishing  to  procure  workmen;  and  that  it  be  recommended  to  the 
members  generally  immediately  on  their  being  out  of  a  situation  to 
register  their  names  and  addresses  in  said  book." 

The  directors  on  January  15,   18 14,  devised  another  plan  that 

they  believed  would  prove  to  be  beneficial  to  the  society  in  general 

and  to  its  idle  members  in  particular.     They  decided 

Vigilance  "  that  it  be  recommended  to  the  society  at  their 

Committee  next  general  meeting  to  appoint  a  Committee  of 

Recommended.  Vigilance  to  consist  of  three  or  more  members  whose 

duties  it  shall  be  to  receive  such  information  of 

hands  out  of  employ  and  vacant  situations  as  may  come  to  their 

knowledge  from  time  to  time  and  communicate  the  same  to  all 

applicants  who  may  be  members  of  this  society,  subject  to  such 

further  regulations  as  they  may  judge  proper." 


NEW   YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY.  7I 

Immediate  consideration  was  not  given  to  the  subject,  but  on  March 
23,  18 16,  the  board  again  discussed  the  proposition  and  appointed 
a  committee  "  to  propose  a  method  whereby  the  members  of  the 
society  may  be  increased,  and  to  compel  all  those  working  at  the 
business  as  regular  journeymen  to  become  members ;  and  to  propose 
some  method  by  which  the  members  may  be  kept  in  employment." 
The  committee  reported  on  March  30th,  recommending: 

1.  Let  every  member  of  this  board  volunteer  his  services  with  promptitude 
to  procure  the  names  of  all  those  working  as  regular  journeymen  who  are  not 
members,  and  to  report  individually  to  the  chairman;  and  that  a  Committee  of 
Vigilance,  to  consist  of  five  members  of  the  board,  be  appointed,  to  whom  these 
reports  shall  be  handed  over,  and  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  communicate  with 
those  persons  either  by  letter  or  personally,  and  induce  them  by  every  means  to 
become  members. 

2.  To  find  employment  for  those  members  who  may  occasionally  want  it. 
We  do  not  conceive  that  anything  at  present  can  be  done,  other  than  by  mutual 
exertion.  We  have  noticed,  and  with  the  deepest  regret  and  mortification,  a 
relaxation  on  the  part  of  some  individuals,  who,  regardless  and  in  violation  of 
the  solemn  pledge  they  have  given  of  assisting  each  other  in  obtaining  employ- 
ment, and  with  the  utmost  indifference,  often  give  to  strangers  that  preference 
which  is  pledged  to  a  brother  member.  We  do  not  point  particularly  to  any 
individual,  as  no  doubt  some  have  done  it  inadvertently;  we  simply  mention  the 
fact  that  it  may  be  guarded  against  in  future.  We  take  this  opportunity  to 
recommend  a  most  rigid  adherence  to  this  principle,  as  containing  the  very  vitals 
and  spirit  of  the  constitution,  without  which  all  the  good  effects  intended  by  the 
formation  of  the  institution  are  rendered  nugatory. 

A  Vigilance  Committee  was  appointed,  but  the  task  assigned  to  it 

proved  to  be  a  futile  undertaking.     An  entirely  new  system  was 

introduced  at  the  general  meeting  of  the  society  on 

November  i,  1817,  when  the  secretary  was  directed    Registering 

'      .  ,,  •  1-  ^      r    ^1        Vacant 

to  prepare  a  directory,      to  contam  a  hst  or    the    gjtuatlons  and 

names  of  the  members  and  the  places  of  their  resi-  i^q  Members, 
dence,  together  with  a  list  of  the  printing  offices 
within  the  city,  and  where  situated.  The  name  of  each  office  shall 
be  written  on  the  top  of  a  page  and  the  names  of  the  members 
employed  therein  arranged  underneath."  It  was  provided  that  the 
register  be  read  at  every  meeting  of  the  society,  and  that  the  presi- 
dent "make  such  inquiries  of  members  therefrom  as  will  afford  all 
the  information  affecting  the  interests  of  journeymen  printers,  to  be 
registered  and  used  to  insure  the  advantages  thereof  to  the  members 
of  the  society."  It  was  also  "  considered  the  duty  of  each  and  every 
member,  always,  the  moment  he  hears  of  a  situation  vacant,  to  send 
a  note  or  word  to  the  secretary;  and  those  who  want  situations  in  like 
manner  shall  give  notice  thereof  to  the  secretary,  that  their  names 
and  residences  may  be  registered." 


72  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNIOiNf    NUMBER   SIX. 

VIII. 

Traveling    Czurds   Proposed. 

A  hundred  years  ago  the  peripatetic  printer  needed  a  certificate 
of  membership  in  his  travels  about  the  country  equally  as  much  as 
does  the  present-day  member  of  a  trade  union.     It 
Advantages      would  serve  to  introduce  him  to  craftsmen  in  various 
of  the  localities  that  he  might  visit,  and  secure  for  him 

System.  assistance  in  finding  a  situation  or  financial  help  in 

case  of  illness,  besides  other  fraternal  benefits. 
Such  was  the  anticipation  of  the  New  York  society  when  on 
February  3,  1816,  the  directors  created  a  Correspondence  Com- 
mittee to  communicate  with  the  different  typographical  organiza- 
tions in  the  United  States  for  the  purpose  of  inducing  them  to  unite 
with  the  Metropolitan  association  in  adopting  a  traveling  card 
system,  so  that  a  good-standing  member,  "when  he  shall  obtain 
a  certificate  of  membership  may  on  removing  to  another  place 
where  a  society  is  established  and  paying  his  initiation  fee  be 
admitted  immediately  as  a  member  in  full  standing  to  the  society 
established  there."  The  merits  of  the  proposed  system  were  de- 
scribed by  the  committee  in  a  circular  that  it  issued  on  April  6th, 
in  which  it  was  set  forth  that  "  the  object  in  view  is  to  afford  a 
mutual  benefit  to  the  members  composing  the  different  societies 
and  the  societies  themselves ;  it  will  be  an  inducement  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  profession  to  join  the  several  societies  in  the  places  where 
they  may  have  served  their  apprenticeship  for  the  purpose  of  procur- 
ing, on  their  departure  for  another  place,  a  recommendation  to  the 
society  there ;  by  which  they  will  be  enabled  to  procure  work  with 
greater  facility  and  to  secure  to  themselves  friends,  who  in  case  of 
sickness  will  stretch  forth  the  hand  of  friendship  to  aid  and  comfort 
them." 

The  committee  was  also  of  the  belief  that  "  it  would  benefit  the 
societies  at  large,  because  it  would  be  a  great  inducement  to  their 
members  to  pay  up  their  dues  previous  to  their 
Why  the  Plan     departtire   for   another   place."     The   good   to   be 
Could  Not  derived  from  the  proposed  plan  could  not  be  gain- 

be  Adopted.        said^   and  in  itself  was  pronounced  an  excellent 
measure,  but  there  were  insiu-mountable  conditions 
in  some  quarters  that  prevented  its  universal  adoption.     Answering 
the  communication  on  March  17th,  the  Philadelphia  society  stated 
that  the  proposition  could  not  be  agreed  to  on  the  part  of  that  asso- 


NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    SOCIETY.  73 

ciation  because,  "  first,  by  the  act  of  incorporation  '  no  person  shall 
be  eligible  to  become  a  member  of  this  society  who  was  not  at  the 
time  of  his  application  a  citizen  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Penn- 
sylvania;' and  secondly,  'no  person  shall  receive  pecuniary  aid  until 
he  shall  become  six  months  a  member  unless  he  is  a  stranger  and  in 
absolute  distress.'  You  will  perceive,  gentlemen,  from  the  above 
extracts,  which  are  directly  opposed  to  that  laid  down  in  the  plan, 
that  this  society  could  not  enter  into  the  proposed  arrangement 
without  violating  their  constitution  and  are  therefore  debarred 
from  participating  in  a  measure  which  holds  out  many  important 
advantages." 

This  unforeseen  circumstance  rendered  impossible  the  general 
introduction  of  the  traveling  card  system.  The  matter,  however, 
was  again  broached  on  January  3,  1818,  when  in  general  meeting 
the  New  York  society  rejected  that  part  of  a  resolution  which  required 
the  secretary  to  issue  a  certificate  to  a  member  who  intended  to  go 
to  another  town,  but  it  passed  the  remainder  of  the  proposition  pro- 
viding "  that  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  each  member  of  this  society, 
when  about  to  leave  the  City  of  New  York,  to  give  notice  of  the 
same  to  the  secretary,  in  order  that  the  time  of  his  absence  may  be 
noted  on  the  books.  All  members  who  may  neglect  to  comply  with 
the  requisition  of  this  article  shall  be  liable  to  expulsion  at  the  expira- 
tion of  six  months  the  same  as  though  they  remained  in  the  city." 

When  the  by-laws  were  afterward  amended  provision  was  made 
for  the  issuance  of  such  certificates.  On  February  i,  18 19,  a  member 
who  was  about  to  go  elsewhere  "  begged  the  privilege  of  withdrawing 
from  the  society  "  and  asked  for  a  card  of  withdrawal.  The  request 
"  was  granted,  and  the  secretary  directed  to  give  him  a  certificate 
to  that  effect."  Certificates  of  this  character  were  not  officially 
recognized  outside  of  the  Metropolis,  being  intended  as  a  testimonial 
to  the  worth  of  their  possessors  as  citizens  and  members  of  the 
society;  "  yet  they  secured  for  the  holder  a  certain  amount  of  atten- 
tion from  the  members  of  other  societies  if  he  were  in  distress,  and 
were  an  aid  in  obtaining  work."" 

IX. 

Funds  of  the  Society  Safeguarded. 

From  its  foundation  the  funds  of  the  society  have  been  safe- 
guarded. The  first  treasurer,  it  is  gleaned  from  the  minutes  of  the 
directors'  meeting  of  July  29,  1809,  "  bonded  himself  to  the  society 

"  George  E.  Bamett,  "  The  Printers,"  page  21. 


^4  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

in  the  sum  of  $125,  and  the  bond  was  endorsed  and  guaranteed  by 
the  Board  of  Directors."  As  the  membership  increased  and  the 
state  of  the  finances  improved  the  amount  of  security  was  aug- 
mented, rising  to  $500  on  July  14,  18 10.  The  treasury  of  the  asso- 
ciation was  sufficiently  large,  it  was  thought,  at  the  end  of  18 10  to 
warrant  the  investment  of  a  portion  of  the  money  "  in  some  insti- 
tution whereby  profit  may  accrue  therefrom,"  so  a  committee  that 
had  been  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  expediency  of  so  placing  a 
possible  surplus  reported  on  December  226.  "  that  on  account  of  the 
precarious  situation  of  bank  stock  at  the  present  time  and  the  small- 
ness  of  our  funds,  together  with  the  difficulty  of  placing  them  in 
some  institution  that  the  society  would  demand,  that  the  business 
be  deferred  till  some  future  day."  Postponement  resulted  until 
May  8,  181 2,  when  another  committee  was  selected  to  investigate 
the  subject;  reporting  to  the  general  meeting  of  June  6th  in  favor 
of  investing  some  money  in  the  Bank  of  America,  a 

,,  newly-organized  financial  institution.     It  was   the 

Moneys  . 

Invested  in  judgment  of  the  committee  "  that  from  the  peculiar 
Bank  Stock.  state  of  public  affairs  which  necessarily  affects  the 
pecuniary  concerns  of  almost  every  class  of  citizens 
they  cannot  but  be  impressed  with  the  belief  that  a  system  of  loaning 
at  common  interest  to  individuals  would  be  hazardous  and  perhaps 
unproductive  and  at  the  same  time  attended  with  much  inconven- 
ience, your  committee  deem  it  superfluous  to  expatiate  upon  this 
latter  disadvantage  or  the  fluctuating  nature  of  individual  credit ;  but 
submit  it  to  the  society  as  their  mature  opinion  that  original  stock 
in  some  public  funds  of  undoubted  credit  and  certain  capital  would 
be  more  secure  and  productive  and  attended  with  far  greater  con- 
venience to  the  management  of  this  society.  And  an  opportunity  is 
now  offered  for  obtaining  such  stock  in  the  newly-organized  Bank 
of  America  of  this  city,  the  books  of  which  will  shortly  be  open  for 
receiving  subscriptions."  The  following  resolution  recommended  by 
the  committee  was  imanimously  agreed  to: 

That  the  treasurer  be  and  he  is  hereby  authorized  to  subscribe  on  behalf  of 
the  New  York  Typographical  Society  in  his  own  name  for  stock  to  the  amount 
of  $200  and  said  stock  and  the  interest  arising  therefrom  shall  be  considered  by 
the  society  as  so  much  cash  in  the  hands  of  the  treasurer  and  by  him  so  stated 
in  his  reports  of  the  state  of  the  funds.  And  the  said  treasurer  shall  attend  to 
the  receiving  of  the  dividends  of  interest  accruing  on  said  stock  as  often  as  it 
shall  become  payable;  and  in  case  of  his  resignation  or  removal  from  office  he 
shall  transfer  the  stock  so  held  by  him  in  behalf  of  the  society  to  his  successor 
in  office  or  to  such  person  as  the  society  or  Board  of  Directors  shall  authorize 
to  receive  the  same,  together  with  the  amount  of  all  moneys  belonging  to  the 
society,  the  refunding  of  which  is  provided  for  by  the  constitution. 


NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY.  75 

Unappropriated  moneys  were  from  time  to  time  invested  in  the 
same  stock,  and  the  association  continues  to  hold  shares  in  the  Bank 
of  America,  which  will  have  been  in  existence  a  century  on  June  2 , 
191 2.  The  present  constitution  of  the  society  provides  that  its 
surplus  funds  shall  be  invested  in  permanent  stock,  or,  if  loaned, 
secured  by  bond  and  mortgage;  and  the  treasurer  is  required  to  give 
a  bond  "  in  such  penal  sum  as  the  society  may  direct." 

X. 

Decadence  as   a    Trade  Union. 

Within  two  years  after  the  wage  scale  of  18 15  went  into  effect 
the  influence  of  the  society  as  a  trade  union  began  to  decline.     Dis- 
satisfaction was  first  manifested  regarding  the  con- 
duct of  an  employer  who  had  joined  the  associa-      a  Proprietor 
tion  when  he  was  a  journeyman  and  who  continued      Member 
his  membership  after  becoming  a  proprietor.     He      Expelled, 
appeared  before  the  society  on  October  4,  18 17,  to 
answer  to  charges  —  (i)   "  neglect  to  pay  monthly  dues  for  six 
months;"   (2)  "an  attempt  to  lower  the  wages  of  journeymen;" 
(3)  "violation  of  a  solemn  promise  he  made  when  he  became  a  mem- 
ber of  the  New  York  Typographical  Society."     To  the  first  charge 
he  pleaded  guilty;  "  but  the  society,"  it  is  recorded  in  the  minutes, 
"  willing  to  extend  to  him  that  liberality  they  had  shown  to  other 
delinquent  members,  would  not  expel  him  on  that  charge,  for  he 
said  he  was  willing  to  pay  his  dues  then."     He  denied  the  other 
allegations  and  as  proof  could  not  then  be  educed  to  substantiate 
them  further  consideration  of  the  charges  was  deferred  to  the  general 
meeting  of  November  ist,  when  these  six  counts  against  him  were 
read: 

1.  For  an  attempt,  in  combination  with  a  few  employing  printers,  to  lessen 
the  established  wages  of  journeymen. 

2.  For  introducing  into  the  printing  business  men  wholly  unacquainted  with 
it,  to  the  exclusion  of  regular  bred  workmen. 

3.  For  refusing  to  give  employment  to  a  member  of  this  society,  and  employ- 
ing one  not  a  member  in  preference  —  a  direct  violation  of  the  solemn  pledge  he 
has  repeatedly  given  us. 

4.  For  divulging  the  proceedings  of  his  brethren  required  by  them  to  be  kept 
secret  —  a  second  violation  of  the  obligation  he  owes  to  this  institution. 

5.  In  direct  violation  of  the  most  sacred  pledge  to  the  society,  when  initiated, 
for  endeavoring  to  injure  a  brother  member. 

6.  For  suffering  his  name  to  be  attached  to  an  advertisement  unbecoming  a 
member  of  this  society. 


76  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

The  charges  having  been  verified,  it  was  resolved  that  the  accused 
"  be  expelled  from  the  society,  and  his  name,  with  the  nature  of 
the  offense,  be  transmitted  to  the  different  typographical  societies 
in  the  United  States." 
While  the  society  had  never  admitted  master  printers  to  mem- 
bership it  retained  on  its  roster  joumejonen  who 
Master  Printers    had  engaged  in  business  and  who  desired  to  remain 
Debarred  from     in  affiliation.     But  immediately  following  the  above 
Membership.        expulsion   this  resolution  was  introduced,   and  it 
was  adopted  at  the  general  meeting  of  December  6th : 

Experience  teaches  us  that  the  actions  of  men  are  influenced  almost"  wholly 
by  their  interests,  and  that  it  is  almost  impossible  that  a  society  can  be  well 
regulated  and  useful  when  its  members  are  actuated  by  opposite  motives  and 
separate  interests.  This  society  is  a  society  of  journeymen  printers,  and  as  the 
interests  of  the  journeymen  are  separate  and  in  some  respects  opposite  to  those 
of  the  employers,  we  deem  it  improper  that  they  should  have  any  voice  or  influence 
in  our  dehberations;  therefore,  Resolved,  that  when  any  member  of  this  society 
shall  become  an  employing  printer  he  shall  be  considered  without  the  limits  of 
this  society,  and  not  be  allowed  to  vote  on  any  question  or  pay  any  dues  in  the 
same.  That  all  employing  printers  who  hold  seats  in  this  society  be  considered 
under  the  regulations  of  the  foregoing  resolution  after  the  first  day  of  December 
next. 

The  numerical  strength  of  the  society  showed  signs  of  deterioration 

at  this  particular  period,  as  was  evidenced  in  the  report  of  October 

4,  1817,  of  the  secretary,  who  stated  that  "  as  many 

Signs  of  as  120  members  appear  in  the  accounts  of  the  society, 

Deterioration,  of  whom  56  have  been  in  arrears  from  one  to  four 
years,  25  from  six  to  twelve  months,  and  20  from 
three  to  six  ditto;  leaving  19  members  to  manage  the  concerns  and 
claim  the  privileges  of  the  institution;  and  only  half  of  them  will 
seemingly  concern  themselves  much  in  the  welfare  of  the  society." 
He  thought  that  "  measures  ought  to  be  taken  to  ascertain  the 
real  disposition  of  those  who  apparently  had  deserted  the  common 
cause,  that  the  constitution  might  be  enforced  against  the  bad 
only." 

Conditions  did  not  improve,  although  upbuilding  efforts  were 
made.  Some  notion  of  the  crisis  through  which  the  society  as  a 
protective  factor  was  passing  was  plainly  indicated  by  the  Board 
of  Directors,  which  at  the  general  meeting  of  March  7,  18 18,  reported 
its  judgment  as  to  the  impropriety  of  a  resolution  of  the  society, 
authorizing  the  board  to  grant  a  specified  weekly  sum  of  money  to 
the  family  of  a  disabled  member  who  had  left  the  city.  While  the 
case  in  itself  was  not  one  of  vital  importance,  yet  it  gave  the  directors 


NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY.  77 

an  opportunity  to  furnish  the  membership  with  the  true  situation 
that  then  confronted  the  association.     Said  they: 

The  board  cannot  view  it  in  any  other  light  than  as  an  imprudent  measure, 
involving  innumerable  cases  to  which  the  limited  means  of  the  society  could 
not  be  applied;  therefore  the  board  are  of  opinion  that  dis- 
appointments, with  angry  emotions,  would  bring  down  upon         Rebellious 
the  society  the  execration  of  many  good  men  impressed  with         Feelings 
the  injustice,  the  partiality,  of  its  proceedings,  for  already  the         Expressed, 
evil  effects  of  such  doings  have  been  manifested  in  the  dis- 
satisfaction, ill-humor,  and  rebellious  feelings  expressed  towards  the  society  when 
its  measures  have  seemingly  carried  its  benefits  beyond  its  natural  limits.     It  is 
what  we  have  a  right  to  anticipate,  for  the  founders  of  the  institution  guarded 
against  such  evils.     They  assumed  for  its  character  no  higher  standard  than  that 
of  a  mutual  benefit  society,  in  order  to  insure  the  rights  of  individuals  from  injuries 
which  would  result  from  exposing  our  scanty  means  in  the  wide  ranges  of  charity. 
The  profession  required  such  an  institution.     Its  members  were  scattered  and 
exposed  to  undue  influences  of  the  corrupt  in  power.     A  good  spirit  gave  it  birth. 
It  was  at  once  the  rallying  point.     The  virtuous  and  noble-minded  joined  in 
its  impulse,  and  its  influence  is  felt  in  every  part  of  our  profession,  and  elicits 
the  exultation  of  its  members. 

Not  only  do  the  sick  and  distressed  members  find  an  ample  fund  from  which 
they  may  justly  claim  assistance,  but  by  the  exchange  of  sentiments,  by  uniting 
in  faith  and  fellowship  with  each  other,  the  affections  and 
finer  feelings  of  our  nature  are  drawn  forth,  and  elevate  the  a  Mutual 

profession  in  a  moral  point  of  view,  to  command  respect  from  Benefit 

the  good  and  to  have  a  beneficial  influence  over  the  bad.  Society. 

Truly  this  is  a  mutual  benefit  society.     In  acts  of  charity 
(so-called)  we  may  demoralize,  but  in  supporting  the  true  character  of  this  insti- 
tution we  advance  the  cause  of  mankind  by  raising  up  the  light  of  improvement 
in  its  front  and  chasing  away  the  glittering  appearances  that  dazzUngly  dance 
upon  the  surface  of  corruption. 

Entertaining  so  exalted  an  opinion  of  the  society  when  contemplated  in  that 
character,  the  board  are  impressed  with  the  importance  of  satisfying  all  expec- 
tations on  the  part  of  members  to  insure  their  hearty  and  cheerful  co-operation 
in  its  behalf;  and  to  that  end  nothing  can  be  more  desirable  than  to  prescribe 
such  limits  to  its  actions  as  will  enable  them  to  see  clearly  the  justice  upon  which 
their  expectations  are  founded,  for  unless  there  be  some  such  guard  we  have  no 
security  from  the  passions  that  might  for  a  moment  dethrone  the  reasoning  power. 

With  these  views  they  consider  the  means  of  the  institution  inadequate  to  the 
relief  of  any  other  cases  than  those  already  contemplated  in  the  constitution, 
and  for  the  better  understanding  of  the  spirit  thereof  they 
would  wish  it  so  expressed  and  received  as  to  convey  the  true       Dissolution 
policy  of  relieving  in  no  cases  except  when  members  are  dis-       Apprehended. 
tressed,  by  refusing  to  accede  to  unjust  demands  when  clearly 
proven;  or  in  cases  of  their  being  distressed  by  sickness,  and  their  widows  when 
distressed  by  sickness  would  form  the  furthest  outHne  of  the  benefits  of  the  insti- 
tution.    Within  these  limits  the  funds  may  be  used  to  the  advantage  and  mutual 
satisfaction  of  all  the  members,  but  the  instant  we  pass  these  the  tumult  and  dis- 
satisfaction excited  by  accumulating  cases  and  disappointments  will  show  the 


78  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION  NUMBER   SIX. 

approaching  dissolution  of  the  society.     Therefore  the  board  are  of  the  opinion 

that  Mr.  S cannot  be  relieved,  as  such  an  act  would  ultimately  defeat 

the  objects  of  the  society;  and  to  prevent  any  bad  consequences  resulting  from 
repealing  the  resolution  under  consideration  at  this  time  they  propose  to  assist 
her  by  private  contributions  from  the  members  of  the  society. 

The  resolution  was  accordingly  reconsidered  and  then  rejected. 


XL 

Act  of  Incorporation  Removes  Its   Protective   Powers. 

Initiatory  steps  were  taken  on  September  4,  181 5,  to  have  the 
society  incorporated  by  legislative  act.  A  committee  was  appointed 
to  draw  up  a  petition  to  the  Legislature  requesting  it  to  legaHze 
the  association,  both  as  a  protective  and  benevolent  institution.  In 
1 8 16  the  Assembly  passed  the  bill  in  conformity  to  the  entreaty  of 
the  printers,  but  the  Senate  rejected  it  on  account  of  the  provision 
permitting  the  association  to  regulate  trade  matters.  For  two  years 
strong  appeals  were  made  to  the  law-making  powers  at  Albany  to 
enact  the  desired  legislation,  but  the  opponents  of  the  protective 
features  in  the  measure  remained  obdurate.  Finally  the  society 
yielded  to  the  will  of  the  resisting  legislators  and  assented  to  the 
proposition  that  removed  it  entirely  from  the  field  of  trade  unionism ; 
the  bill,  which  became  law  on  February  27,  18 18,  prohibiting  it  to 
"  at  any  time  pass  any  law  or  regulation  respecting  the  price  or  wages 
of  labor  or  workmen  or  any  other  articles,  or  relating  to  the  business 
which  the  members  thereof  practice  or  follow  for  a  livelihood."  The 
act  in  full  follows: 

Whereas,  Adoniram  Chandler,  Mortines  Swain,  Thomas  Kennedy,  Augustus 
P.  Searing,  William  Grattan,  James  R.  Reynolds,  and  others,  have  associated 
themselves   together,   under   the   name   and   description   of 
Title  of  "  The  New  York  Typographical  Society,"  for  the  purpose 

Association.        of  affording  relief  to  indigent  and  distressed  members  of  said 
association,  their  widows  and  orphans,  and  others,  who  may 
be  found  proper  objects  of  their  charity:  they  therefore  pray  that  the  Legislature 
will  be  pleased  to  incorporate  them  for  the  purposes  aforesaid,  under  such  limita- 
tions and  restrictions  as  to  the  Legislature  may  seem  meet:     Therefore, 

L  Be  it  enacted  by  the  people  of  the  State  of  New  York,  represented  in  Senate 

and  Assembly,  that  such  persons  as  now  are,  or  shall  from  time  to  time  hereafter, 

become  members  of  said  society,  shall  be  and  hereby  are  or- 

Capable  of  dained,  constituted  and  declared  to  be  a  body  corporate  and 

Suing  and  politic,  in  deed,  fact  and  name,  by  the  title  and  designation 

Being  Sued.         of  "  The  New  York  Typographical  Society;"  and  that  by 

that  name,  they  and  their  successors  shall  have  succession, 

and  shall  be  persons  in  law  capable  of  suing  and  being  sued,  pleading  and  being 

impleaded,  answering  and  being  answered  unto,  defending  and  being  defended. 


NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    SOCIETY.  79 

in  all  courts  and  places  whatsoever,  in  all  manner  of  actions,  suits,  complaints, 
matters  and  causes  whatsoever;  and  that  they  and  their  successors  may  have 
a  common  seal,  and  change  and  alter  it  at  their  pleasure;  and  that  they  and  their 
successors,  by  the  same  name  and  title,  shall  be  capable  in  law,  to  purchase,  take, 
receive,  hold  and  enjoy,  to  them  and  their  successors,  any  real  estate,  in  fee 
simple,  or  for  a  term  of  life  or  lives,  or  otherwise,  and  any  goods,  chattels  or  per- 
sonal estate,  for  the  purpose  of  enabHng  them  the  better 
to  carry  into  effect  the  benevolent  design  of  affording  relief  Relief  for 

to  the  indigent  and  distressed  of  their  members  or  society:  Distressed 

Provided,  that  the  yearly  value  of  such  real  and  personal  Members. 

estate  shall  not  exceed  the  sum   of  $5,000;  and  that  they 
and  their  successors  shall  have  full  power  and  authority  to  give,  grant,  sell, 
lease,  demise  and  dispose  of  the  said  real  and  personal  estate,  or  any  part  thereof, 
at  their  will  and  pleasure;  and  that  they  and  their  successors  shall  have  power, 
from  time  to  time,  to  make,  constitute,  ordain  and  establish,  repeal,  alter  and 
amend  such  by-laws  and  regulations,  as  they  shall  judge  proper,  for  the  admis- 
sion, government  and  expulsion  of  members,  for  fixing  the  times  and  places  of 
the  meetings  and  elections  of  the  officers  of  their  society,  for 
the  management,  application  and  disposition  of  the  estate.       Government 
property  and  funds  of  the  said  corporation,  for  the  regulating       and  Expulsion 
and  determining  the  obUgations  and  duties  of  the  officers  and       °'  Members, 
members  of  the  society,  for  imposing  and  collecting  fines  and 
penalties  for  the  violation  and  breach  of  said  by-laws,  and  generally  to  carry 
into  effect  all  the  before-mentioned  powers,  and  promote  the  charitable  and 
laudable  objects  of  the  institution:     Provided,  always,  that  such  by-laws  and 
regulations  shall  contain  nothing  in  them  repugnant  to  the  constitution  and  laws 
of  the  United  States,  or  of  this  State. 

II    And  it  is  further  enacted,  that  the  officers  of   this   society  shall  be  and 
consist  of  a  president,  vice  president,  treasurer  and  secretary,  to  be  chosen  annu- 
ally, or  at  any  other  time  or  times,  and  with  any  additional 
officers  for  any  diflEerent  periods  which  the  society  may  deem  officers 

fit  and  necessary ;  and  Adoniram  Chandler  is  hereby  appointed  of  the 

and  shall  be  the  president ;  Mortines  Swain  the  vice-president ;  Society. 

Thomas   Kennedy  the  treasurer,  and  Augustus  P.  Searing 
the  secretary,    of  the  said    corporation    or  society,  until  the  next   annual    or 
periodical  meeting  of  the  society,  for  the  election  or  appointment  of  officers,  or 
for  such  periods  or  terms  as  the  by-laws  of  the  society  may  provide  and  deter- 
mine. 

III.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  this  act  shall  be  and  hereby  is  declared 
to  be  a  public  act,  and  that  the  same  shall  be  construed  in  all  courts  and  places, 
benignly  and  favorably  for  every  beneficial  purpose  therein  contained. 

IV    And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  this  act  shall  be  and  remain  in  full  force 
and  virtue,  for  the  term  of  fifteen  years,  from  the  passing  thereof,  and  no  longer, 
unless  it  be  renewed  and  its  duration  prolonged  by  the  Legis- 
lature of  this  State,  at  any  time  hereafter:     Provided  never-  Regulation 
theless,  that  in  case  the  said  society  or  corporation  shall  at  oi  Wages 
any  time,  or  in  any  manner  divert  or  appropriate  its  funds.  Prohibited, 
or  any  part  thereof,  to  any  purpose  or  use,  other  than  those 
intended  or  contemplated  by  this  act,  or  shall  at  any  time  pass  any  law  or  regu- 
lation respecting  the  price  or  wages  of  labor  or  workmen,  or  any  other  articles, 
or  relating  to  the  business  which  the  m^abers  thereof  practice  or  follow  for  a 


80  NEW    YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

livelihood,  and  shall  thereof  be  convicted  by  due  course  of  law,  that  thence- 
forth the  said  corporation  shall  cease  and  terminate,  and  the  estate  thereof, 
whether  real  or  personal,  shall  be  forfeited  by  the  society  and  vest  in  the  people 
of  this  State:  And  provided  further,  that  nothing  herein  contained  shah  be  con- 
strued to  prevent  the  Legislature  of  this  State,  at  any  time,  in  their  discretion 
within  the  period  above  limited,  from  altering  or  repeaHng  this  act:  And 
further,  that  nothing  herein  contained  shall  be  construed  so  as  to  grant  to  the 
said  incorporation  any  banking  privilege  whatever. 

A  committee  which  had  been  appointed  "  to  arrange  or  digest 
regulations  and  by-laws  for  the  government  of  the  society  conform- 
ably to  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  the  act  of 
Ceases  incorporation  "  reported  at  a  special  meeting  of  the 

to  be  a  society  on  March  28,   18 18,  that  "they  proposed 

Trade  Union,  to  arrange  for  publication,  first  the  act  of  incor- 
poration, secondly  the  regulations  consisting  of  20 
articles  prepared  by  them,  thirdly  by-laws  and  rules  of  order."  Then 
the  act  of  incorporation  was  unanimously  accepted  by  the  society  and 
the  laws  amended  to  conform  to  it.  Thus  did  the  New  York  Typo- 
graphical Society  cease  to  be  a  trade  organization,  yet  it  accomplished 
much  in  nine  years  in  the  way  of  safeguarding  the  interests  of  com- 
positors and  pressmen,  which  truth  is  accentuated  by  the  fact  that 
up  to  the  date  that  the  legislative  charter  was  granted  265  journey- 
men printers  had  been  admitted  to  membership  and  signed  its  con- 
stitution. It  never  attempted  to  revive  the  principles  of  trade 
unionism,  although  urged  to  do  so  some  six  years  later  by  the  Frank- 
lin Typographical  Society  of  Boston,  which  wrote  that  it  believed 
the  object  "  that  appears  to  us  the  most  desirable  is  a  more  efficient 
union  than  at  present  exists  between  individual  societies  in  the 
different  towns,"  and  that  "a  closer  union  would  likewise  operate 
usefully  should  we,  at  a  future  day,  be  obliged  to  assert  our  rights 
and  prevent  an  overflow  of  workmen."  On  October  27,  1824,  the 
president  of  the  New  York  society  was  directed  to  answer  the 
communication  "in  a  friendly  manner  and  to  inform  them  that  our 
constitution  forbade  entering  into  their  views." 

In  1832  the  charter  of  the  society  was  renewed  for  a  term  of  fifteen 
years,  expiring  in  April,  1847,  when  it  was  reorganized  under  the  gen- 
eral law  of  the  State  for  charitable  and  benevolent 
Prosperous        purposes.     It  still  exists  as  a  mutual  aid  association 
Benefit  and  enjoys  financial  prosperity.     Early  in  its  career 

Organization,    j^  began  to  aid  the  sick  and  distressed,   paying 
watchers  to  visit  those  who  were  ill,  and  it  com- 
menced to  subscribe  to  the  city  dispensary  on  January  13,  181 5,  for 
the  privilege  of  having  its  patients  cared  for  by  that  institution. 


NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY.  8l 

Never  has  it  failed  to  meet  all  demands  against  its  treasury,  and  at 
present  it  has  a  large  fund  securely  and  profitably  invested.  In- 
scribed on  its  rolls  have  been  men  who  have  achieved  success  and 
honor  in  the  printing  and  other  professions.  Its  membership  for 
many  years  has  consisted  of  employers  and  employed,  and  printers, 
stereotypers,  electrotypers,  pressmen,  editors  and  reporters  between 
the  ages  of  21  and  45  years  are  now  eligible  to  admission.  The 
objects  of  the  society  embrace  "  the  relief  of  sick  and  superannuated 
members,  the  cultivation  of  the  feelings  of  mutual  friendship  and 
respect  between  employers  and  journeymen,  and  general  intellectual 
improvement."  John  A.  Fivey  and  John  McKinley,  Jr.,  both  mem- 
bers of  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  are  president  and  secretary, 
respectively. 

XII. 

Illustrious  Members. 

The  New  York  Typographical  Society  has  embraced  in  its  mem- 
bership many  printers  who  developed  into  national  characters  of 
considerable  distinction.  Some  of  these  celebrities  joined  the  asso- 
ciation after  its  incorporation,  but  only  those  who  became  members 
while  it  was  yet  a  trade  union  and  were  active  in  its  affairs  will  be 
noted  in  these  pages. 

DAVID  H.  REINS.  FIRST  SECRETARY. 

Chief  founder  and  first  secretary  of  the  society  was   David  H. 
Reins,  who  was  bom  in  Newburgh,  N.  Y.,  January  16,  1783.     It 
was  at  his  home  that  in  1809  a  small  gathering  of 
printers  first  discussed  the  advisability  of  banding         Society's 
together  for  the  betterment  of  their  economic  con-         Chief 
dition.     He   was  indentured   December    29,    1795,         Founder, 
to  Jacob  S.  Mott,  a  New  York  master  printer,  and 
accompanied  his   employer    to    Nova    Scotia   in    1800.     Seafaring 
occupied  a  brief  period  of  his  life.     Upon  returning  to  New  York 
he  finished  his  apprenticeship  with  G.  &  R.  Waite,  in  whose  estab- 
ment  he  afterward  assumed  the  foremanship. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  War  of  181 2  Mr.  Reins,  who  was  then 
president  of  the  society,  formed  a  company  of  artillerists,  all  of 
whom  were  printers,  for  the  defense  of  New  York 
harbor,  serving  throughout  hostilities.     Removing    Volunteer  in 
to  Ithaca,  N.  Y.,  in  1830  he  took  charge  of  the  office    War  of  1812. 
of  Mack  &  Andrews.     When  he  went  back  to  the 
Metropolis  several  years  later  he  became  foreman  for  David  Felt, 
a  manufacturing  stationer. 


82  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

Although  a  working  printer  until  infirmity  compelled  his  with- 
drawal from  the  trade,  Mr.  Reins  possessed  rare  intellectual  qualities, 
and  his  work  for  the  society,  comprehended  in  the  minutes  of  its 
deliberations,  official  correspondence,  circulars  and  committee 
reports,  possessed  unusual  literary  merit. 

He  remained  a  member  of  the  society  until  his  death  in  West  Farms 
(which  now  forms  a  part  of  the  Borough  of  The 

Member  of         Bronx)  on  March  23,   1862.     This  veteran  printer 

Typographical     was  also  associated  with  Typographical  Union  No. 

Union  No.  6.  5^  which  he  joined  in  1850,  when  it  was  the  New  York 
Printers'  Union. 

SAMUEL  WOODWORTH,  THE  POET. 

Most  prominent  in  the  councils  of  the  Typographical  Society 
through  its  course  as  a  trade  union  and  for  24  years  afterward  was 
the  genial  poet,  Samuel  Woodworth,  whose  name  will  ever  remain 
upon  the  immortal  scroll  of  America's  great  literary  men.  Proposed 
for  membership  on  August  12,  1809,  he  was  unanimously  admitted 
the  same  evening  and  signed  the  constitution,  his  signature  being 
the  fifty-fifth  on  that  original  instrument. 

Youngest  son  of  a  Revolutionary  patriot,  he  was  bom  in  Scituate, 
Mass.,  January  13,  1785.  After  receiving  a  limited  education  in 
his  native  town,  including  instruction  in  the  classics  by  the  Rev. 
Nehemiah  Thomas,  at  the  age  of  17  years  he  was  apprenticed  to 
Benjamin  Russell,  publisher  and  editor  of  the  Boston  Columbian 
Centinel.  Upon  the  expiration  of  his  indenture  he  proceeded  to 
New  Haven,  Conn.,  and  issued  there  a  weekly  paper  called  the 
Belles-Lettres  Repository,  the  publication  of  which  was  abandoned 
after  twc  years.  In  1809  the  young  printer-poet  removed  to  New 
York  City,  where  for  a  while  he  worked  at  the  printing  trade,  and 
in  18 1 2  founded  The  War.  With  Gen.  George  P.  Morris,  who 
became  a  member  of  the  society  after  its  incorporation  and  who 
is  best  known  as  the  author  of  "  Woodman,  Spare  That  Tree," 
Woodworth  estabHshed  the  New  York  Mirror,  a  popular  literary 
journal.  He  also  wrote  a  history  of  the  War  of  18 12  and  several 
dramatic  pieces,  chiefly  operatic.  But  his  fame  as 
Poet  of  a  poet  rests  principally  upon   "  The  Old  Oaken 

Distinction.         Bucket,"  that  superb  lyric  "  which  has  embalmed 
in  undying  verse  so  many  of  the  most  touching 
recollections  of  rural  childliood,  and  will  preserve  the  more  poetic 
form  oaken,  together  with  the  memory  of  the  almost  obsolete  imple- 
ment it  celebrates,  through  all  dialectic  changes  as  long  as  English 


SAMUEL  WOODWORTH, 
Union  Printer  and  Poet,  Author  of  "  The  Old  Oaken 
Bucket." 


NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY.  83 

shall  be  a  spoken  language.""  This  masterpiece  (which  appears 
in  a  volume  of  182  poems  issued  by  the  author  in  1826),  under  the 
title  of  "  The  Bucket,"  endures  as  a  musical  gem,  and  is  still  sung 
to  the  air  of  '''  The  Flower  of  Dumblane:" 

THE  BUCKET. 

How  dear  to  this  heart  are  the  scenes  of  my  childhood, 

When  fond  recollection  presents  them  to  view! 
The  orchard,  the  meadow,  the  deep-tangled  wild-wood, 

And  every  loved  spot  which  my  infancy  knew ! 
The  wide-spreading  pond,  and  the  mill  that  stood  by  it, 

The  bridge,  and  the  rock  where  the  cataract  fell, 
The  cot  of  my  father,  the  dairy-house  nigh  it, 

And  e'en  the  rude  bucket  that  hung  in  the  well  — 
The  old  oaken  bucket,  the  iron-bound  bucket. 
The  moss-covered  bucket  which  hung  in  the  well. 

That  moss-covered  vessel  I  hail'd  as  a  treasure. 

For  often  at  noon,  when  return'd  from  the  field, 
I  found  it  the  source  of  an  exquisite  pleasure, 

The  purest  and  sweetest  that  nature  can  yield. 
How  ardent  I  seized  it,  with  hands  that  were  glowing, 

And  quick  to  the  white-pebbled  bottom  it  fell; 
Then  soon,  with  the  emblem  of  truth  overflowing, 

And  dripping  with  coolness,  it  rose  from  the  well  — 
The  old  oaken  bucket,  the  iron-bound  bucket, 
The  moss-covered  bucket  arose  from  the  well. 

How  sweet  from  the  green  mossy  brim  to  receive  it. 

As  poised  on  the  curb  it  inclined  to  my  lips. 
Not  a  full  blushing  goblet  could  tempt  me  to  leave  it, 

The  brightest  that  beauty  or  revelry  sips. 
And  now,  far  removed  from  the  loved  habitation, 

The  tear  of  regret  will  intrusively  swell. 
As  fancy  reverts  to  my  father's  plantation. 

And  sighs  for  the  bucket  that  hangs  in  the  well  — 
The  old  oaken  bucket,  the  iron-bound  bucket. 
The  moss-covered  bucket  that  hangs  in  the  well! 

From  the  moment  that  he  attached  himself  to  the  Typographical 
Society  Woodworth  took  a  lively  interest  in  its  doings.     He  was 
elected  a  member  of  its  Board  of  Directors  and  was 
first  seated  in  that  body  on  December   16,   1809.       Ardent 
For  several  years  he  filled  that  position  creditably       Labor 
and   also   served   on  important   committees.     Fre-        Advocate. 
quently   he  was    chosen  judge   of  elections.     His 
ardency  in  the  cause  he  represented  was  particularly  illustrated  at 
the  banquet    given  on   July    4,   18 10,  to  celebrate  Independence 

"  Hon.  George  P.  Marsh,  "  Lectures  on  the  English  Language,"  New  York,  i860. 


84  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Day  and  the  first  anniversary  of  the  society,  when  he  proposed 
this  toast,  the  italicized  words  being  technical  terms  used  in  the 
art  of  printing: 

The  enemies  of  our  art  and  institution.  May  opposers  of  our  rules  (mere 
ciphers  in  the  world),  who  seek  to  raise  squabbles  in  this  society,  to  break  down 
our  regulations  and  batter  the  principles  of  this  institution,  however  conspicuous 
their  figures  or  respectable  their  characters,  soon  find  that  our  regular  workmen 
will  point  ac  them  with  contempt,  and  register  them  in  our  page;  and  should  they 
persist  in  their  error  and  continue  to  impose  on  their  brethren  they  will  be  called 
to  the  bar  to  answer  proper  interrogations  respecting  the  matter;  when  if  they  fail 
to  justify  their  conduct,  or  correct  the  procedure,  may  they  be  pulled  by  the  nose, 
beat  on  the  ribs,  consigned  to  the  devil  and  thrown  into  hell! 

On  the  same  occasion  the  following  ode,  written  especially  for  the 
event  by  the  poet,  was  sung : 

ART  OF  PRINTING. 

When  o'er  proud  Tyber's  flood 

Fair  Science  rear'd  her  dome, 
And  Greece  had  lent  her  arts 

To  gild  imperial  Rome, 
Ambitious  Genius  aim'd  her  flight 

To  seek  unknown  renown. 
But,  veil'd  in  sable  shades  of  night, 

She  sunk  bewilder'd  down. 

Chorus. 
For  Fate  to  them  denied  the  art 

Which  gives  fair  knowledge  birth, 
Refines  the  human  heart, 

And  scatters  bliss  on  earth. 

No  soft  refinements  graced 

Or  harmonized  the  mind; 
For  maddening  war's  career 

Left  calmer  joys  behind; 
The  social  ties  which  life  endear 

Their  thought  could  ne'er  engage, 
The  sympathetic  smile  and  tear 

Were  lost  in  battle's  rage. 

Chorus. 

For  Fate  to  them  denied  the  art 

Which  gives  fair  knowledge  birth, 

Refines  the  human  heart, 

And  scatters  bliss  on  earth. 

Time  told  a  thousand  years 

On  his  eventful  page. 
When  Faust  at  length  appears 

To  bless  the  happy  age; 


NEW    YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY.  85 

His  plastic  hand  lends  Genius  wings, 

Bids  Wisdom's  temple  soar, 
And  infant  Learning  joyful  springs 

With  powers  unknown  before. 

Chorus. 
His  was  the  Heaven-descended  art 

To  give  fair  knowledge  birth. 
To  mend  the  human  heart 

And  civilize  the  earth. 

The  sun  of  vScience  rose 

And  chased  the  clouds  of  night; 
While  wondering  realms  survey'd 

Astonished  at  the  sight ; 
The  social  arts,  in  wisdom's  train, 

With  love  and  peace  advance, 
Teach  man  to  feel  his  fellow's  pain, 

A  brother's  joy  enhance. 

Chorus. 

Ours  is  the  Heaven-descended  art, 

To  give  fair  knowledge  birth, 
To  mend  the  human  heart, 

And  civilize  the  earth. 

Hail!  art  of  arts!  all  hail! 

Thy  praises  mock  the  lyre; 
To  reach  the  boundless  theme, 

Its  tones  in  vain  aspire; 
But  grateful  hearts  which  feel  the  bliss 

Thy  magic  power  bestows. 
Respond  to  every  strain  like  this, 

How  dull  so'er  it  flows: 

Chorus. 

Ours  is  the  Heaven-descended  art. 

To  give  fair  knowledge  birth. 
To  mend  the  human  heart. 

And  civilize  the  earth. 

This  patriotic  song,  of  which  Woodworth  was  the  author,  was 
also  rendered  at  the  festivities : 

COLUMBIA'S  INDEPENDENCE. 

Come  crowd  around  the  festive  board. 
And  join  the  song  with  one  accord. 
Be  every  breast  with  pleasure  stored, 

And  care  and  envy  send  hence. 
Our  dear-bought  freedom  we  will  praise 

The  right  of  our  descendants; 
And  every  glowing  heart  shall  raise 
The  chorus  of  our  joyful  lays, 

Columbia's  Independence. 


86  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

Be  party  rancor  banish'd  hence, 
For  Peace  is  Virtue's  recompense; 
Friendship  and  love  on  no  pretence 

Should  ever  meet  with  hindrance. 
Let  sons  of  Freedom  e'er  agree 

In  amity's  attendance; 
For  why  should  men  existing  free 
Deform  with  discord's  stormy  sea 

Columbia's  Independence? 

We  here  assemble  to  rejoice 
That  patriots  with  united  voice 
Once  rose  and  made  this  manly  choice 

For  them  and  their  descendants. 
They  Freedom's  eagle  rais'd  on  high, 

Amid  the  stars'  resplendence ; 
And  swore  to  fight  and  bravely  die, 
If  foreign  despots  dare  deny 

Columbia's  Independence. 

Bellona  goads  her  foaming  steeds. 
Beneath  her  car  oppression  bleeds. 
And  Tyranny  with  haste  recedes 

With  all  her  curst  attendants; 
Our  patriot  fathers  gain'd  the  day 

For  them  and  their  descendants- 
For  which  we  raise  the  joyful  lay, 
And  on  our  banners  still  display 

Columbia's  Independence 

Then  Freedom  bade  the  temple  rise. 
Whose  fabric  every  foe  defies. 
While  joyous  seraphs  from  the  skies 

Bestow  their  glad  attendance; 
And  shades  of  martyrs  smiling  see 

The  joy  of  their  descendants: 
Their  sons  united,  brave  and  free, 
And  yearly  hail  with  mirth  and  glee 

Columbia's  Independence. 

Preparations  for  the  second  annual  banquet  of  the  society  were 
begun  in  the  spring  of  i8i  i.  At  a  general  meeting  held  on  April  6th 
on  motion  of  Ichabod  Hoit  it  was  "  resolved  that  a  medal  of  the 
value  of  $io  or  thereunder  be  presented  to  the  person  who  will 
compose  the  best  ode  on  the  art  of  printing,  to  be  sung  on  the  anni- 
versary celebration  of  the  New  York  Typographical  Society;  each 
ode  to  be  presented  at  the  monthly  meeting  previous  to  the  Fourth 
of  July.  The  name  of  the  author  to  be  sealed  in  a  piece  of  paper 
attached  to  the  ode  and  not  to  be  opened  unless  it  obtains  the  prize. 


NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY.  87 

The  merit  of  the  piece  to  be  decided  by  a  majority  of  the  general 
meeting  present . ' ' 

Through  the  medium  of  the  president  two  original  productions 
were  presented  to  the  Board  of  Directors  on  June  15th.     They  were 
referred    to    a    committee    consisting    of    William 
Burbidge,  David  H.  Reins  and  Ichabod  Hoit.    Mr.        Awarded 
Reins,  who  read  them  at  a  special  meeting  of  the       Medal 
society  on  June  29th,  stated  that  the  members  of       ^°^  O^®- 
the  committee  were  "unanimously  of  the  opinion 
that  the  ode  marked  No.  i  was  entitled  to  the  prize  medal."     The 
sense  of  the  meeting  being  taken  on  the  subject  of  their  merits  the 
award  was  made  to  the  writer  of  No.    i,  and  "  on  opening  the 
sealed    package  attached  to   No.   i  it  appeared  that  Mr.  Samuel 
Woodworth  was  the  author."     A  committee  was  then  appointed 
"  to  procure  a  medal  for   Mr.  Samuel  Woodworth  not  to  exceed 
the  sum  of  $10." 

The  celebration  of  the  thirty-fifth  anniversary  of  American  inde- 
pendence and  the  second  of  the  society  occurred  on  July  4th  at 
No.  10  Fair  street.  At  sunrise  the  national  flag  was  displayed,  at 
Coleman's  hostelry,  where  at  12  o'clock  the  members  assembled 
and  enjoyed  "  an  appropriate  and  excellent  oration  on  the  art  of 
printing  pronounced  by  Mr.  George  Asbridge.  At  3  o'clock  the 
society  sat  down  to  a  sumptuous  repast,  after  which  toasts,  odes, 
etc.,  prepared  for  the  occasion  were  dispatched  with  a  hilarity  and 
joy  only  equalled  by  the  hannony  which  sweetened  them."*^  The 
ode  composed  by  Samuel  Woodworth,  the  successful  competitor  for  the 
prize  medal,  was  sung  by  David  H.  Reins.     It  follows: 

PRINTERS*  ODE. 

From  the  crystalline  courts  of  the  temple  of  light, 
The  dove-eye  of  Mercy  to  earth  was  directed, 
Where  mortals  were  grovelling  deep  shrouded  in  night, 
For  passion  was  worshipp'd  and  wisdom  rejected: 
Immers'd  in  each  ill 
Of  corrupted  free-will. 
Yet  mercy  was  patient,  and  vengeance  slept  still: 
For  Infinite  Love  had  his  banner  unfurl'd. 
And  the  precepts  of  wisdom  were  preached  to  the  world. 

But  haughty  Ambition  extended  his  reign, 

And  wielded  the  sceptre  of  magic  delusion, 
Held  reason  enshackled  in  tyranny's  chain, 

And  governed  by  knowledge  and  learning's  exclusion. 


*»  New  York  Columbian,  July  9,  1811. 


88  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER    SIX. 

Omnipotence  saw, 

Bade  delusion  withdraw, 
And  ordain'd  that  OUR  ART  should  promulgate  His  law. 
Then  Genius  its  fetters  at  Tyranny  hurl'd, 
And  Printing  appear'd  to  enlighten  the  world. 

The  blush  of  Aurora  now  lighted  the  east 

And  banished  the  darkness  of  mystical  terror: 
Man  sprang  from  the  shrine  where  he'd  worshipp'd  the  beast, 
While  Prejudice  own'd  and  relinquished  his  error; 
The  truth  was  receiv'd, 
Admired  and  believ'd, 
And  ours  is  the  art  which  the  blessing  achiev'd. 
For  now  was  the  banner  of  wisdom  unfurl'd, 
And  printing  promulgated  truth  through  the  world. 

The  sage  of  Genoa,  whose  high-soaring  soul, 

By  a  flash  from  our  art  glowed  with  new  inspiration; 
In  brilliant  perspective  saw  glory's  bright  goal, 

And  enroU'd  a  new  world  on  the  page  of  creation: 
With  fame-swelling  breast, 
Still  onward  he  press'd. 
Till  Eden's  bright  regions  appear'd  in  the  west; 
Each  clime  saw  the  canvas  of  Europe  unfurl'd 
While  Printing  taught  commerce  to  polish  the  world. 

But  the  sons  of  the  West  to  more  glory  were  born, 

And  to  us  shall  proud  Europe  the  laurel  surrender. 
For-  though  hers  was  the  blushing  effulgence  of  mom, 
Yet  ours  is  the  noon  of  meridian  splendor; 
For  Heaven  decreed. 
That  Columbia  be  freed. 
And  Printing  and  valor  accomplish'd  the  deed, 
The  banner  of  war  was  by  Justice  unfurl'd 
And  Freedom  by  Printing  proclaim'd  to  the  world. 

Our  standard  the  eagle  of  liberty  bears. 

His  eyes,  like  the  stars  which  surround  him,  resplendent; 
While  the  olive  asks  peace,  every  arrow  declared, 
"  Columbia  forever  shall  be  independent;" 
For  freedom  is  ours, 
Nor  shall  Europe's  mad  powers 
A  feather  e'er  filch  from  our  bird  as  he  towers; 
And  while  Printing  its  influence  extends  thro'  the  world, 
The  banner  of  Freedom  shall  never  be  furl'd. 


Another  lyric  prepared  by  Mr.  Woodworth  for  the  celebration 
and  vocalized  by  Mr.  Asbridge  is  presented  below : 


NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY.  89 

PRINTING  AND  INDEPENDENCE. 

When  wrapp'd  in  folds  of  feudal  gloom, 

Dark  superstition  awed  the  world, 
Consign'd  fair  knowledge  to  the  tomb 

And  Error's  sable  flag  unfurl'd; 
Earth  heard  this  mandate  from  the  skies, 
"  Let  there  be  light  —  great  Art,  arise!" 

Fair  Science  wip'd  her  tears  and  smil'd. 

And  Infant  Genius  plum'd  his  wing, 
The  Arts  assemble  round  the  child, 

And  all  the  glowing  chorus  sing: 
Rise,  son  of  science,  quick  arise! 
And  lend  thy  light  to  darken'd  eyes. 

Our  Art  arose  and  man  had  light. 

The  clouds  of  superstition  fled. 
The  fiend  of  ignorance  took  his  flight 

And  Error  hid  his  hateful  head; 
Whilst  swell'd  this  chorus  to  the  skies. 
Our  Art  shall  live  and  Freedom  rise. 

The  goddess,  who  for  ages  past. 

Had  wept  beneath  despotic  might. 
Her  cankering  fetters  burst  at  last, 

And  claim'd  the  charter  of  her  right: 
While  men  and  seraphs  join'd  this  strain  — 

"  Printing  shall  live  and  Freedom  reign." 

Hail,  Freedom!    hail,  celestial  guest! 

O  never  from  thy  sons  depart; 
Thine  be  the  empire  of  the  West, 

Thy  temple  every  freeman's  heart; 
The  Art  of  Printing  gave  thee  birth. 
And  brightens  still  thy  reign  on  earth. 

Arise,  ye  favor'd  sons  of  light. 

Professors  of  our  Heaven-born  art, 
And  in  the  chorus  all  unite. 

While  joy  expands  each  throbbing  heart; 
"  The  Art  of  Printing  shall  endure, 
And  Independence  be  secure." 

Apparently  the  committee  that  had  been  selected  to  ptirchase  a 
medal  for  the  successful  candidate  displayed  laxity,  for  the  minutes 
of  the  general  meeting  of  February  i,  1812,  show  that  the  members 
comprising  it  were  "requested  to  exhibit  it  at  the  next  general 
meeting  of  the  society,  if  possible."  But  the  medal  was  not  forth- 
coming, which  fact  caused  the  association  on  September  4,  1813, 
to  bring  the  matter  to  a  happy  ending  with  the  declaration  that,  — 


go  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER  SIX. 

Whereas,  A  committee  were  appointed  some  time  since  to  procure  and  present 
to  Samuel  Woodworth  a  gold  medal  of  the  value  of  $io  for  an  ode  written  for 
our  second  anniversary;  and  said  committee  having  neglected  to  do  the  same, 
therefore, 

Resolved,  That  Mr.  Woodworth  receive  the  sum  of  $io  for  the  purpose  of  pro- 
curing a  medal  to  his  own  liking. 

When  Secretary  Reins  informed  the  Board  of  Directors  on  Sep- 
tember 25,   1830,  that  being  about  to  remove  with  his  family  to 
Ithaca  and  therefore  under  the  necessity  of  vacating 
Elected  his  office,  the  resignation  was  accepted  and  Samuel 

Secretary.  Woodworth  was  appointed  to  temporarily  fill  the 
position  until  a  regular  election  was  had  by  the 
society,  which  was  on  November  6th,  when  he  was  the  unanimous 
choice  for  secretary.  At  the  time  he  was  vice-president,  but  in  a 
graceful  note  he  relinquished  that  official  station  as  being  "  incom- 
patible with  the  duties  of  my  new  appointment." 

Besides  being  a  celebrated  poet  Mr.  Woodworth  was  also  a  man 
of  intense  practicality  and  methodical  to  an  eminent  degree.     Inno- 
vations began  with  his  incimibency.   He  introduced 
Valuable  the  system  of  indexing  on  the  margin  of  the  society's 

Hints  to  minutes  at  each  page,  suggested  the  advisability 

Present-Day       of  bringing  together  all  doctmients  connected  with 
Officials.  ^YiQ  affairs  of  the  association  so  that  they  could 

be  duly  filed  and  regularly  deposited  in  the  archives 
of  the  institution,  and  he  arranged  and  filed  systematically  such 
papers  as  came  into  his  possession  when  he  assumed  the  duties 
of  the  secretaryship.  He  conducted  the  fiscal  business  of  the  society 
in  so  capable  and  energetic  a  manner  that  he  was  unanimously 
re-elected  in  183 1,  1832  and  1833,  and  had  but  one  vote  recorded 
against  him  in  1834.  His  first  report,  delivered  on  December  31, 
1830,  is  worthy  of  careftd  perusal  by  present-day  recording  and 
financial  officials  of  organizations.  From  it  they  will  gather  ideas 
that  will  be  helpful  to  them  not  only  as  to  correct  methods  in  keeping 
accounts  and  inditing  proceedings,  but  in  the  care  and  preservation 
of  valuable  records.     Following  is  the  complete  text: 

In  making  the  usual  semi-annual  report  from  this  department,  it  has  been 
deemed  expedient,  in  the  present  instance,  to  go  into  some  details  not  alluded  to 
in  several  previous  documents  of  this  nature.  The  undersigned  has,  therefore, 
since  the  books  of  the  New  York  Typographical  Society  were  committed  to  his 
charge,  carefully  and  critically  investigated  their  contents,  rectified  several  errors 
and  inaccuracies  not  detected  by  his  predecessors;  and  posted  all  the  current 
accounts  on  the  ledger,  down  to  the  present  date.  The  result  of  these  labors  is 
herewith  submitted  to  the  consideration  of  the  society. 


NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY.  Ql 

Since  the  commencement  of  this  institution  in  the  year  1809,  the  number  of 
names  which  have  been  entered  on  the  books,  as  members,  amounts  to  408.     Of 
these,  56  are  known  to  have  been  taken  from  us  by  death; 
140  have  been  expelled  —  generally  for  delinquency  in  the         Membership 
payment  of  monthly  dues;  3  are  marked  as  suspended,  and         Since 
4  as  having  voluntarily  resigned  or  withdrawn.     Ninety-four         Inception, 
are  marked  as  absent;  several  of  whom  are  known  to  be 
permanently  located  in  other  cities,  and  in  various  sections  of  the  country;  some 
of  them  proprietors  of  flourishing  and  lucrative  establishments,  amply  able  to 
liquidate  the  arrears  of  their  old  accounts;  and  a  few  of  them,  were  they  properly 
appealed  to,  might  be  induced  (by  a  sense  of  justice  and  honour)  to  do  so.     It  is 
difficult  to  conjecture  what  proportion  of  these  94  absentees  may  ever  return, 
and  adjust  their  unsettled  accounts  with  the  society;  but  there  is  no  difficulty 
in  proving  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  them  were,  at  the  time  of  their  departure, 
indebted  for  monthly  dues,  amounting  in  the  aggregate,  as  they  stand  exhibited 
on  the  ledger,  to  the  enormous  sum  of  $991.80  ! 

There  are  now  within  the  jurisdiction  of  this  society  iii  members;  26  of  whom 
have  fully  compHed  with  all  the  requisitions  of  the  constitution  and  by-laws  — 
completed  their  probationary  state  of  monthly  contributors, 
and  are  now  what  we  justly  and  emphatically  denominate     Advantage 
free  members  ^*  —  for  the  punctual  and  ultimate  discharge  of     o*  Being  in 
their  duties  have  made  them  "  free  indeed,"  entitled  to  all  *^  '^^' 

the  privileges  conferred  by  the  institution;  and  if  either  or 
all  of  them  were  to  be  suddenly  reduced  to  sickness  and  poverty,  the  treasury 
of  charity  and  benevolence,  which  they  so  nobly  labored  in  establishing,  would 
instantly  be  thrown  open  to  their  necessities,  in  whatever  sections  of  the  globe 
they  might  chance  to  reside,  when  making  their  appUcation  for  relief. 

Not  so  with  several  others,  who  have  shrunk  from  the  contest  when  victory 
was  just  within  their  grasp;  several  who  have  held  out  with  us  thus  far,  and  yet 
now  stop  to  take  breath;  or,  in  plain  statistical  language,  several  whose  monthly 
dues  have  long  since  ceased  to  accumulate,  and  who  might,  each  of  them,  readily 
become  a  free  member  by  the  liquidation  of  a  trifling  balance.  They  ought  to 
bear  in  mind  that  such  Hquidation  wiU  come  too  late,  when  proffered,  with  a 
trembling  hand,  from  the  couch  of  disease.  At  such  a  crisis  our  constitution, 
in  justice  to  others,  will  very  properly  close  the  door  of  mercy  to  them. 

If  this  remark  may  be  appUed  to  those  who  have,  for  a  long  time,  contributed 
to  the  increase  of  our  treasury;  who  have  patiently  "  borne  the  heat  and  the 
burden  of  the  day,"  and  whose  recent  delinquencies  may 
perhaps  be  solely  owing  to  their  confidence  of  success,  how      Chann  in  the 
much  more  forcibly  must  it  apply  to  those  who  have  joined     Phrase  "  My     ^^ 
us,  as  it  were,  at  the  eleventh  hour;  who  have  contributed     ^"^^  ^*  ^^'**' 
comparatively  nothing,  and  whose  arrearages  already  amount 
to  much.     Our  treasury  is  now  rich;  but  not  from  them,  and  of  course  not  for 
them.     The  only  "open  sesame!"  that  can  penetrate  to  its  bounties  is  the 
irresistible  charm  contained  in  the  words:     "  My  dues  are  paid."     After  deduct- 
ing the  above  26  there  remain,  within  this  jurisdiction,  85  members  whose  accounts 


"  There  was  a  rule  in  the  early  days  of  the  society  that  after  a  member  had  paid  dues  for  a 
specified  period  he  became  exempt  from  further  payments,  but  continued  to  share  in  all  benefits. 
This  was  termed  "  free  membership."  After  a  long  experience  the  impracticability  of  the  practice 
was  realized  and  it  was  abolished. 


92  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

are  still  open.  Of  these,  34  owe  less  than  6  months'  dues;  9  owe  just  6  months; 
7  owe  for  7  months;  3  owe  for  8  months;  3  for  13  months;  i  for  14  months;  2  for 
15  months,  2  for  17,  2  for  18,  3  for  20,  3  for  21,  i  for  22,  2  for  23,  1  for  2  years 
and  3  months,  i  for  2  years  and  5  months,  I  for  2  years  and  7  months,  1  for  2 
years  and  8  months,  i  for  2  years  and  10  months,  i  for  3  years  and  2  months, 
I  for  3  years  and  9  months,  i  for  4  years,  i  for  5  years,  and  i  for  5  years  and  6 
months. 

The  aggregate  amount  of  these  various  debts,  including  a  few  fines  due  from 
free  members,  is  $201.60;  less  by  $83.31  than  the  sum  reported  as  due  from  the 
same  persons  in  June  last.  This  difference,  however,  may  be  partially  accounted 
for  by  the  fact  that  three  members  have  been  expelled,  and  two  others  left  the 
city,  since  that  period,  the  aggregate  amount  of  whose  dues  is  $49.31. 

The  average  of  fines,  including  badges,  etc.,  now  due  from  free  members  (and 
only  five  of  the  26  are  thus  indebted),  amount  to  $15.43. 

Before  taking  leave  of  the  subject,  your  secretary  begs  leave  to  suggest  the 
propriety  of  never  writing  the  word  expelled  to  a  member's  name,  except  for  such 
acts  as  would  subject  him  to  this  degradation  even  were  his  dues  all  punctually 
paid.  The  funds  of  the  society  are  sufficiently  safe,  and  the  punishment  of  the 
delinquent  sufficiently  severe,  by  his  being  suspended  or  debarred  all  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  the  institution.  This  would  leave  a  door  open  through  which 
many  might  be  induced  to  return  to  the  bosom  of  the  institution,  and  punctually 
fulfill  all  their  engagements.  But  there  is  certainly  attached  to  the  word  expul- 
sion a  kind  of  stigma  or  disgrace  that  often  kindles  an  indignant  feeling  in  the 
breasts  of  those  who  have  incurred  it;  and  which  exists  as  an  insurmountable 
barrier  to  their  hereafter  becoming  useful  and  honourable  members.  It  is 
therefore  the  opinion  of  your  secretary,  after  mature  reflection,  that  the  substi- 
tution of  a  milder  term  would  operate  to  the  permanent  advantage  of  this 
institution. 

Within  the  last  six  months  there  has  been  an  accession  to  the  society  of  four 
new  members,  making  a  total  of  eleven  within  the  year.  Only  one  death  has 
occurred  since  the  last  report. 

Since  the  month  of  June  last  the  amount  of  monthly  dues  received  (including 
one  forfeiture)  is  $106.75  and  $20  for  initiation  fees,  making  a  total  of  $126.75. 

In  the  archives  of  so  respectable  and  important  an  institution  as  the  New  York 

Typographical  Society,  which  has  now  been  in  existence  for  more  than  twenty 

years,  I  expected  to  have  found  voluminous  files  of  papers, 

Preservation  accumulated  from  various  sources.     In  this  expectation  I 

of  Important  have    been    disappointed.     On    entering    upon    the    official 

Records.  duties  of  secretary  I  only  found  (besides  the  regular  books 

of  the  institution)  a  little  rude  mass  of  manuscripts  thrown 

promiscuously  together,  without  method,  form,  or  designation.     Out  of  this 

chaos  I  have  attempted  to  produce  order.     These  papers  are  now  all  neatly 

folded,  assorted,  endorsed,  marked,  dated  and  numbered;  so  that  any  one  of 

them  can  be  instantly  referred  to  without  the  least  trouble  or  inconvenience. 

They  are  divided  into  eight  distinct  parcels  appropriately  labelled  and  numbered. 

In  conclusion,  the  undersigned  feels  it  his  duty  to  ask,  where  are  all  the  deficient 
or  missing  documents,  the  presence  of  which  is  absolutely  necessary  to  preserve  a 
regular  chain  in  the  records  or  annals  of  this  institution?  It  is  true  that  the  min- 
utes exist ;  but  they  often  refer  to  important  papers  which  are  not  to  be  found  in 
this  department.     I  would,  therefore,  respectfully  suggest  the  propriety  of  a  reso- 


NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY.  93 

lution,  calling  upon  every  officer  and  member  of  this  society,  who  may  have  in 
his  possession  any  original  papers,  documents,  communications,  receipts,  etc., 
or  manuscripts  of  any  description,  which  properly  appertain  to  this  department, 
to  hand  the  same  over  to  the  secretary  as  soon  as  convenient,  in  order  that  the 
same  may  be  duly  filed,  and  regularly  deposited  in  the  archives  of  the  institution. 

When  the  society  met  on  March  26,  1831,  it  gave  heed  to  the 
secretary's  timely  recommendation  concerning  the  assembling  and 
preservation  of  precious  records,  by  unanimously  resolving  "  that 
every  officer  or  member  of  this  society  who  may  have  in  his  possession 
any  papers  relative  to  the  proceedings  or  correspondence  of  the  same, 
hand  them  over  to  the  secretary  as  soon  as  convenient,  in  order  that 
they  may  be  regularly  filed  and  deposited  in  the  archives  of  this 
society." 

Meagre  indeed  was  the  pecuniary  compensation  that  Secretary 
Woodworth  received  for  his  services,  but  his  unflagging  interest  in 
the  welfare  of  the  society  prompted  him  to  sacrifice  personal  comfort 
and  aggrandizement  in  order  to  enhance  its  affairs.  An  example 
of  this  devotion  is  found  in  the  rninutes  of  the  Board  of  Directors 
on  March  31,  1832,  when  the  poet  "presented  his  quarterly  bill 
for  three  months'  services  and  extra  duties,  etc.,"  as  follows: 

New  York  Typographical  Society 
To  S.  Woodworth.  Dr. 
1832 

March  31      To  three  months'    salary $7. SO 

13     Serving  notices  for  Mr.  Rice's  funeral 1.50 

Postage  to  and  from  Albany 62  i/a 

$9.62  1/2 

"A  motion  was  made  and  seconded  that  the  bill  of  the  secretary 
be  accepted  and  passed  for  payment,"  good-humoredly  wrote  Wood- 
worth  in  the  minutes  of  the  Board  of  Directors.  "  But  the  president 
pro  tem.,  with  his  characteristic  and  highly  laudable  caution  against 
any  act  that  might  possibly  infringe  the  letter  or  spirit  of  the  consti- 
tution, declined  putting  the  question  until  the  bill  had  passed  the 
ordeal  of  an  auditing  committee.  It  was  then  resolved  that  a  com- 
mittee of  three  be  appointed  by  the  president  pro  tem.  This  motion 
was  opposed  on  the  grounds  that  auditing  committees  had  never 
heretofore  been  appointed  by  the  Board  of  Directors,  but  always 
by  the  society  in  their  semi-annual  general  meetings.  The  motion, 
however,  finally  prevailed."  The  chair  appointed  the  committee, 
"  who  after  a  patient  investigation  pronounced  the  secretary's  bill 
to  be  correct,  after  which,  on  motion,  it  was  unanimously  passed  for 
payment." 


94  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

Until  April  ii,  1835,  Woodworth  continued  to  discharge  the  duties 
of  secretary,  but  having  arranged  to  leave  the  city  he  on  that  date 
submitted  his  resignation  to  the  society  in  this  characteristic  com- 
munication : 

To  the  President,  Officers  and  Members  of  the  New  York  Typographical  Scciety: 
Gentlemen:  —  Being  about  to  leave  the  jurisdiction  of  the  society  for  an 
indefinite  period,  I  beg  leave  to  tender  my  resignation  as  secretary  of  your  hon- 
ourable body. 

In  thus  taking  leave  of  an  institution  of  which  I  have  been  a  member  for  more 
than  twenty-five  years,  I  cannot  refrain  from  a  feeble  attempt  to  express  my 
warm  attachment  to  its  interests,  as  well  as  my  personal  affection  for  each  and 
all  of  its  members  individually;  together  with  my  warm  and  grateful  acknowledg- 
ment for  the  many  acts  of  courtesy  and  friendship  which  I  have  experienced 
at  their  hands.  Rest  assured,  gentlemen,  that  whatever  may  be  my  future  fate 
or  fortune,  and  wherever  I  may  be  located  by  Providence,  the  many  happy 
hours  I  have  experienced  in  being  associated  with  you  in  supporting  the  interests 
of  the  institution,  and  those  of  the  profession  generally,  will  visit  my  remembrance 
like  smiling  angels  of  mercy  and  approbation  —  and  their  visits  will  be  neither 
few,  short,  nor  far  between.  I  shall  always  hail  from  the  New  York  Typographi- 
cal Society,  with  pride  and  pleasure,  and  shall  seize  upon  every  occasion  to  pro- 
mote its  welfare  and  prosperity,  both  in  public  and  private. 

That  the  New  York  Typographical  Society  may  long  continue  to  flourish, 
and  proceed  in  its  labours  of  love  and  benevolence,  will  ever  be  the  sincere  and 
fervent  prayer  of  him  who  now  bids  you  as  a  body  a  long  and  affectionate  farewell. 

Samuel  Woodworth. 

Returning  subsequently  to  New  York  he  siiffered  from  an  attack 
of  paralysis,  the  distress  of  which  he  endtued  with  fortitude  and 
forbearance  for  six  years,  and  passed  away  in  that  city  on  December 
9,  1842. 

For  a  long  time  prior  to  his  demise  Samuel  Woodworth  was  em- 
ployed as  a  clerk  in  the  Brooklyn  Navy  Yard,  Though  lack  of 
financial  success  attended  his  literary  enterprises  he  was  nevertheless 
highly  esteemed  as  a  citizen  and  his  home  in  Duane  street  was  the 
retreat  of  eminent  men  of  letters  in  his  day.  He  was  sociable, 
friendly  and  amiable,  and  all  through  his  life  bore  an  irreproachable 
reputation  —  fame  and  an  honored  name  being  his  only  fortune. 

PETER  FORCE,  ANNALIST. 

Proposed  for  membership  on  November  16,  181 1,  the  application 
having  been  accompanied  by  "  a  certificate  of  his  being  a  regular 
journeyman  printer  "  (having  learned  his  trade  with  William  A. 
Davis,  who  afterward  became  national  public  printer),  and  reported 
favorably  on  November  23d,  Peter  Force,  whose  name  is  chiseled 
in  one  of  the  largest  stones  of  the  Washington  Monument  at  the 


PETER  FORCE, 

President  of  New  York  Typographical  Society  in   1815, 
and  Distinguished  American  Annalist. 


NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY.  95 

National  Capital  as  a  designation  of  honor  for  services  of  distinction 
performed  in  the  interest  of  American  annalism,  was  initiated  at 
the  general  meeting  of  the  New  York  Typographical  Society  on 
February  i,  1812. 

Almost  from  the  beginning  he  became  a  prominent  figure  in  the 
association.     He  was  elected  a  director  on  December  5,  181 2,  and 
was  chosen  president  on  July  3,  18 13,  his  re-election 
following  in  18 14  and  181 5.     From  the  Committee       Prominent 
on  Correspondence  of  the  Columbia  Typographical       as  a  Union 
Society,  of  Washington,  Mr.  Force  received  a  com-       Printer, 
munication,  dated  July  i,  181 5,  stating  that  a  scale 
of  wages  had  been  established  for  the  District  of  Columbia,  as 
follows : 

During  the  Session  of  CoDgress. 

Pressmen  and  compositors  by  the  week $10.00 

Working  on  Sunday a .  00 

During  the  Recess. 

Pressmen  and  compositors  by  the  week I9. 00 

Composition  per  1,000  ms  for  brevier  and  upwards .28 

Composition  per  1,000  ms  for  less  than  brevier .33  1/3 

Presswork,  per  token '       .331/3 

Presswork,  newspapers,  per  token .37  1/2 

"It  has  become  our  duty  through  you,"  wrote  the  Committee  on 
Correspondence,  "  to  address  the  society  over  whom  you  preside, 
informing  them  of  the  establishment  in  the  District  of  Columbia  of 
an  association  of  journeymen  printers  —  having  for  its  objects : 
First,  benevolence,  and  second,  the  establishment  of  a  regular  list 
of  prices.  In  the  attainment  of  these  objects  we  feel  assured  of  the 
good  wishes  of  your  body,  as  we  must  have  of  every  friend  to  the 
profession.  In  the  infancy  of  associations  of  this  nature  difficulties 
will  frequently  occur  that  have  a  tendency  to  dampen  the  fondest 
expectations  of  the  most  sanguine.  That  we  have  had  to  contend 
with  those  difficulties  we  will  not  attempt  to  deny  —  but  by  a  deter- 
mined perseverance  on  the  part  of  each  member  they  have  been 
caused  to  vanish;  and  we  now  indulge  the  pleasing  hope  that  our 
society  is  firmly  and  permanently  established.  With  satisfaction 
we  have  it  in  our  power  to  state  that,  with  but  few  exceptions,  every 
journeyman  in  the  district  is  now  a  member  of  this  society ;  the  few 
who  are  not,  we  have  the  strongest  reasons  for  asserting,  will  in  a 
short  time  attach  themselves  to  us.  We  give  this  notice  with  a 
hope  that  it  may  prevent  journeymen  at  a  distance  engaging  at  less 
than  the  prices  above  quoted." 


96  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

President  Force,  who  was  favorably  disposed  toward  any  effort 
looking  to  the  amelioration  of  his  craft,  made  answer  to  the  letter 
on  July  7th.  "I  take  pleasure  in  announcing  to 
Favors  Wage  you  the  receipt  of  your  communication  of  the  i  st 
Increase  for  inst.,"  he  replied.  "As  the  regular  meeting  of 
Printers.  ^j^g  New  York  Typographical  Society  is  on  the  first 

Saturday  of  each  month,  our  next  will  be  held  on 
the  fifth  of  August,  when  your  letter  shall  be  laid  before  this  body 
and  you  made  acquainted  with  the  result.  In  the  meantime,  to 
prevent  incurring  the  appearance  of  neglect  on  our  part,  I  have 
deemed  it  proper  to  notice  it  myself;  and  proffer,  in  the  name  of 
the  society,  a  tender  of  our  services,  which  I  doubt  not  will  be  sanc- 
tioned." His  course  was  approved  by  the  society.  Later  in  the 
year  when  an  effort  was  made  to  increase  wages  in  New  York,  Mr. 
Force  was  an  active  factor  in  bringing  about  the  success  of  the  move- 
ment, and  his  appellation  as  president  was  attached,  with  that  of 
the  secretary,  to  the  printed  card  of  rates  that  was  distributed  about 
the  city  in  181 5.  But  a  broader  work  awaited  this  official  of  the 
society,  and  on  December  2,  18 15,  announcing  that  he  intended  to 
take  up  his  residence  in  another  city,  he  resigned  the  presidency,  to 
which  he  was  first  elected  when  only  22  years  of  age,  having  been 
bom  in  New  Jersey  on  November  26,  1790. 

After  severing  his  connection  with  the  New  York  society  he  sailed 
in  a  sloop  for  Washington,  as  foreman  for  Public  Printer  Davis, 
with  the  Congressional  printing  plant,  which  was  then  quite  small, 
the  machinery  consisting  of  four  single-pull,  wooden  hand  presses, 
these  being  sufficient  to  do  all  the  work  of  the  Government  in  1816. 
He  joined  the  Columbia  Typographical  Society  in  that  year,  and  in 
1826  became  its  first  "  free  member."  When  the  National  Typo- 
graphical Convention  assembled  in  Washington  on  November  7, 
1836,  it  appointed  a  committee  of  three  "  to  wait  upon  Mr.  Force, 
Mayor  of  this  city  (a  member  of  the  Columbia  Typographical  Society) , 
to  tender  to  him  the  good  wishes  of  the  convention,  and  to  invite  him 
to  honor  it  with  his  presence.  Mr.  Force  was  announced  by  the 
committee,"  continue  the  proceedings  of  that  first  national  conclave 
of  printers,  "and  welcomed  in  an  ardent  manner  by  an  address  from 
the  president,  and  by  congratulations  of  the  members  of  the  con- 
vention individually.  Mr.  Force  in  an  appropriate  manner  thanked 
the  convention  for  the  courtesy  extended  towards  him ;  and  expressed 
his  sincere  wishes  for  the  success  of  the  efforts  of  the  convention 
in  promoting  the  best  interests  of  the  profession  which  it  repre- 
sented." 


NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY, 


97 


Early  in  his  career  in  Washington  Peter  Force  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  distinguished  statesmen  and   remained  a  leading  character 
in  that  city  during  his  whole  life.     He  was  taken 
into  partnership  with  Mr,   Davis,   and  when  the      Public 
latter  withdrew  from  the  firm  Mr.  Force  formed      Printer  in 
other  copartnerships,  of  which  he  was  the  master      Washington, 
mind.     In   1820  he  began  the  publication  of  the 
"  National  Calendar,"  an  annual  statistical  work,  which  he  continued 
until  1836.     From  November  12,  1823,  to  February  2,  1830,  he  pub- 
lished the  National  Journal,  which  was  the  official  newspaper  during 
the  administration  of  President  John  Quincy  Adams.     He  was  Mayor 
of  Washington  from  1836  to  1840,  and  subsequently  became  president 
of  the  National  Institute  for  the  Promotion  of  Science. 

But  the  greatest  achievement  of  Peter  Force  was  his  collection  of 
documents  upon  which  American  history  is  founded  —  embracing 
a  vast  amount  of  rare  manuscripts,  books,  papers, 
maps,  charts  and  pamphlets.     PubHshed  under  the      Becomes 
title  of  "  American  Archives,"  these  annals  for  com-      an  Eminent 
pleteness  and  value  are  unequalled  by  any  other      Annalist, 
work  in  the  world  on  a  similar  subject.     In  1833  he 
entered  into  a  contract  with  the  Federal  Government  for  the  prepara- 
tion and  issuance  of  this  noteworthy  compilation.     It  extended  to 
nine  volumes,  which  had  been  arranged  with  assiduous  care  and  con- 
summate skill,  but  after  the  delivery  of  the  ninth  volume  the  officials 
upon  whom  the  law  imposed  the  necessity  of  giving  an  imprimatur 
declined  to  read  the  manuscripts,  and  the  work  came  to  a  standstill 
while  the  eminent  compiler  was  still  in  possession  of  mental  vigor 
and  physical  energy  and  had  many  important  documents  yet  to 
pass  through  the  press.     Futilely  he  continued  his  efforts  to  prevail 
upon  futtire  officers  to  reverse  the  action  of  their  predecessors,  and 
was  finally  compelled  to  relinquish  his  cherished  object,  on  which  he 
had  been  untiringly  engaged  for  30  years. 

Mr.  Force  also  published  four  volumes  of  historical  tracts  bearing 
upon  the  origin  and  settlement  of  the  American  colonies,  and  he 
gathered  considerable  material  pertaining  to  the  industrial  life  of 
the  country.  His  library,  which  contained  the  largest  accumulation 
of  Americana  ever  collected  by  a  private  individual,  was  purchased 
by  the  Government  and  occupies  a  conspicuous  place  in  the  Library 
of  Congress. 

This  able  printer  was  endowed  with  a  kindly  nature.     He  was  a 
broad-minded,  large-hearted  man,  and  felt  his  disappointment  keenly. 
He  died  on  January  23,  1868. 
4 


98  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

THURLOW  WEED.  JOURNALIST  AND  WARWICK  OF  AMERICAN 

POLITICS. 

Admitted  to  membership  in  the  New  York  Typographical  Society 

on  October  5,  18 16,  Thurlow  Weed,  who  ultimately  became  a  noted 

newspaper  publisher  and  editor  and  the  Warwick  of 

Exponent  of      American  politics,  was  a  strong  advocate  of  the  pro- 

^.  °^  ,  tective  principles  that  were  then  a  dominant  feature 

Principles.  . 

of  the  association.     He  was  elected  a  member  of 

the  Board   of  Directors  on  December  14,   18 16,  and  served  with 
ability  and  fidelity  in  that  position  for  some  time. 

Composition  on  the  first  tract  issued  by  the  American  Tract 
Society  was  performed  by  Charles  McDevitt,  who  also  joined  the 
society  about  the  same  time  and  was  a  member  of  it  for  some  50 
years,  and  he  and  Mr.  Weed  did  the  presswork  on  that  original 
religious  leaflet  at  the  office  of  Daniel  Fanshaw  in  1816. 

Going  to  Albany  in  June,  181 7,  Mr.  Weed  took  the  foremanship 
of  the  Register  in  that  town.     It  was  while  he  was  a  resident  of  the 
Capital  City  that  the  Typographical  Society  applied 
Obtains  for  a  charter  from  the  Legislature,  and  requested  him 

Charter  for  to  assume  charge  of  the  measure.  That  occasion  was 
the  Society.  j^jg  ^j-g^  experience  in  matters  of  a  political  character. 
He  applied  himself  with  energy  to  the  task,  endeavor- 
ing to  induce  the  legislators  to  pass  an  act  that  would  permit  the 
association  to  continue  as  a  labor  force.  Failing  in  this  he  accepted 
the  bill  that  allowed  it  to  be  conducted  as  a  benevolent  organization. 
"  I  remember  with  what  deference  I  then  ventured  into  the  presence 
of  distinguished  members  of  the  Legislature,"  he  observed  in  referring 
to  the  event  in  after  years,  "  and  how  sharply  I  was  rebuked  by  two 
gentlemen,  who  were  quite  shocked  at  the  idea  of  incorporating 
journeymen  mechanics."  So  gratified  was  the  society  with  his  efforts 
that,  on  May  9,  1818,  through  a  committee,  it  sent  to  him  this  mani- 
festation of  its  sense  of  his  services : 

The  committee  appointed  by  the  New  York  Typographical  Society  for  the 
purpose  of  procuring  an  act  of  incorporation,  having  in  their  report  to  that 
institution  mentioned  the  great  assistance  they  had  received  from  you  during 
the  pending  of  that  application,  the  following  resolution  was  adopted,  namely: 

That  the  thanks  of  this  society  be  presented  to  Mr.  Thurlow  Weed,  a  member,  for  the  zeal 
and  activity  with  which  he  has  exerted  himself  in  assisting  to  procure  the  act  of  incorporation; 
and  that  the  committee  appointed  for  that  purpose,  with  the  addition  of  two  other  members,  be 
authorized  to  carry  this  resolution  into  effect. 

In  conformity  to  the  above  resolution  we  beg  leave  to  present  to  you,  for  and  on 
behalf  of  the  New  York  Typographical  Society,  their  sincere  thanks  for  your 
voluntary  exertions  in  their  cause;  and  to  assure  you  that  they  shall  always 
remember  you  with  respect  and  esteem.  Permit  us  individually  to  reciprocate 
your  congratulations  and  to  tender  you  our  thanks. 


I'lom  a  daguerreotype  by  Brady  in  1S57. 

THURLOW  WEED, 

Union    Printer,    Journalist,    and    Warwick    of    American 

Politics. 


NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY.  99 

Remaining  an  honored  member  of  the  society  until  the  close  of 
his  life  the  veteran  printer-journalist  always  attended  its  meetings 
when  he  visited  New  York  City.  "  I  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
New  York  Typographical  Society  soon  after  I  reached  the  city,"  he 
once  said,  "  and  attended  its  meetings  regularly.  These  were  occa- 
sions to  me  of  rare  interest,  for  among  its  members  were  men  of 
intellectual,  moral  and  social  worth.  Its  president  was  Peter  Force, 
subsequently  and  for  40  years  an  eminent  printer  in  Washington. 
Others  established  themselves  in  neighboring  cities  and  villages  and 
became  influential  and  prosperous  publishers  and  editors." 

In  November,  1861,  he  went  to  Europe  on  the  recommendation 
of  powerful  friends  of  President  Lincoln's  administration  and  in  a 
semi-diploma.tic  capacity  was  of  great  service  to  the 
country  in  the  political  circles  of  London  and  Paris  Effects  Pacific 
in  respect  to  the  delicate  relations  of  the  United  Relations  "With 
States  with  foreign  powers  arising  out  of  the  Civil  Foreign  Powers. 
War.     Accompanied   by   Archbishop    Hughes   and 
Bishop  Mcllvaine  he  sought  to  induce  Old  World  governments  to 
refrain  from  intervention  in  behalf  of  the  Confederacy,  and  through 
his  influence  with  British  and  French  statesmen  effected  permanent 
pacific  relations  with  the  nations  represented  by  the  latter.     Retiu-n- 
ing  to  America  in  June,  1862,  he  received  from  the  Corporation  of 
New  York  the  freedom  of  the  city.     On  June  9th  of  that  year  the 
Typographical  Society  viewed  with  pleasure  his  safe  arrival  from  a 
mission  "  fraught  with  the  safety,  honor  and  welfare  of  our  country," 
and  requested  him  to  visit  its  rooms  so  that  his  fellow-members 
could  personally  express  to  him  congratulations  for  his  endeavors 
to  convice  the  governments  and  people  of  Europe  of  the  ability  of 
the  North  to  crush  out  rebellion.     Mr.  Weed  declined  a  formal 
reception,  but  he  was  present  as  a  member  at  the  next  general  meet- 
ing of  the  society.     When  he  had  been  in  continuous  affiliation  with 
the  association  for  58  years  he  attended,  on  February  17,  1874,  its 
banquet  in  commemoration  of  the  birthday  of  Benjamin  Franklin 
and  received  an  ovation. 

Thurlow  Weed  was  bom  in  the  village  of  Cairo,  Greene  County, 
N.  Y.,  on  November  15,  1797.     At  the  age  of  10 
years  he  worked  as  a  cabin  boy  upon  Hudson  River    Begins  His 
craft,  and  two  years  later  was  employed  by  Machy    Apprenticeship 
Croswell  in  his  printing  office  in  Catskill.     With    «*  Printing, 
his  parents  he  soon  afterward  removed  to  Cincin- 
natus,  Cortland  County.     Going  back  to  the  printing  business  in 
his  fourteenth  year  he  held  situations  successively  in  various  news- 


lOO  NEW   YORK.  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

paper  offices.     He  was  a  volunteer  in  the  War  of  1812,  serving  on 
the  Northern  frontier  as  a  private  and  as  quartermaster-sergeant. 

Upon  his  departure  from  Albany  in  the  autumn  of  1818  Mr.  Weed 
engaged  in  the  newspaper  business  for  a  time  in  Norwich,  Chenango 
County.     In  182 1  he  returned  to  the  State  Capital, 
Struck  Against    where  among  journeymen  printers  he  had  many 
Employment       warm   friends.     He   obtained   a   situation   on   the 
of  a     Rat.'         public   printing  contract,   and   presently  went   to 
work  for  Packard  &  Van  Benthuysen,  "  where  all 
went  smoothly  for  something  over  a  month,"  he  himself  relates; 
"  when  in  obedience  to  a  resolution  of  the  Typographical  Society  the 
journeymen  struck,  not  for  higher  wages,  but  because  a  '  rat '  had 
been  employed  in  our  office  and  now  for  the  first  time  in  my  life  I 
became  seriously  anxious  about  employment,  for  I  was  neither  dis- 
posed nor  could  I  afford  to  be  idle."     Then  he  went  to  Manlius  and 
on  June  27,  182 1,  established  the  Onondaga  County  Republican.     Not 
meeting  with  success  at  that  venture  he  proceeded  to  Rochester, 
where  he  pursued  the  journalistic  profession,  for  a  time  owning  and 
editing  the  Daily  Telegraph  of  that  place.     In  1825  he  represented 
Monroe  County  in  the  Legislature.     After  a  residence  of  several 
years  in  the  Flower  City  he  journeyed  back  to  Albany,  and  there 
founded  the  Evening  Journal  on  March  22,  1830,  from  which  period 
dated  his  most  distinguished  services  as  a  publisher 
Journalist  and    and  editor  and  as  leader  of  both  Whig  and  Repub- 
Political  lican  parties.     For  more  than  35  years  he  remained 

Leader.  [^  control  of  the  Albany  newspaper,  and  in  1867 

assumed  the  editorship  of  the  New  York  Com- 
mercial Advertiser,  but  resigned  the;  next  year  owing  to  failing 
health.     His  death  occurred  on  November  22,  1882. 

Thurlow  Weed  was  among  the  earliest),  advocates  of  the  abolition 
of  imprisonment'  for  debt,  and  he  was  an  ardent  opponent  of  slavery. 
With  the  exception  of  a  single  legislative  term,  he  always  refused  to 
accept  public  office,  although  exercising  considerable  influence  in 
legislation  and  the'  distribution  of  executive  appointments. 
Possessed  of  great  strength  of  character,  superior  judgment  and 
cheerfulness,  his  tact  and  geniality  attracted  the  multitude  to 
him,  and  he  never  forgot  a  face  or  a  fact. 

ELLIS  LEWIS.  JURIST. 

Not  least  among  the  galaxy  of  renowned  personages  who  were 
proud  of  their  membership  in  the  New  York  Typographical  Society 
was  Ellis  Lewis,  who,  at  the  age  of  18  years,  was  initiated  on 


AJa 


ELLIS  LEWIS, 

Member  of  New  York  Typographical  Society,  in   1817, 

and  Chief  Justice  of  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsylvania. 


NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    SOCIETY.  lOI 

March  1,1817.     He  was  a  compositor  on  the  old  New  York  Courier, 

afterward  was  employed  on  the  New  York  Daily 

Advertiser,  was  engaged  at  one  time  in  the  same    i^^^  5°y^*^ 

composing  room  with  Samuel  Woodworth  and  Gen.    ^f  ^^^ 

George  P.  Morris,  the  poets,  and  for  a  long  period 

set  type  on  law  cases. 

He  was  bom  in  Lewisberry,  York  County,  Pennsylvania,  on  May 
16,  1798.     Early  in  life  he  went  to  New  York  City.     After  remaining 
in  the  Metropolis  for  several  years  he  returned  to 
the  Keystone  State,   edited  a  newspaper,   studied    Renowned  as 
law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in   1822.     He    a  Jurist  and 
was  appointed  Deputy  Attorney-General  in  1824,    ^^^  Author, 
elected  to  the  State  Legislature  in   1832,  chosen 
Attorney-General  in  January,  1833,  President  Judge  of  the  Eighth 
Judicial  District  in  October,  1833,  and  President  Judge  of  the  Second 
Judicial  District  in  1843.     Elected  to  the  Supreme  Court  bench  of 
Pennsylvania  in  185 1,  he  became  Chief  Justice  of  that  court  in  1854. 
Declining  a  unanimous  nomination  by  the  Democratic  State  Con- 
vention for  re-election  in  1857,  he  retired  to  private  life.     In  1858  he 
was  appointed  on  a  commission  to  revise  the  Penal  Code  of  Pennsyl- 
vania.    His  knowledge  of  medical  jurisprudence  gained  for  him  the 
honorary  degree  of  M.  D.  from  the  Philadelphia  College  of  Medicine, 
and  Transylvania  University  and  Jefferson  College  awarded  him  the 
degree  of  LL.D.     Decisions  of  Judge  Lewis  upon  important  and 
difficult  questions  of  law  have  been  often  cited  with  approval  by 
writers  of  eminence  in  the  profession  of  law.     He  was  the  author 
of  "Abridgment  of  the  Criminal  Law  of  the  United  States,"  and 
contributed  to  periodical  literature. 

Upon  the  decease  of  the  distinguished  jurist  and  printer  in  187 1, 
Charles  McDevitt  paid  a  tribute  to  his  memory  at  a  meeting  of  the 
society  held  in  April  of  that  year.     "  In  the  year 
181 7  it  was  my  privilege  to  become  acquainted  with    Commences  as 
our  departed  brother,"  said  the  speaker.     "  In  the    Law-Case 
early  part  of  my  hfe  I  was  employed  in  the  office    Compositor, 
of  Abraham  Paul,  on  the  comer  of  Water  street  and 
Burling  Slip.     By  my  side  stood  a  young  man  about  my  own  age. 
It  was  a  difficult  law  work  on  which  we  were  engaged,  full  of  the 
usual  references,  and  very  bad  manuscript.     We  were  obliged  to 
consult  each  other  in  regard  to  our  business,  which  soon  ripened  into 
closer  intimacy.     Judge  Lewis  became  a  member  of  the  New  York 
Typographical  Society  in  181 7,  54  years  ago.     Although  separated 


I02  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

from  it  by  distance,  he  fondly  clung  to  the  pleasurable  association 
of  his  youth.  He  visited  the  society  some  years  ago  after  an  absence 
of  30  years,  at  one  of  our  annual  gatherings." 


XIII. 

Celebrated  Conspiracy   Case. 

Twenty-four  members  of  the  Journeymen  Cordwainers'  Society, 
accused  of  conspiracy,  were  in  the  fall  of  1809  arraigned  before  De 
Witt  Clinton,  as  Mayor  of  New  York,  and  Aldermen 
Conspiracy  Peter  A.  Mesier  and  Thomas  Carpenter,  as  Justices 

for  Demanding  of  the  Sessions.  They  were  charged  with  con- 
Uniform  Wages,  spiracy  in  unlawfully  combining  and  assembling 
for  the  purpose  of  unjustly  extorting  "  great  sums 
of  money  "  from  master  shoe  makers,  and  for  agreeing  not  to  work 
for  those  who  employed  m.ore  than  two  apprentices  and  non-members 
or  union  journeymen  who  had  infringed  the  rules  of  the  society. 
The  alleged  extortion  was  embodied  in  a  count  that  the  defendants 
"did  meet  and  corruptly  conspire  that  none  of  them  would  work 
at  any  lower  rate  than  $3.75  for  every  pair  of  back-strapped  boots, 
$2  for  suwarrow  laced  boots,  full  clammed,  $1.75  for  laced  boots  in 
front,  $2.37^  for  footing  back-strapped  boots,  $3.25  for  footing 
suwarrows,  and  $1.25  for  bottoming  old  boots;  to  the  great  damage 
not  only  of  their  said  masters,  but  of  divers  other  citizens." 

Naturally  the  cordwainers  appealed  for  succor  to  such  labor  organi- 
zations as  were  then  in  existence,  reasoning  that  an  adverse  judgment 
in  their  case  might  detrimentally  affect  the  whole 
Appeal  to        body  of  associated  workers  in  the  city.     At  a  meet- 
Printers  ing  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Typographical 
for  Aid.  Society  on  February  24,  18 10,  President  Sherman 
presented  from  the  Society  of  Journeymen  Cord- 
wainers a  memorial,  "  which  stated  the  disagreeable  situation  in 
which  they  are  placed  in  consequence  of  a  lawsuit  now  pending 
between  them  and  their  employers,  and  their  incapacity  of  carrying 
on  the  same,  without  receiving  some  aid  from  their  fellow-trades- 
men.' '     The  communication  was  referred  to  the  meeting  of  the  society 
on  March  3d,  at  which  a  committee  was  ordered  to  make  a  general 
inquiry  into  the  suits  and  report  to  the  directors  on  March  31st. 
The  findings  of  the  investigators  were  submitted  on  that  date  as 
follows : 


NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   SOCIETY.  IO3 

The  grounds  of  the  prosecution  against  the  Cordwainers'  Society  by  the 
master  shoe  makers  appear  to  be,  in  the  letter  of  the  law,  an  unlawful  combination 
for  the  purpose  of  raising  and  establishing  their  wages:  this  is  the  head  and  front 
of  the  bill  of  indictment,  though  it  contains  several  other  charges  of  trifling 
consequence,  some  of  which  are  false  and  groundless  —  that  relative  to  appren- 
tices particularly  having  not  the  least  degree  of  truth  attached  to  it. 

The  president  informed  your  committee  that  their  cause  would  be  brought 
on  for  trial  the  ensuing  week,  and  should  judgment  be  given  against  them  there, 
the  determination  is  to  carry  it  from  court  to  court  into  the  Court  of  Errors, 
should  judgment  be  given  in  each  against  them. 

Your  committee  did  not  feel  themselves  authorized  by  the  powers  vested  in 
them  to  offer  any  arrangement  in  support  of  their  cause,  but  have  left  it  to  the 
management  of  the  society. 

"After  some  debate,"  the  minutes  state,  "  a  motion  was  made 
and  carried  that  a  committee  of  one  should  be  appointed  to  answer 
the  communication  from  the  Cordwainers'  Society,  expressing  the 
good  wishes  of  this  board  for  the  success  of  their  cause,  and  stating 
that,  from  the  recent  exhaustion  of  our  funds  in  assisting  our  own 
members  who  had  stood  out  for  wages,  it  is  totally  out  of  our  power 
(at  present)  to  render  them  the  assistance  desired." 

When  the  case  of  the  cordwainers  came  to  trial  Mayor  Clinton 
and  the  two  Aldennen  previously  named  had  left  office  and  were 
succeeded  by  Mayor  Jacob  Radcliff  and  Aldermen 
J.  Ogden  Hoffman  and  Nicholas  Fish,  v/ho  presided.      Defendant 
From  the  evidence  it  appeared  that  the  then  exist-      Cordwainers 
ing  constitution  of  the  society  was  adopted  in  1805,      ^^  Trial, 
and  had  a  preamble  that   "we,   the  journeymen 
cordwainers  of  the  City  of  New  York,  impressed  with  a  sense  of  our 
just  rights  and  to  guard  against  the  intrigues  or  artifices  that  may 
at  any  time  be  used  by  our  employers  to  reduce  our  wages  lower  than 
we  deem  an  adequate  reward  for  our  labor,  have  unanimously  agreed 
to  the  following  articles  as  the  constitution  of  our  society."     Pro- 
vision was  made  for  the  election  of  officers  "  and  a  committee  of 
six;"  that  no  member  should  work  for  a  master  shoe  maker  who 
employed  journeymen  or  apprentices  not  belonging  to  the  society; 
that  any  journeyman  whose  wages  were  reduced  or  who  was  "  other- 
wise aggrieved  "  should  report  the  same  to  the  committee  of  six  for 
reference  to  the  association,  and  that  every  cordwainer  arriving  in 
the  city  should  be  notified  to  join  the  union  if  competent  for  admis- 
sion, or  suft"er  the  infliction  of  a  fine.     A  comprehensive  schedule  of 
rates  for  piecework  was  a  part  of  the  constitution.     The  testimony 
showed  that  the  society  had  several  times  notified  employers  to  dis- 
charge workmen  who  were  not  attached  to  it ;  that  a  strike  had  been 


I04  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

inaugurated  in  one  shop  against  a  man  who  had  been  expelled  for 
"  scabbing;  "  that  in  consequence  of  the  firm  getting  work  done  in 
other  shops  a  general  turn-out  was  ordered,  and  the  indictment 
followed.     There  were  i86  members  of  the  society  and  about  as 
many  non-union  men  in  the  city,  but  it  was  shown  that  the  society 
members  were  the  best  workmen.     An  effort  was  made  by  the  defend- 
ants to  prove  that  when  the  association  was  founded  an  organization 
of  masters  for  the  purpose  of  reducing  wages  had  been  in  existence 
for  a  long  time,  and  that  the  journeymen  had  organized  to  resist 
this  combination,  which  continued  to  operate;  but  the  testimony 
was  ruled  out,  as  was  also  the  evidence  that  the  wages  demanded 
were  reasonable,  while  the  profits  of  the  employers  were  very  large. 
In  his  charge  to  the  jury  the  Mayor  defined  conspiracy  as  a  com- 
bination to  do  an  unlawful  act,  or  a  lawful  act  by  illegal  means. 
The  court  did  not  intend  to  decide,  he  declared. 
Society's  Rules  whether  an  agreement  not  to  work  except  for  cer- 
Denounced         tain  wages  was  a  criminal  offense  where  unlawful 
by  Court.  means  were  not  used  to  enforce  it.     He  criticized 

severely  the  rules  of  the  society  that  endeavored  to 
control  the  action  of  masters  and  non-members,  the  coercion  of  the 
latter  appearing  to  him  to  have  been  particularly  objectionable. 
"  Whatever  might  be  the  motive  of  the  defendants  or  their  object," 
he  charged,  "  the  means  they  employed  were  arbitrary  and  unlawful, 
and  their  having  been  directed  against  several  individuals  in  the 
present  case,  it  was  brought,  in  the  opinion  of  the  court,  within  one 
of  the  descriptions  of  the  offense  which  had  been  given." 

The  jury  rendered  a  verdict  against  the  accused  cordwainers,  who 

were  each  fined  $i  and  costs.     In  passing  sentence  Mayor  Radcliff 

declared  that  the  defendants  had  an  undoubted 

Convicted  of       right  to  meet  and  regulate  their  concerns,  to  demand 

Coercion  and      wages  and  to  work  or  refuse  to  do  so,  but  that  the 

Each  Fined  $i.  means  to  which  they  resorted  to  accomplish  their 

desires  were  too  arbitrary  and  coercive,  and  tended 

to  deprive  their  fellow-citizens  of  rights  as  sacred  as  those  for  which 

the  defendants  had  contended.     He  advised  them  to  alter  their 

rules,  and  more  especially  the  one  requiring  every  cordwainer  upon 

reaching  the  city  to  join  the  society,  if  invited  to  do  so,  or  else  pay  a 

fine  of  $5. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

TYPOGRAPHICAL  ASSOCIATION  OF  NEW  YORK. 

1831-1840. 

EMPLOYERS  generally  took  advantage  of  the  clause  relative 
to  wages  in  the  act  incorporating  the  New  York  Typographical 
Society,  and  not  long  after  the  charter  was  granted  to  it  they 
began  to  gradually  reduce  rates  of  pay  and  enlarge  the  number  of 
boys  at  the  trade.  Many  journeymen  were  ultimately  forced  to 
work  for  as  low  as  20  cents  per  1,000  ems,  their  association  being 
debarred  by  law  from  making  any  attempt  to  prevent  decreases  of  or 
to  raise  their  compensation .  Asa  consequence  a  goodly  number  aban- 
doned the  field  and  betook  themselves  to  other  modes  of  gaining  a 
livelihood.  Those  who  continued  to  pursue  the  occupation  of  print- 
ing manifested  dissatisfaction  at  the  deteriorated  state  of  the  industry 
and  not  a  few  felt  that  the  Typographical  Society,  of  which  they  were 
members,  could  not  fully  respond  to  the  requirements  owing  to  the 
legal  barriers  that  confined  its  work  to  acts  of  benevolence.  News- 
paper printers  especially  were  discontented,  and  on  November  19, 
1830,  they  had  a  mass  meeting,  at  which  their  grievances  were 
thoroughly  aired.  They  resolved  "  that  it  was  never  the  intention 
of  the  printers  employed  on  the  morning  and  evening  papers  to  make 
a  schism  between  themselves  and  the  New  York  Typographical 
Society  (some  of  whom  are  members  of  that  society).  So  they  dis- 
claim and  refute  the  many  insinuations  prepared  to  convey  that 
idea."  These  men  felt  that  there  was  room  in  the  trade  for  both  a 
protective  union  and  a  mutual  aid  society.  They  did  not  regard 
themselves  as  an  opposing  faction  of  the  old  association,  which  on 
the  other  hand  did  not  undertake  any  organized  movement  to  inter- 
fere with  the  formation  of  a  body  having  for  its  paramoimt  object 
the  regulation  of  trade  affairs  —  in  truth,  a  considerable  number 
of  craftsmen  who  belonged  to  the  Typographical  Society  joined  the 
new  union  at  its  inception.  Nothing  further  was  done  during  the 
winter  and  succeeding  spring,  but  on  Monday  evening,  Jime  6,  1831, 
a  general  meeting  of  the  newspaper  journeymen^  was  called  at  St. 

*  Though  the  association  was  originated  by  journeyman  printers  employed  on  newspapers, 
many  book  and  job  compositors  and  pressmen  joined  it  soon  after  its  formation. 

[105] 


I06  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

John's  Hall  in  Frankfort  street  "  to  take  into  consideration  the 
present  state  of  wages  and  to  establish  a  uniform  scale  of  prices." 
This  preliminary  session  was  followed  by  another  on  June  13th,  "  to 
receive  reports  of  the  committees  appointed  at  a  previous  meeting 
and  to  transact  such  other  business  as  may  come  before  them." 
A  list  of  prices  was  then  adopted,  and  the  union  ultimately  succeeded 
in  enforcing  it  in  numerous  estabhshments. 

I. 

Founding  a  Militant  Trade  Union. 

Convening  again  on  June  17  th  these  working  printers  established 
a  constitution  and  effected  a  permanent  organization  known  as  the 
Typographical  Association  of  New  York,  which  remained  a  militant 
trade  union  for  more  than  nine  years.  Details  were  completed  on 
June  25th  with  the  election  of  these  officers  for  a  term  of  one  year: 

President  —  John  Windt. 

Vice-President  —  A.  H.  Wells. 

Secretary  —  W.  H.  Clayton. 

Treasurer  —  Thomas  W.  Renne. 

Directors  —  Charles  A.  Davis,  Samuel  Huestis,  James  B.  Anderson,  W.  W. 
Tindall,  Thomas  Crooker,  A.  C.  Flanagan,  J.  W.  Moulton,  Jacob  Squier,  Jesse 
Rice,  John  H.  Potts,  J.  Gore,  William  Fielding. 

II. 

Fundamental  Law. 

The  constitution  of  183 1^  was  reconstructed  in  1833,  and  in  its 
amended  form  was  printed  for  circulation.     Forceful  "  introductory 
remarks  "  that  prefaced  the  revised  document  mir- 
Forceful  rored  the  conditions  that  were  prevalent  in  the  New 

Introductory      York  City  printing  industry  four-fifths  of  a  century 
Remarks.  Q^gQ      Child  labor  was  a  serious  problem,  the  applica- 

tion of  improved  machinery  in  pressrooms  was 
regarded  as  detrimental  to  the  interests  of  the  craft,  and  it  was  con- 
sidered that  the  increase  of  stereotyping  tended  to  decrease  the  work 
of  compositors.  Improvements  in  the  art,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
workers,  "  rendered  it  every  year  more  and  more  difficult  for  com- 
positors to  support  themselves,"  while  pressmen,  "  who  had  spent 
from  five  to  seven  years  of  the  flower  of  their  lives  in  acquiring  a 

2  The  original  constitution,  having  been  put  in  type,  was  read  and  slightly  changed  on  October 
22,  1831. 


TYPOGRAPHICAL  ASSOCIATION  OF  NEW   YORK.  107 

knowledge  of  their  profession,  were  left  without  employment,  or 
were  obliged  to  resort  to  some  business  with  which  they  were  unac- 
quainted." Employers  were  censured  for  advertising  in  foreign 
lands  for  printers,  thus  inducing  many  to  sail  for  America  under  the 
mistaken  impression  that  work  was  plentiful  at  high  wages.  Unsani- 
tary workshops  in  crowded  districts  were  severely  condemned,  as 
owing  to  their  injurious  effects  "  many  of  the  most  worthy  of  the 
profession  have  fallen  victims,  and  others,  after  a  short  endurance, 
have  found  their  faculties  so  impaired  and  their  constitutions  so 
debilitated  as  to  be  rendered  incapable  of  undertaking  any  other 
permanent  employment  for  their  future  support."  So  instructive 
and  intensely  interesting  is  this  valuable  historical  prefatory  paper 
that  it  is  transcribed  here  in  full : 

The  Typographical  Association  of  New  York  was  instituted  on  the  seventeenth 
day  of  June,  1831.  It  may  not  be  deemed  improper  to  state  some  of  the  causes 
which  led  to  its  formation;  and,  in  doing  this,  it  will  be  necessary  to  revert  to 
the  condition  of  the  printing  business  for  some  years  past. 

In  the  year  1809  the  New  York  Typographical  Society  was  formed,  for  the 
purpose  of  sustaining  a  uniform  scale  of  prices,  and  of  affording  pecuniary  relief 
to  the  sick  and  distressed  of  its  own  members,  their  widows 
and  orphans.     This  institution  has  continued  to  the  present         Historical 
time;  but  the  principal  object  of  its  first  formation  has  long         Study  of  its 
since  ceased  to  claim  any  part  of  its  attention.     In  18 12,  war         Predecessor. 
occurring    between    this    country    and    Great    Britain,    the 
business  suffered  extremely,  and  continued  in  a  depressed  state  until   181 5, 
when  it  was  found  necessary  to  call  a  general  meeting  of  the  journeymen  in  the 
city,  to  take  into  consideration  the  propriety  of  revising  the  scale  of  prices;  and 
after  considerable  debate  between  employers  and  employees,  a  scale  was  agreed 
upon,  which  was  adopted  by  the  New  York  Typographical  Society.     The  demands 
of  the  workmen  were  very  generally  acceded  to,  and  for  some  three  or  four  years 
business  was  very  brisk. 

In  the  year  1818  the  society  was  incorporated  by  an  act  of  the  Legislature, 
and,  being  prohibited  by  the  terms  of  its  charter  from  interfering  with  the  scale 
of  prices,  it  became  merely  a  mutual  benefit  institution. 

In  the  meantime  the  seeds  of  declension  in  the  trade  were  gradually  sown, 
and  the  fruit  began  to  appear  in  various  ways.     Some  printers '  from  a  distance, 
having  heard  that  business  was  good,  and  being  determined 
to  obtain  it  at  all  hazards,  located  themselves  among  us;  Declension 

and    to   secure   a   sufficient   quantity   of    work   commenced  Follows 

operations  on  terms  that  could  not  be  afforded,  if  they  wished  Disunion, 

to  obtain  a  fair  remuneration  for  their  labor,  or  act  honestly 
by  the  workmen.     The  consequence  was,  that  while  a  few  grew  rich  at  the  expense 
of  the  journeymen,  old-established   printers,    who  had  before  paid  honorable 
prices,  were  obUged  to  reduce  their  charges  for  work,  or  lose  much  of  their  busi- 
ness; and  as  their  receipts  were  diminished,  the  wages  of  the  journeymen  were 

'At  that  period,  as  in  past  centuries,  the  term  "  printer  "  signified  the  owner  of  a  printing  plant, 
the  workers  being  denominated  as  "  journeymen  printers  "  or  "  compositors." 


loS  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL  UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

by  degrees  reduced,  until,  instead  of  a  uniform  scale  of  prices,  every  man  was 
compelled  to  work  for  what  he  could  obtain. 

Another  cause  of  depression  was  the  practice,  which  then  prevailed,  and  has 

continued  more  or  less  to  the  present  time,  of  employing  runaway  or  dismissed 

apprentices  for  a  small  compensation.     These  were  called 

Depression         two-thirds  men,  and  have  always  proved  a  great  pest  to  the 

Caused  by  profession.     Added    to    this,    roller    boys,    having    gained 

Child  Labor.       admission  to  the  interior  of  a  printing  office,  have  in  a  short 

time  found  their  way  from  the  rear  to  the  front  of  the  press, 

to  the  discharge  of  the  regular  pressmen. 

The  trade,  also,  as  far  as  pressmen  are  concerned,  had  suffered  extremely  by 
the  application  of  machinery  to  that  branch  of  the  business;  and  while  a  few 
individuals  were  growing  rich,  as  they  asserted,  for  the  benefit  of  the  public  at 
large,  many  who  had  spent  from  five  to  seven  years  of  the  flower  of  their  lives 
in  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  their  profession  were  left  without  employment,  or 
were  obhged  to  resort  to  some  business  with  which  they  were  unacquainted, 
and  thus  constrained  to  serve  a  sort  of  second  apprenticeship. 

Matters  continued  in  this  condition  for  a  number  of  years.     Meantime  the 

business  of  stereotyping  had  increased  to  a  great  extent;  and  the  numerous 

improvements  in  the  art,  or  rather  the  motto  of  multum  in 

Effect  o(  parvo  literally  reduced  to  practice,  rendered  it  every  year 

Machinery  on  more  and  more  difficult  for  compositors  to  support  them- 

Working  Force        selves  and  their  families.     To  the  disgrace  of  some  employers, 

every  advantage  was  taken  of  the  necessities  of  the  workmen, 

and  impositions  were  continually  practiced  upon  them. 

Men,  however,  when  borne  down  by  oppression,  rise  in  their  strength,  and 

assert  their  rights.     The  journeymen  printers  of  the  City  of  New  York,  from  a 

sense  of  justice  to  themselves,  and  those  employers  who  had 

Excessive  uniformly  paid  honorable  prices,  resolved  to  unite  as  an 

Working  Hours       association  for  the  purpose  of  elevating  the  business  to  a 

on  Newspapers.       proper  level.     Numbers  of  them  were  engaged  on  the  several 

daily  newspapers  of  this  city  at  prices  deemed  sufficient 

when  there  was  little  labor  and  scarcely  any  competition,  but  which  were  found 

totally  inadequate  when  all  vied  with  each  other  to  present  the  latest  news  to 

their  readers.     To  accomplish  this  the  workmen  were  almost  entirely  deprived 

of  their  rest  for  nights  together. 

Scarcely  any  employment  can  be  more  laborious  than  that  of  publishing  a 
daily  morning  newspaper.     Many  of  the  offices  are  in  the  most  crowded  parts 
of  the  city;  and,  not  having  been  built  for  the  purpose,  are 
Victims  of  iUy  calculated  to  afford  a  good  circulation  of  air,  or  what  is 

Unsanitary  next  in  importance,  good  light.     To  the  injurious  effects  of 

Workshops.  these  and  similar  causes,  many  of  the  most  worthy  of  the  pro- 

fession have  fallen  victims;  and  others,  after  a  short  endur- 
ance, have  found  their  faculties  so  impaired,  and  their  constitutions  so  debili- 
tated, as  to  be  rendered  incapable  of  undertaking  any  other  permanent  employ- 
ment for  their  future  support.  It  requires  the  united  exercise  of  the  mental  and 
bodily  labor  of  the  persons  employed,  for  nearly  the  whole  night,  and  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  the  day;  being  seldom  able  to  allot  more  than  seven  hours  to 
rest  and  refreshment.  To  be  thus  confined  for  such  a  length  of  time,  inhaling 
the  stagnant  air  of  a  printing  office,  is  sufficient  to  enervate  a  man  of  the 
most  vigorous  constitution. 


TYPOGRAPHICAL   ASSOCIATION    OF    NEW   YORK.  lOp 

Under  all  these  circumstances  a  general  meeting  of  the  trade  was  called  about 
the  first  of  June,  1831,  at  which  a  committee  was  appointed  to  draw  up  a  just 
and  equitable  scale  of  prices.  The  committee  made  their  report  to  an  adjourned 
meeting,  which  adopted  it;  and  on  the  seventeenth  day  of  the  same  month  the 
Typographical  Association  of  New  York  was  established,  and  a  constitution 
and  by-laws  framed  for  its  government. 

A  circular  to  the  employing  printers  was  forthwith  issued,  covering  the  new 
scale  of  prices,  and  respectfully  asking  them  to  accede  to  it.     Most  of  them, 
to  their  honor,  saw  the  justice  of  the  demand,  and  promptly 
awarded  the  wages  asked  for.     There  were  some,  however.     Equitable  Wage 
both  among  the  book  offices  and  daily  newspapers,   who     Scale  Approved 
altogether  refused,  and  have  managed,  from  that  time  to     *'y  Proprietors. 
the  present,  by  a  constant  change  of  workmen  (for  no  honor- 
able journeyman,  after  a  knowledge  of  the  facts,  would  remain  a  moment  in  such 
degraded  employment),  to  evade  the  demands  for  a  fair  compensation.     It  is 
a  source  of  consolation,  after  all,  that  the  expenses  of  those  establishments 
where  the  prices  are  not  paid  are  greater  than  those  where  they  are,  owing  to 
the  incompetency  and  dishonesty  of  those  employed. 

Among  the  means  made  use  of  to  depress  the  business  by  those  who  withhold 
from  the  workmen  their  just  demands  has  been  advertising  in  several  of  the 
newspapers  in  Scotland,   and  elsewhere  in   Great   Britain, 
that  a  great  opening  for  printers  existed  in  New  York,  thereby       Assisted 
inducing  many  to  leave  the  comforts  of  home  in  the  old       Immigration  a 
country,  to  seek  for  a  precarious  subsistence  on  this  side  of       Menace, 
the  Atlantic.     Many,  to  their  regret,  can  testify  to  the  truth 
of  this  assertion;  and  the  feelings  of  the  man,  by  whose  unprincipled  conduct 
this  breaking  up  of  kindred  and  subsequent  disappointment  in  obtaining  the 
means  of  support  have  happened,  are  not  to  be  envied.     Perhaps  the  day  may 
come  when  remorse,  like  a  subtle  poison,  may  lurk  about  his  heart,  and  cause 
him  to  do  an  act  of  justice  to  those  who  have  been  swindled  by  his  deception. 
When  the  association  was  informed  of  the  means  taken  by  unprincipled  men 
to  injure  the  business,  a  circular  was  immediately  addressed  to  the  printers  of 
the  United  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  and  dispatched  by  one  of  its 
members.     The  association  has  since  learned,  by  letters  from  Europe,  that  the 
appeal  has  had  an  extensive  circulation,  and  has  tended  in  a  great  measure  to 
counteract  the  evil  contemplated  by  the  original  advertisements. 

Since  its  formation  the  association  has  steadily  advanced  in  strength  and 
respectability,  and  has  repeatedly  been  called  upon  to  settle  disputes  arising 
between  employers  and  journeymen;  and  it  is  gratifying  that,  in  all  instances 
where  it  has  been  appealed  to,  its  decision  has  been  respected  and  acted  on  by 
the  parties  concerned. 

These  repeated  appeals,  in  cases  of  difficulty,  have  induced  it  again  carefully 
to  revise  the  scale  of  prices,  explaining  those  points  which  were  before  involved 
in  doubt,  and  amplifying  others,  so  that  no  other  construction 
can  be  given  to  them  than  the  true  one.     As  the  trade  has       incompetent 
for  a  long  time,  and  particularly  since  the  introduction  of       Workmanship 
stereotyping,  been  burdened  with  numerous  grievances  and       Discouraged. 
vexations,  which  while  they  employed  much  of  the  journey- 
man's time,  were  never  paid  for,  these  things  have  in  the  revised  scale  been  taken 
into  consideration,  and  a  proper  compensation  awarded.     In  doing  this,  however. 


no  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

proper  attention  has  been  paid  to  the  interest  of  the  employer;  for  if  any  of  the 
vexations  spoken  of  arise  from  either  carelessness  or  the  want  of  skill  of  the  work- 
men, it  shall  be  at  his  expense.  It  is  intended  that  the  revised  scale  of  prices 
shall  be  for  the  benefit  of  both  honorable  employers  and  journeymen  who  know 
their  business ;  but  shall  be  of  no  service  to  those  unfledged  apologies  for  humanity 
who  obtrude  themselves  on  a  profession  of  which  they  know  nothing,  and  to 
which  they  can  be  little  else  than  a  burden  and  a  disgrace. 

Many  of  the  latter  class  of  individuals  have  made  their  appearance  in  this 
city,  in  consequence  of  advertisements  inserted  in  papers  whose  proprietors  do 
not  pay  the  prices;  but  they  are  found,  on  trial,  to  be  too  bad  even  for  such 
infamous  uses.  Some  of  them  are  runaway  apprentices;  others  are  destitute 
not  only  of  honorable  feeling,  but  of  all  knowledge  of  their  business,  and 
generally  trace  their  defects  to  the  want  of  proper  instruction  from  their  masters. 
The  consequence  to  the  good  workman  is  that  he  is  frequently  made  to  suffer 
from  errors  committed  by  these  pretenders. 

As  all  institutions  in  their  infancy  are  liable  to  imperfection,  the  Typographical 
Association  could  not  expect  to  be  exempt  from  the  common  lot.  It  was  found 
that  the  constitution  under  which  it  has  hitherto  acted  was  in  many  things 
defective ;  and  it  was  deemed  proper  to  appoint  a  committee  to  revise  that  instru- 
ment. This  has  been  done,  and  the  association,  after  a  long  and  arduous  dis- 
cussion, adopted  the  constitution,  by-laws  and  rules  of  order  published  in  the 
following  pages. 

It  now  only  remains  for  the  members  to  be  just  to  themselves  and  the  printing 
business  will  take  its  proper  stand  in  the  community.  To  do  this  it  is  necessary 
that  all  journeymen  coming  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  association  should 
become  members,  and  strictly  abide  by  the  principles  of  the  constitution. 

The  purposes  of  the  association  were  succinctly  presented  in  the 
preamble  to  its  constitution,  stating  that  "  the  journeymen  printers 
of  the  City  of  New  York,  with  a  view  to  elevate  the  character  and 
advance  the  interest  of  the  profession,  by  maintaining  a  just  and  uni- 
form scale  of  prices  for  their  labor,  do  hereby  resolve  to  form  them- 
selves into  a  society  under  the  name  of  the  Typographical  Associa- 
tion of  New  York."  Jurisdiction  of  the  organization  embraced 
New  York  City  and  the  villages  of  Brooklyn  and  Williamsburg, 
N.  Y.,  and  Jersey  City  and  Hoboken,  N.  J. 

A  Board  of  Directors,  consisting  of  twelve  members,  assembled 

between  the  meetings  of  the  association  and  was  empowered  to  audit 

bills,  pay  relief  to  distressed  members,  and  manage 

Officers  most  of  its  business  affairs.     The  secretary's  salary 

of  the  was  placed  at  a  sum  "  not  exceeding  $20  per  annum. 

Association.       ^q  ]^q  regulated  by  the  board,  and  be  exempted  from 

the  payment  of  monthly  dues."     Neglect  to  attend 

meetings  resulted  in  his  being  "  fined  in  a  sum  not  exceeding  50  cents 

for  each  delinquency,  to  be  deducted  from  his  yearly  salary."     The 

doorkeeper  was  known  as  janitor,  the  limit  of  whose  annual  salary 


TYPOGRAPHICAL   ASSOCIATION   OF   NEW    YORK.  m 

for  services  was  $6,  and  he  was  excused  from  the  payment  of  dues. 
Not  more  than  "  $15  of  the  funds  of  the  association  "  was  the  treasurer 
permitted  to  have  in  his  possession  at  one  time.  All  moneys  over 
that  amount  had  to  be  "  deposited  in  the  savings  bank  for  safe  keep- 
ing," subject  only  to  the  order  of  the  directors,  and  he  was  required 
to  give  bonds  for  the  security  of  the  funds.  The  president  of  the 
association  presided  at  general  meetings,  as  well  as  over  the  delibera- 
tions of  the  Board  of  Directors,  and  in  his  absence  the  vice-president 
performed  such  duties.  Upon  assuming  office  each  officer-elect  had 
to  subscribe  to  this  pledge:     "  Do  you  solemnly  declare  that  you 

will  to  the  best  of  your  ability  execute  the  office  of ? 

That  you  will  support  the  constitution  of  this  association,  and  all 
by-laws  founded  thereon?  And  that  you  will  act  in  this  capacity 
for  the  general  benefit  of  the  members  thereof,  when  opportunity 
offers  or  occasion  requires?  " 

An  initiation  fee  of  $1.50  was  paid  by  each  applicant  for  member- 
ship.    Monthly  dues  were  12I  cents,  and  when  a  printer  had  paid 
$20  into  the  treasury  he  was  considered  "  a  free 
member."     The  initiate  pledged  his  fealty  to  the    Membership 
association,   binding  himself  to  not  only  demand    Requirements, 
the  wage  scale  while  working  as  a  journeyman,  but 
to  pay  it  in  the  event  of  becoming  an  employing  printer.     Article 
IV,    which  covered   the  subject  of  the  election  and  initiation  of 
members,  contained  these  requirements: 

1.  Applications  for  admission  into  this  association  must  be  made  to  the  Board 
of  Directors,  either  personally  or  through  any  member  of  this  association.  The 
applicant  must  first  deposit,  or  cause  to  be  deposited  in  the  hands  of  the  secretary, 
the  sum  of  50  cents,  upon  which  the  board  shall  take  his  request  into  considera- 
tion; and  if  it  shall  satisfactorily  appear  that  he  is  a  regular  journeyman  printer, 
of  the  age  of  21  years,  and  not  working  for  less  than  the  prices  established  by 
the  association,  the  results  of  such  inquiries  shall  be  reported  to  the  next  meeting. 

2.  A  person  favorably  reported  to  the  association  shall  be  balloted  for,  and  the 
votes  of  three-fourths  of  the  members  present  shall  entitle  him  to  admission; 
when,  having  signed  the  constitution,  and  paid  the  additional  sum  of  $1,  he  shall 
be  entitled  to  a  certificate  of  membership. 

3.  Candidates  who  do  not  come  forward  within  three  months  after  being 
notified  of  their  election  shall  forfeit  their  deposit  money,  unless  a  satisfactory 
excuse  for  the  delay  be  rendered.  Should  a  candidate  be  rejected  his  deposit 
shall  be  returned. 

4.  Newly  elected  members  of  this  association  shall  be  introduced  by  the 
individuals  who  first  proposed  them  to  the  Board  of  Directors,  or  such  other 
suitable  person,  or  persons,  as  may  be  designated  by  the  chair.  The  members 
of  the  association  will  rise  on  the  entrance  of  the  candidate  and  remain  standing 
until  he  be  conducted  to  the  presiding  officer,  who  shall  address  him  as 
follows: 


•112  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

Sir:  —  I  have  the  pleasure  of  informing  you  that  you  have  been  elected  a  member  of  the  Typo- 
graphical Association  of  New  York.  Before  your  name  is  added  to  the  roll,  it  is  my  duty  to  ask: 
Do  you  understand  the  objects  of  this  association?  Will  you,  both  as  a  journeyman  and  an  em- 
ploying printer,  support  the  constitution  and  scale  of  prices  of  this  association,  and  all  by-laws 
founded  thereon?  Will  you  attend  all  meetings  of  this  association,  and  embrace  every  proper 
occasion  to  promote  its  reputation  and  enhance  its  prosperity?  And  where  your  influence  is  de- 
sired by  individuals  of  the  profession,  and  their  claims  as  workmen  are  equal,  always  give  the 
preference  to  members  of  this  association? 

As  your  answers  are  satisfactory  and  trusting  that  you  will  ever  bear  in  mind 
the  principles  upon  which  this  association  is  founded,  I  now  tender  to  you  the 
right  hand  of  fellowship.  As  an  earnest  of  the  sincerity  of  the  declaration  you 
have  just  made,  you  will  sign  this  constitution,  which  defines  your  rights  and 
duties. 

Provision  was  made  in  Article  X  for  the  impeachment  and  trial 
of  accused  members  or  officials,  it  being  stipulated  that  "  any  breach 
of  the  constitution,  by-laws  or  scale  of  prices  of  this  association  shall 
constitute  just  grounds  for  impeachment,  admonition,  fine  or  expul- 
sion of  any  of  its  officers  or  members."  Punishable  in  like  manner 
was  "  conduct  calculated  to  bring  into  contempt  or  derision  the 
association  as  a  body."  Charges  were  required  to  be  made  in  writing 
and  a  copy  furnished  the  member  against  whom  they  were  made  at 
least  a  week  before  their  consideration,  a  majority  vote  convicting. 

Section  2  of  Article  V  of  the  constitution  forbade  the  retention  of 
employers  upon  the  active  roll  of  the  organization,  stipulating  that 
"  any  member  of  this  association  who  shall  establish  the  printing 
business  on  his  own  account  will  forfeit  his  title  to  membership;  but 
in  the  event  of  his  again  becoming  a  journeyman  he  shall  be  entitled 
to  all  his  former  rights  and  privileges." 

Very  important  was  Article  VI,  relating  to  the  disbursement  of 
the  funds.     It  provided  for  the  payment  of  specified 
Provision  benefits  to  members  on  strike,  besides  pectmiary 

for  Relief         relief  for  the  unemployed  and  the  sick,  while  pro- 
of Members,     vision  was  made  "  for  the  burial  of  deceased  mem- 
bers."   Following  are  the  five  sections  of  the  article: 

1.  The  funds  shall  not  be  appropriated  to  any  other  purpose  than  to  defray 
the  necessary  expenses  of  the  association  and  the  pecuniary  relief  of  its  members. 
In  no  case  shall  the  allowance  to  members  exceed  $3  per  week  to  single  men 
and  $4  to  married  men,  and  the  Board  of  Directors  shall  determine  the  right 
of  applicants  to  the  per-week  allowance  specified  in  this  section. 

2.  Any  member  who  may  be  thrown  out  of  employment  in  consequence  of 
not  obtaining  a  price  for  his  labor  that  shall  be  in  accordance  with  the  scale  and 
having  a  certificate  to  that  effect  from  the  father  of  the  chapel  in  the  office  where 
he  was  last  employed,  shall  be  entitled  to  the  weekly  relief  specified  in  the  pre- 
ceding section  while  he  shall  remain  unemployed;  but,  if  it  shall  satisfactorily 
appear  that  he  makes  no  effort  to  obtain  another  situation  or  refuses  honorable 


TYPOGRAPHICAL  ASSOCIATION   OF   NEW   YORK.  II3 

employment  when  oflfered  to  him,  and  continues  to  draw  from  the  treasury, 
his  weekly  allowance  shall  be  immediately  stopped,  and  his  claims  on  the  funds 
be  suspended  for  the  term  of  six  months. 

3.  No  member  shall  be  entitled  to  the  weekly  allowance  above  specified  who 
may  be  in  arrears  for  fines  or  dues  exceeding  the  amount  of  50  cents. 

4.  Any  sum  that  may  be  earned  by  a  member  during  the  week  that  he  receives 
pecuniary  relief  shall  be  deducted  from  his  weekly  allowance. 

5.  Whenever  the  amount  of  moneys  in  the  treasury  shall  exceed  $500,  appro- 
priations may  be  made  for  the  relief  of  sick  members,  and  also  for  the  burial  of 
deceased  brethren. 


CHAPTER  V. 

INCEPTION  OF  THE  CHAPEL. 

THIS  organization  of  printers  was  the  first  in  New  York  City 
to  provide  for  the  formation  of  chapels.  Through  its  Board 
of  Directors  the  association,  on  January  21,  1832,  adopted 
rules  for  shop  administration,  it  being  decided  "that  in  every  print- 
ing office  in  New  York  where  three  or  more  members  of  the  associa- 
tion are  employed  they  shall  form  themselves  into  a  committee  and 
elect  a  chairman,"  whose  duties  were  thus  prescribed: 

1.  To  attend  all  meetings  of  the  association  in  the  capacity  of  delegate  from 
the  office  which  he  represented. 

2.  To  collect  the  monthly  dues  from  all  members  working  in  that  office,  and 
pay  same  over  to  the  secretary. 

3.  To  report  to  the  board  or  association  the  works  doing  in  the  office  at  a  rate 
below  the  scale  of  prices,  the  names  of  the  persons  employed  on  them,  and  whether 
they  belong  to  the  association  or  not. 

4.  To  use  his  utmost  endeavors  with  these  printers  who  may  be  employed  in 
the  office,  who  are  not  members  of  the  association,  to  induce  them  to  become 
members  of  it. 

Chapel  government  was  more  clearly  defined  in  the  association's 
constitution  of  1833,  provision  being  made  therein 
Union  Printers    for  the  reference  to  these  shop  organizations  of  all 
Institute  differences  arising  in  establishments  between  em- 

Chapels,  ployers   and   employed   and   between   journeymen 

themselves.  Each  chapel  was  presided  over  by  a 
father,  who  reported  the  proceedings  to  the  Board  of  Directors. 
The  article  of  the  basic  law  on  the  subject  follows : 

1.  Each  printing  office  within  the  jurisdiction  comprised  in  Article  I,  Section 
I,  where  journeymen  connected  with  this  association  are  employed,  there  shall 
be  established  what  is  technically  called  a  chapel,  and  an  experienced  journeyman 
printer  chosen  to  preside  thereat,  who  shall  be  constituted  and  known  in  his 
official  capacity  as  father  of  the  chapel.  To  this  chapel  shall  be  referred  for  set- 
tlement any  difference  that  may  arise  between  employer  and  employed,  or 
between  journeymen;  and  the  disagreements  shall  be  adjudged  by  the  chapel, 
and  its  decision  acquiesced  in  and  supported  by  its  members  respectively. 

2.  When  doubts  arise  respecting  the  construction  which  may  be  given  to  any 
article,  or  articles,  in  the  scale  of  prices,  a  chapel  shall  be  immediately  summoned, 
at  which  the  father  shall  preside,  when  the  difficulty  shall  be  canvassed,  and  the 
decision  of  the  majority  be  binding  upon  all. 

[114] 


INCEPTION   OF  THE    CHAPEL.  II5 

3.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  father  of  the  chapel  to  report  the  nature  of  the 
difRculty,  and  the  decision  thereon,  to  the  president  of  the  Board  of  Directors, 
who  shall,  if  in  their  opinion  necessary,  bring  the  subject  before  the  association. 

4.  Every  member  of  the  association  in  the  office  shall  have  a  voice  in  the  chapel ; 
but  if  the  majority,  in  large  offices,  decide  to  delegate  the  trust  to  chapels  con- 
sisting of  five,  seven,  or  nine  members,  of  which  the  father  to  be  always  one,  it 
shall  be  competent  for  them  to  do  so.  The  father  of  the  chapel  to  be  elected 
by  a  majority  and  continue  in  office  three  months. 

5.  No  chapel  shall  be  formed  in  any  printing  office  where  there  are  less  than 
three  members  of  the  association  employed;  and  any  difficulty  originating  in, 
or  any  demand  for  relief,  emanating  from  such  office,  shall  be  laid  before  the 
Board  of  Directors. 

Discussion  of  the  question  of  chapels  was  indulged  in  at  the 
National  Typographical  Convention  of  1836.     A  resolution  was  there 
introduced  calling  for  the  appointment  of  a  com- 
mittee "  to  report  to  the  convention  a  plan  for  a      chapels 
chapel  for  the  government  of  offices  under  the  juris-      Opposed  in 
diction  of  subordinate  societies."     That  committee      America. 
was  opposed  to  the  idea,  reporting  on  November 
loth   "that    as    chapels    are    instituted    for    the    adjustment    of 
matters  of  minor  import,  they  are  of  the  opinion  that   the  ends 
intended    to   be    gained    by    their  establishment  would  be    more 
satisfactorily  attained  by  referring  them  directly  to  the  society  or 
association  existing  where  the  difficulty  may  arise.     Your  committee 
think  that  this  course  would  have  a  tendency  to  prevent  disputation 
on  trivial  matters,  and  would  cause  men  to  be  more  cautious  in 
originating  difficulties  when  they  are  to  be  referred  to  their  respective 
associations  or  societies.     With  these  views  your  committee  would 
suggest  that  no  action  should  be  had  on  this  subject,  and  ask  to  be 
discharged   from  its   further  consideration."     Which   request   was 
complied  with,  and  the  question  was  not  revived. 

I. 

Origin  of  the  Chapel  in  Doubt. 

Though  the  chapel  is  an  extremely  old  institution  its  origin  is 
immersed  in  uncertainty.     It  has  not  been  satisfactorily  demon- 
strated that  its  title  was  derived  from  a  chapel 
attached  to  "  the  almonesrye  at  the  reed  pole  "  in    where  Caxton 
Westminster  Abbey,  in  or  near  which  it  is  said  Wil-    Set  Up  His 
Ham  Caxton,  first  EngHsh  printer,  performed  his    ^^^s*  Press, 
work.     A  writer  in  the  London  Craftsman  of  May 
24,  1740,  was  of  the  belief  that  the  original  "  hierarchy  of  the  printing 
house,"  as  he  termed  it,  had  its  fotmdation  in  a  chapel.     "  You 


H6  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

cannot  be  ignorant,  sir,"  ran  his  declaration,  "  that  the  first  printing 
press  in  England  was  set  up  in  a  chapel  in  Westminster  Abbey,  or 
some  other  religious  house,  from  whence  that  part  of  the  house  which 
is  assigned  for  printing  hath  been  ever  since  called  a  chapel,  and 
constituted  in  an  ecclesiastical  manner,  with  divers  religious  rites 
and  ceremonies."  Three-fifths  of  a  century  later  John  McCreery 
in  one  of  his  notes  to  "  The  Press,"  a  poem,  of  which  he  was  the 
author,*  contended  similarly,  averring  that  "the  title  of  chapel  to 
the  internal  regulations  of  a  printing  house  originated  in  Caxton's 
exercising  the  profession  in  one  of  the  chapels  in  Westminster  Abbey." 
John  Johnson  relates  that  "  Mr.  Howell  in  his  *  Londinopolis ' 
describes  the  situation  where  the  Abbot  of  Westminster  permitted 
Caxton  to  set  up  his  press  in  the  Almonry,  or  Ambry.  This  opinion 
is  confirmed  by  Newcourt  in  his  '  Reportorium.'  He  says:  '  St.  Ann's 
was  an  old  chapel  over  against  which  the  Lady  Margaret,  mother 
to  King  Henry  VH,  erected  an  almshouse  for  poor  women,  which 
is  now  turned  into  lodgings  for  singing-men  of  the  college.'  The 
place,  wherein  this  chapel  and  almshouse  stood,  was  called  the 
Eleemosinary  or  Almonry,  now  corruptly  the  Ambry  [Aumbry],  for 
that  the  alms  of  the  Abbey  were  there  distributed  to  the  poor;  in 
which  the  Abbot  of  Westminster  erected  the  first  press  for  book- 
printing  that  ever  was  in  England,  about  the  year  of  Christ  1471, 
and  where  William  Caxton,  citizen  and  mercer  of  London,  who 
brought  it  into  England,  practiced  it.'"^ 

William  Blades,  an  eminent  London  printer  and  author,  reasons 
"  that  Westminster  was  the  locality  in  which  Caxton  first  settled 
there  is  fortunately  no  room  to  dispute,  as  the  numerous  Colophons 
to  his  works  are  unanimous  on  the  point."  The  same  writer  then 
quotes  the  following:  "  Near  unto  this  house  westward  was  an 
old  chapel  of  S.  Anne;  over  against  the  which  the  Lady  Margaret, 
mother  of  King  H.  the  7,  erected  an  almes-house  for  poore  women 

*  *  *  the  place  v/ herein  this  chapel  and  Almes-house  standeth 
was  called  the  Elemosinary  or  Almony,  now  corruptly  the  Ambry, 
for  that  the  almes  of  the  Abbey  were  there  distributed  to  the  poore. 
And  therein  Islip,  Abbot  of  Westmin.  erected  the  first  Presse  of  booke 
printing  that  ever  was  in  England  about  the  year  of  Christ,  1471- 
William  Caxton,  citizen  of  London  mercer,  brought  it  into  England, 
and  was  the  first  that  practiced  it  in  the  sayde  Abbey."  ^    Com- 

»  John  McCreery  was  an  artistic  printer  of  some  note.  "  The  Press  "  was  a  poem  of  much  merit 
and  was  produced  in  a  beautifully  executed  quarto  volume  in  1803.  The  author  was  born  in 
Ireland,  and  carried  on  the  printing  business  in  Liverpool,  afterward  in  London. 

2  John  Johnson,  "  Typographia  "  (London,  Eng.,  1824),  Volume  II,  page  105. 

•  Stow's  "  Survey  of  London  "  (published  in  1598),  page  47^. 


INCEPTION   OF    THE    CHAPEL.  II7 

menting  upon  this  statement,  Blades  declares  that  "  Stow's  chro- 
nology is  very  erroneous  in  ascribing  to  Abbot  Islip  any  connection 
with  Caxton,  whose  death  occurred  about  nine  years  before  the 
election  of  Islip.  *  *  *  The  Abbot  at  the  time  of  Caxton 's 
arrival  in  England  was  John  Esteney.  *  *  ♦  Westminster 
meant  '  The  Almonesrye,'  where  Caxton  occupied  a  tenement  for 
the  purposes  of  his  trade.  The  Almonry  was  a  space  within  the 
Abbey  precincts  used  for  distributing  charity  to  the  poor.  Here 
the  Lady  Margaret,  mother  of  King  Henry  VII,  and  one  of  Caxton 's 
supporters,  built  almshouses.  Other  houses  were  also  there,  for 
Caxton,  who  was  a  man  of  importance  in  the  parish,  cannot  be  sup- 
posed to  have  resided  for  fifteen  years  in  a  house  of  charity.  We 
must  conclude,  therefore,  that  by  '  in  the  Abbey  '  Caxton  meant 
nothing  more  than  within  the  Abbey  precincts.  *  *  *  There  is 
nothing  to  lead  to  the  supposition  that  Caxton  and  Abbot  Esteney 
were  on  intimate  terms;  indeed,  the  probability  is  that  they  knew 
Uttle  of  each  other.  Our  printer  mentions  him  but  once,  and  that 
casually.  *  *  *  Caxton  always  appears  to  have  narrated,  in 
prologue  or  epilogue,  the  names  of  those  by  whom  he  was  employed, 
and  had  he  received  any  amount  of  favor  or  patronage  from  the 
Abbot  he  would  in  all  likelihood  have  dedicated  one  of  his  numerous 
translations  to  him,  as  he  did  to  so  many  of  his  patrons.  *  *  ♦ 
It  has  been  argued  that  Caxton  was  permitted  by  the  Abbot  to  use 
the  '  Scriptorium  '  of  the  Abbey  as  a  printing  ofhce.  Printing  even 
in  these  days  of  improvement  is  necessarily  in  some  parts  a  very 
unclean  operation,  but  it  was  much  more  so  in  its  earlier  state, 
some  of  the  processes  being  extremely  filthy  and  pungent.  The 
Abbot  of  Westminster  would  never  have  admitted  into  the  '  Scrip- 
torium '  anything  so  defiling,  much  less  within  the  sacred  walls  of 
the  church  itself.  There  is  indeed  no  evidence  that  the  Abbey  had 
a  portion  appropriated  as  a  '  Scriptorium,'  no  mention  of  such  a 
place  is  made  by  any  local  historian,  nor  has  any  manuscript  been 
recognized  as  having  issued  thence.  *  *  *  On  the  whole,  there- 
fore, it  is  unlikely  that  Caxton  went  to  Westminster  by  invitation 
of  the  Abbot,  or  that  he  occupied  any  place  within  the  church 
itself,  or  that  he  held  any  relationship  with  the  Abbot  other  than 
that  of  tenant.  The  rent-roll  of  the  Abbey  was  under  the  imme- 
diate charge  of  the  Abbot's  chamberlain,  and  with  him  Caxton 
would  have  to  agree  as  to  his  teniu-e  of  'The  Red  Pale'  in  the 
Almonry."* 

*  Blades'  "  The  Life  and  Typography  of  William  Caxton,  England's  First  Printer,"  Volume  I, 
pages  65-67.     (London:  1861.) 


Il8  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

An  earlier  authority,^  while  conjecturing  that  the  term  may  have 
owed  its  derivation  to  the  fact  that  works  of  a  divine  nature  were  the 
first  products  of  a  printing  office,  which  were  in  con- 
Derivation  of  sequence  held  in  great  reverence,  was  silent  on  the 
the  Term  in  question  as  to  where  the  original  English  press 
Question.  ^g^g    housed.     "  I    suppose,"    to    quote    his    exact 

language  in  speaking  of  the  chapel,  "  the  stile  was 
originally  conferred  upon  it  by  the  courtesie  of  some  great  Church- 
man, or  men  (doubtless  when  Chappels  were  in  miore  veneration  than 
of  late  years  they  have  been  in  England),  who  for  the  Books  of 
Divinity  that  proceeded  from  a  Printing  house  gave  it  the  Reverend 
Title  of  Chappel."  By  many  this  is  considered  to  be  sufficient  ground 
for  discrediting  the  assumption  of  some  writers  on  the  subject  of  the 
introduction  of  printing  that  the  word  chapel  as  the  trade  term  of 
associated  employees  in  a  printery  was  given  because,  as  alleged,  the 
art  in  England  began  to  be  practiced  within  the  sacred  walls  of  a 
sanctuary. 

The  chapel  also  existed  in  medieval  France  and  Belgium,  Boutmy, 

in  his  "  Argot  des  Typographes,"  defining  it  as  "a  meeting  of  the 

printers  employed  in  the  same  printing  office,  who 

In  Medieval      constituted  a  sort  of  brotherhood.     A  chaplain  was 

France  and        he  who  held  the  copies  of  the  works  printed  in  that 

Belgium.  house  which  belonged  to  the  chapel,  which  claimed 

one  of  which  work  as  a  matter  of  right."     William 

Blades   iterates   that   Caxton   while   in   Belgium   translated    "  Le 

Recueil  "   for  the   Duchess   of   Burgundy.     On  the  completion  of 

the  work  he  presented  it  to  her  and  was  largely  rewarded.     Many 

other  persons  also  desired  copies,  but,  finding  the  labor  of  writing 

too  wearisome  for  him,  and  not  expeditious  enough  for  his  friends, 

he   "had  practiced  and  learnt,  at  his  great  charge  and  expense, 

to  ordain  the  book  in  print,  to  the  end  that  every  man  might  have 

them  at  once."     Caxton  furnished  the  money  and  Colard  Mansion 

the  requisite  knowledge.     They  established  a  workshop  over  the 

church  porch  of  St.  Donatus,  at  Bruges,  and  began  the  work  in  1471.* 

"  Early  in  1476,"  to  further  quote  Blades,  "  Caxton  appears  to  have 

taken  leave  of  the  land  of  his  adoption,  and  after  a  residence  of  about 

35  years,  to  have  returned  to  his  native  country  laden  with  a  more 

precious  freight  than  the  most  opulent  merchant  adventurer  ever 

dreamt  of." 


'Joseph  Moxon,  whose  work  appeared  in  1683. 
•  Blades'  "  Life  of  Caxton,"  Volume  I,  page  47. 


INCEPTION   OF  THE    CHAPEL.  IIQ 

II. 

Devotional  Element  the  Prevailing  Feature. 

Adverting  to  the  seventeenth  century  William  Blades  says  the 
devotional  element  was  then  the  prevailing  feature  of  printing  offices. 
"  The  books  that  were  written  by,  and  for  use  of, 
German  printers  about  two  centuries  ago,"  wrote  a  Quaint 
he  in  1885,'  "  are  of  the  greatest  interest  to  a  sym-  Daily  Prayer 
pathetic  reader.  The  homely  dignity  which  per-  ^°^  Printers. 
vades  them,  the  simple  and  fervent  piety,  the  real 
love  of  the  art  and  consequent  anxiety  to  transmit  to  the  rising 
generation  the  same  feelings,  are  to  be  found  in  the  exercise  of  this 
profession  in  no  other  country.  The  sentiment  that  printers  were 
to  a  great  extent  responsible  for  the  educational  and  religious  means 
at  their  disposal,  was  cultivated  from  the  moment  the  youth  began 
his  apprenticeship.  Did  a  German  compositor  or  pressman,  passing 
through  a  town,  call  in  at  the  printing  office,  his  common  salutation 
was  '  Gott  gruss  die  Kunst  '  (God  bless  the  art).  Was  a  boy  bound 
as  an  apprentice  his  first  lesson  was  that  honor  and  devotion  were 
due  to  the  Heaven-bom  art  and  to  God  the  giver.  Even  the  '  Format 
Bucher,'  in  which  technical  instructions  were  given,  breathed  a 
religious  tone,  as  the  following  quaint  prayer,  translated  from  Ernesti, 
and  dated  the  281st  year  from  the  invention  of  printing,  will  show: 
'  O  Lord,  Almighty  God,  Printing  is  a  noble  Art,  a  blessing  Thou 
hast  reserved  for  mankind  in  these  latter  days,  an  Art  by  which 
all  conditions  of  men,  and  especially  Thy  Holy  Church,  are  greatly 
nourished.  And  since.  Good  Lord,  Thou  hast  of  Thy  free  grace  given 
to  me  the  opportunity  of  exercising  an  Art  and  Craft  so  exalted,  I 
pray  Thee  to  guide  me,  by  Thy  Holy  Spirit,  in  using  the  same  to  Thy 
honor.  Thou  knowest,  dear  Lord,  that  great  diligence,  continued 
care  and  accurate  knowledge  of  the  characters  of  many  languages 
are  needful  in  this  Art;  therefore  I  call  to  Thee  for  help,  that  I  may 
be  earnest  and  careful,  both  in  the  setting  up  of  types,  and  printing 
the  same.  Preserve  my  soul  in  the  constant  love  of  Thy  Holy  Word 
and  Truth,  and  my  body  in  sobriety  and  purity,  that  so  after  a  life 
here  befitting  a  printer,  I  may  hereafter,  at  the  last  coming  of  my 
most  worthy  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  be  found  a  good  workman  in 
His  sight,  and  wear  the  everlasting  crown  in  His  presence.  Hear  me, 
dearest  God,  for  Thy  honor  and  my  welfare.     Amen.'  " 


'  Blades'  "  Depositio  Cornuti  Typographic!,"  page  3. 


I20  NEW    YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

III. 

Earliest  Description  of  the  Institution. 

The  earliest  known  text  book  on  the  art  of  printing  contains  a 
description  of  the  chapel  under  the  caption  of  "  Ancient  Customs 
Used  in  a  Printing-House,"^  which  matter  has  been 
Modem  Printers  extracted  from  an  original  edition  and  appears  below 
Practice  Ancient  in    full.     Strict    decorum    was    observed    in    these 
Shop  Customs,     chapels  of  a  former  age,  and  penalties  were  imposed 
for  infractions  of  the  rules.     Some  of  the  customs 
that  were  in  vogue  at  the  beginning  are  still  extant.     For  instance, 
the  title  of  "  father  of  the  chapel,"  who  as  chairman  presides  over 
the  deliberations  of  members  at  shop  meetings  and  performs  other 
duties  pertaining  to  their  welfare,  is  even  now  embodied  in  the  con- 
stitutions of  typographical  unions  in  some  of  our  modem  cities.    The 
habit  of  gambHng  with  quadrats  continues  among  a  limited  number 
of  compositors  who  possess  a  weakness  for  that  kind  of  question- 
able sport.     For  more  than  a  century  it  has  been  called  "  jeffing  "  " 
in  this  country,  and  is  occasionally  practiced  legitimately  b}?'  printers 
in  lieu  of  the  time-honored  usage  of  drawing  lots.     Another  old 
custom  that  still  prevails  in  composing  rooms  where  type  is  set  by 
hand  is  that  of  pounding  with  the  composing-stick  upon  the  edge 
of  the  lower  case,  sometimes  as  a  noisy  but  sincere  welcome  to  one 
who  has  returned  after  a  long  absence,  but  more  frequently  to  denote 
disbelief  in  some  allegation  made  by  a  journeyman  who  takes  part 
in  a  general  conversation  or  discussion  with  his  fellow-compositors 

s  Joseph  Moxon,  "  Mechanick  Exercises,  or  the  Doctrine  of  Handy  Works,  Applied  to  the  Art 
of  Printing,"  Volume  II,  page  356.     (London,  Eng.:  1683.) 

William  Hone,  in  "The  Every-Day  Book"  (London,  Eng.,  1826),  Volume  I,  at  page  1,136, 
credits  the  first  presentation  of  these  ancient  customs  to  Randle  Holme,  a  renowned  genealogist 
and  authority  on  heraldry,  who  lived  from  1571  to  1655.  "  This  indefatigable  and  accurate 
collector  and  describer  of  everything  he  could  lay  his  hands  on  and  press  into  heraldry,"  says 
Hone,  speaking  of  Holme,  "  has  happily  preserved  the  ancient  rules  of  government  instituted  by 
the  worshipful  fraternity  of  printers.  This  book  is  very  rare."  And  Joel  Munsell  in  "  The 
Typographical  Miscellany  "  (Albany.  N.  Y.,  1850),  at  page  34,  prefaces  a  reproduction  of  the  same 
regulations  with  the  statement:  "  Randle  Holme,  an  exact  old  writer,  whose  work  was  published 
in  1638,  gives  many  curious  accounts  of  the  ancient  usages  of  printers  and  printing  offices." 

•  Thurlow  Weed  (in  his  "  Memoirs,"  at  page  58),  referring  to  numerous  fellow-craftsmen  as 
they  were  in  1816  when  he  united  with  the  New  York  Typographical  Society,  remarks:  "  Too 
many  of  them,  I  regret  to  say,  were  impoverished  by  habitual  dram-drinking,  more  or  less  intem- 
perately.  The  printing-house  habits  condemned  by  Dr.  Franklin  had  not  yet  been  reformed. 
Journeymen  in  most  of  the  offices  were  required  to  pay  '  footing,'  which  meant  a  treat  by  the 
newcomer.  All  the  old  journeymen  and  the  masters  were  required  to  treat  the  hands  whenever 
signature  '  O  '  was  put  to  press.  At  11  o'clock  a.  M.  invariably,  and  too  frequently  afterwards, 
journeymen  would  '  jeff  '  for  beer.  In  this  way  a  large  share  of  their  weekly  earnings  was  mort- 
gaged, each  journeyman  having  a  formidable  '  tick  '  at  the  grocery  to  be  adjusted  on  Saturday 
evenings.'' 


INCEPTION   OF   THE    CHAPEL.  121 

in  the  chapel  during  working  hours.  London  printers  to  this  day 
look  forward  with  youthful  delight  to  a  yearly  outing  in  the  country, 
where  the  wayz-goose/"  with  its  pleasant  associations,  gives  them  a 
brief  respite  from  toil,  and  in  New  York  City  a  like  recreation  is 
participated  in  annually  by  printers,  editors  and  others  in  a  few 
establishments.  The  capitalization  and  quaint  spelling  in  the 
original  text  of  these  ancient  customs  are  preserved  here : 

Ancient  Customs  Used  in  a  Printing-House. 

Every  Printing-House  is  by  the  Custom  of  Time  out  of  mind  called  a  Chappel; 
and  all  the  Work-men  that  belong  to  it  are  Members  of  the  Chappel:  and  the 
Oldest  Freeman  is  Father  of  the  Chappel. 

There  have  been  formerly  Customs  and  By-Laws  made  and  intended  for  the 
well  and  good  Government  of  the  Chappel,  and  for  the  more  Civil  and  orderly 
deportment  of  all  its  Members  while  in  the   Chappel;  and 
the  Penalty  for  the  breach  of  any  of  these  Laws  and  Cus-       Penalties  for 
toms  is  in  Printers'  Language  called  a  Solace.  Breach  of 

And  the  Judges  of  these  Solaces,  and  other  Controversies       Chapel  Rules. 
relating  to  the  Chappel,  or  any  of  its  Members,  was  plurality 
of  Votes  in  the  Chappel;  it  being  asserted  as  a  Maxim  That  the  Chappel  can- 
not Err.     But  when  any  Controversie  is  thus  decided,  it  always  ends  in  the 
Good  of  the  Chappel. 

1.  Swearing  in  the  Chappel,  a  Solace. 

2.  Fighting  in  the  Chappel,  a  Solace. 

3.  Abusive  Language,  or  giving  the  Ly  in  the  Chappel,  a  Solace. 

4.  To  be  Drunk  in  the  Chappel,  a  Solace. 

5.  For  any  of  the  Work-men  to  leave  his  Candle  burning  at  Night,  a  Solace. 

6.  If  the  Compositer  let  fall  his  Composing-stick,  and  another  take  it  up, 
a  Solace. 

7.  Three  Letters  and  a  Space  to  lye  under  the  Compositor's  Case,  a  Solace. 

8.  If  a  Press-man  let  fall  his  Ball  or  Balls,  and  another  take  it  up,  a  Solace. 

9.  If  a  Press-man  leave  his  Blankets  in  the  Tympan  at  Noon  or  Night,  a  Solace. 
These  Solaces  were  to  be  bought  off,  for  the  good  of  the  Chappel:  Nor  were 

the  price  of  these  Solaces  alike:  For  some  were  I2d.  6d.4d.  2d.  id.  ob.,  according 
to  the  nature  and  quality  of  the  Solace. 

But  if  the  Delinquent  prov'd  Obstinate  or  Refractory,  and  would  not  pay  his 
Solace  at  the  Price  of  the  Chappel,  they  Solac'd  him. 

The  manner  of  Solacing,  thus: 

The  Work-men  take  him  by  force,  and  lay  him  on  his  Belly  athwart  the  Cor- 
recting-Stone,  and  held  him  there  while  another  of  the  Work-men,  with  a  Paper- 
board,  gave  him  10  /.  and  a  Purse,  viz.  Eleven  blows  on  his  Buttocks;  which  he 
laid  on  according  to  his  own  mercy.  For  Tradition  tells  us  that  about  50  years 
ago  one  was  Solaced  with  so  much  violence  that  he  presently  [effused]  Blood, 
and  shortly  after  dyed  of  it. 


w  "  Wayz  IS  the  old  English  word  for  stubble  A  wayz-goose  (a  stubble  goose)  was  a  known 
dainty  and  the  head  diih  at  the  annual  feasts  of  the  forefathers  of  our  fraternity." —  Hansard's 
"  Typography,"  page  305. 


122  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

These  nine  Solaces  were  all  the  Solaces  usually  and  generally  accepted;  yet 
in  some  particular  Chappcls  the  Work-men  did  by  consent  make  other  Solaces, 
viz. 

That  it  should  be  a  Solace  for  any  of  the  Work-men  to  mention  Joyning  their 
Penny  or  more  apiece  to  send  for  Drink. 

To  mention  spending  Chappel-moncy  till  Saturday  Night,  or  any  other  before 
agreed  time. 

To  Play  at  Quadrats,  or  excite  any  of  the  Chappel  to  Play  at  Quadrats;  either 
for  Money  or  Drink. 

This  Solace  is  generally  Purchased  by  the  Master-Printer;  as  well  because  it 

hinders  the  Work-men's  work,  as  because  it  Batters  and  spoils  the  Quadrats: 

For  the  Manner  how  they  Play  with  them  is  Thus:     They 

"  jeffing  "  take  five  or  seven  more  m  Quadrats  (generally  of  the  English 

Accurately  Body)   and    holding   their  Hand  below  the  Surface  of  the 

Described.  Correcting-Stone,  shake  them  in  their  Hand,  and  toss  them 

up  upon  the  Stone,  and  then  count  how  many  Nicks  upwards 

each  man  throws  in  three  times,  or  any  other  number  of  times  agreed  on: 

And  he  that  throws  most  Wins  the  Bett  of  all  the   rest,  and  stands  out  free, 

till  the  rest  have  try'd  who  throws  fewest  Nicks  upwards  in  so  many  throws; 

for  all  the  rest  are  free:  and  he  pays  the  Bett. 

For  any  to  Take  up  a  Sheet,  if  he  receiv'd  Copy-money;  Or  if  he  receiv'd  no 
Copy-money,  and  did  Take  up  a  Sheet  and  carried  that  Sheet  or  Sheets  off 
the  Printing-House  till  the  whole  Book  was  Printed  off  and  Publisht. 

Any  of  the  Work-men  may  purchase  a  Solace  for  any  trivial  matter,  if  the  rest 
of  the  Chappel  consent  to  it.  As  if  any  of  the  Work-men  Sing  in  the  Chappel; 
he  that  is  offended  at  it  may,  with  the  Chappel's  Consent,  purchase  a  penny  or 
two  penny  Solace  for  any  Work-men's  singing  after  the  Solace  is  made;  Or  if 
a  Work- man  or  a  Stranger  salute  a  Woman  in  the  Chappel,  after  the  making  of 
the  Solace,  it  is  a  Solace  of  such  value  as  is  agreed  on. 

The  price  of  All  Solaces  to  be  purchased  is  wholly  Arbitrary  in  the  Chappel. 
And  a  Penny  Solace  may  perhaps  cost  the  Purchaser  Six  Pence,  Twelve  Pence, 
or  more  for  the  Good  of  the  Chappel. 

Yet  sometimes  Solaces  may  cost  double  the  Purchase  or  more.     As  if  some 

Compositer  have  (to  affront  a  Press-man)  put  a  Wisp  of  Hay  in  the  Press-man's 

Ball-Racks.     If  the  Press-man  cannot  well  brook  this  affront, 

Playing  Pranks        he  will  lay  six  Pence  down  on  the  Correcting-stone  to  pur- 

Upon  Pressmen       chase  a  Solace  of  twelve  Pence  upon  him  that  did  it;  and  the 

Forbidden.  Chappel  cannot  in  Justice  refuse  to  grant  it :  because  it  tends 

to  the  Good  of  the  Chappel:    And  being  granted,  it  becomes 

every  Member's  duty  to  make  what  discovery  he  can:  because  it  tends  to  farther 

Good  of  the  Chappel:     And  by  this  means  it  seldom  happens  but  the  Aggressor 

is  found  out. 

Nor  did  Solaces  reach  only  the  Members  of  the  Chappel,  but  also  Strangers 
that  came  into  the  Chappel,  and  offered  affronts  or  indignities  to  the  Chappel, 
or  any  of  its  Members;  the  Chappel  would  determine  it  a  Solace.     Example, — 

It  was  a  Solace  for  any  to  come  to  the  King's  Printing-house  and  ask  for  a 
Ballad. 

For  any  to  come  and  enquire  of  a  Compositer  whether  he  had  News  of  such  a 
Galley  at  Sea. 

For  any  to  bring  a  Wisp  of  Hay,  directed  to  any  of  the  Press-men. 


INCEPTION  OF  THE  CHAPEL,  1 23 

And  such  Strangers  were  commonly  sent  by  some  who  knew  the  Customs  of 
the  Chappel,  and  had  a  mind  to  put  a  Trick  upon  the  Stranger. 

Other  customs  were  used  in  the  Chappel,  which  were  not  Solaces,  viz.     Every 
new  Work-man  to  pay  half  a  Crown;   which  is  called  his 
Benvenue.*^    This  Benvenue  being  so  constant  a  Custome  is     other  Levies  to 
still  looked  upon  by  all  Work-men  as  the  undoubted  Right  of      Augment  the 
the  Chappel,  and  therefore  never  disputed;  yet  he  who  has      Chapel  Treasury, 
not  paid  his  Benvenue  is  no  Member  of  the  Chappel,  nor 
enjoys  any  benefit  of  Chappel-Money. 

If  a  Journey-man  Wrought  formerly  upon  the  same  Printing-house,  and  comes 
again  to  Work  on  it,  pays  but  half  a  Benvenue. 

If  a  Journey-man  Smout*^  more  or  less  on  another  Printing-House,  and  any 
of  the  Chappel  can  prove  it,  he  pays  half  a  Benvenue. 

I  told  you  before  that  abusive  Language  or  giving  the  Lye  was  a  Solace:  But 
in  discourse,  when  any  of  the  Work-men  affirm  anything  that  is  not  believed, 
the  Compositer  knocks  with  the  back  corner  of  his  Composing-stick  against  the 
lower  Ledge  of  his  Lower  Case,  and  the  Press-man  knocks  the  Handles  of  his 
Ball-stocks  together;  Thereby  signifying  the  discredit  they  give  to  his  Story. 

It  is  now  customary  that  Journey-men  are  paid  for  all  Church  Holy  days  that 
fall  not  on  a  Sunday,  Whether  they  Work  or  no:  And  they  are  by  Contract 
with  the  Master-Printer  paid  proportionately  for  what  they  undertake  to  Earn 
every  Working  day,  be  it  half  a  Crown,  two  Shillings,  three  Shillings,  four 
ShiUings,  &c. 

It  is  also  customary  for  all  the  Journey-men  to  make  every  Year  new  Paper 
Windows,  whether  the  old  will  serve  again  or  no;  Because  that  day  they  make 
them,  the  Master-Printer  gives  them  a  Way-goose;  that  is, 
he  makes  them  a  good  Feast,  and  not  only  entertains  them       Institution 
at  his  own  House,  but  besides,  gives  them  Money  to  spend       o'  ^^^ 
at  the  Ale-house  or  Tavern  at  Night;  and  to  this  Feast  they       Wayz-Goose. 
invite    the  Correcter,   Founder,  Smith,    Joyner,    and   Inck- 
maker,  who  all  of  them  severally  (except  the  Correcter  in  his  own  Civility) 
open  their  Purse-strings  and  add  their  Benevolence  (which  Work-men  account 
their  duty,  because  they  generally   chuse   these  Work-men)    to  the    Master- 
Printers:     But  from  the  Correcter  they  expect  nothing,  because  the  Master- 
Printer  chusing  him,  the  Work-men  can  do  him  no  kindness. 

These  Way-gooses  are  always  kept  about  Bartholomew-tide.'^  And  till  the 
Master-Printer  have  given  this  Way-goose,  the  Journey-men  do  not  use  to  Work 
by  Candle  Light. 

If  a  Journey-man  marry,  he  pays  half  a  Crown  to  the  Chappel. 

When  his  Wife  comes  to  the  Chappel,  she  pays  six  Pence:  and  then  all  the 
Journey-men  joyn  their  two  Pence  apiece  to  Welcome  her. 

If  a  Journey-man  have  a  Son  born,  he  pays  one  Shilling. 

If  a  Daughter  born,  six  Pence.** 


'*  Evidently  a  corruption  of  the  French  bienvenu,  which  means  welcome. 

u  "  Smout  —  Workmen  when  they  are  out  of  constant  Work  do  sometimes  accept  of  a  Day  or 
two's  Work,  or  a  Week's  Work  at  another  Printing-house:  this  By-work  they  call  Smouting." — 
MoxoN. 

"  Festival  of  St.  Bartholomew,  August  24th. 

"  Randle  Holme,  according  to  William  Hone  and  Joel  Munsell,  mentioned  this  additional 
requirement:     "  If  a  master  printer  have  a  son  born  he  pays  2s.  6d.;  if  a  daughter,  is.  2d." 


124  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

The  Father  of  the  Chappcl  drinks  first  of  Chappel  Drink,  except  some  other 
Journey-man  have  a  Token ;  viz. :     Some  agreed  piece  of  Coin 

Social  Customs        or  Mettle  markt  by  consent  of  the  Chappcl:  for  then  pro- 

in  Early  ducing  that  Token,  he  Drinks  first.     This  Token  is  always 

Printing  Offices.  given  to  him  who  in  the  Round  should  have  Drank,  had  the 
last  Chappel-drink  held  out.  Therefore  when  Chappel- 
drink  comes  in,  they  generally  say,  "  Who  has  the  Token?  " 

Though  these  Customs  are  no  Solaces,  yet  the  Chappel  Excommunicates 
the  delinquent;  and  he  shall  have  no  benefit  of  Chappel-money  till  he  have 
paid. 

It  is  also  Customary  in  some  Printing-houses  that  if  the  Compositer  or  Press- 
man make  either  the  other  stand  still  through  the  neglect  of  their  contracted 
Task,  that  then  he  who  neglected  shall  pay  him  that  stands  still  as  much  as  if 
he  had  Wrought. 

The  Compositers  are  Jocosely  called  Galley  Slaves:  Because  allusively  they 
are  as  it  were  bound  to  their  Gallies. 

And  the  Press-men  are  Jocosely  called  Horses:  Because  of  the  hard  Labour 
they  go  through  all  day  long. 

An  Apprentice  when  he  is  Bound  pays  half  a  Crown  to  the  Chappel ;  and  when 
he  is  made  Free,  another  half  Crown  to  the  Chappel;  but  is  yet  no  Member  of 
the  Chappel;  And  if  he  continue  to  Work  Journey-work  in  the  same  House,  he 
pays  another  half  Crown,  and  is  then  a  Member  of  the  Chappel. 

A  Founding-House  is  also  called  a  Chappel;  But  I  suppose  the  Title  was 
originally  assumed  by  Founders,  to  make  a  Competition  with  Printers. 


IV. 

Printing-House  Regulations  in  1  740. 

The  function  of  the  chapel  has  varied  in  different  periods,  although 
it  always  has  been  a  regulariy  constituted  organization  with  a  per- 
manent chairman.     At  the  start  it  was  to  a  large 
Unit  of  degree  social  and  benevolent  in  character,  but  as 

Government  in  time  advanced  it  gradually  became  the  unit  of 
Trade  Affairs,  government  for  the  regulation  of  trade  affairs.  In 
the  eighteenth  century  in  England  the  members 
were  required  to  submit  to  certain  laws  of  a  protective  nature,  while 
the  interests  of  employers  were  at  the  same  time  adequately  guarded. 
The  London  Craftsman  of  May  24,  1740,  thus  describes  the  insti- 
tution as  it  existed  then: 

When  a  printer  first  sets  up,  if  it  is  a  house  that  was  never  used  for  printing 
before,  the  part  designed  for  that  purpose  is  consecrated,  which  is  performed  by 
the  senior  freeman  the  master  employs,  who  is  the  father  or  dean  of  the  chapel, 
and  the  chief  ceremony  is  drinking  success  to  the  master,  sprinkling  the  walls 
with  strong  beer,  and  singing  the  Cuz's  Anthem,  at  the  conclusion  of  which  there 
is  a  supper  given  by  the  master. 


INCEPTION    OF  THE    CHAPEL. 


"5 


All  the  workmen  are  called  Chapellonians,  who  are  obhged  to  submit  to  cer- 
tain laws,  all  of  which  are  calculated  for  the  good  of  the  whole  body,  and  for  the 
well  carrying  on  of  the  master's  business.     To  the  breach  of 
these  laws  is  annexed  a  penalty,  which  an  obstinate  member  Members 

sometimes  refuses  to  pay,  upon  which  it  is  left  to  the  majority  Submit  to 

of  the  chapel,  in  convocation  assembled,  whether  he  shall  be  ^^°^  Laws. 

continued  any  longer  a  Chapellonian,  and  if  his  sentence  is 
to  be  discontinued  he  is  then  declared  a  Brimstone,  that  is,  an  excommunicated 
person,  and  deprived  of  all  share  of  the  money  given  by  gentlemen,  authors, 
booksellers,  and  others,  to  make  them  drink,  especially  that  great  annual  solem- 
nity called  the  way-goose  feast.  Whilst  he  continues  in  this  state  he  can  have 
no  redress  for  any  mischief  that  is  done  him,  so  that  in  a  short  time  he  is  glad 
to  pay  the  penalty  which  he  had  incurred,  and  a  discretionary  fine  besides,  to 
reconcile  himself  to  the  chapel. 

When  a  boy  is  to  be  bound  apprentice,  before  he  is  admitted  a  Chapellonian, 
it  is  necessary  for  him  to  be  made  a  cuz  or  deacon,  in  the  performance  of  wliich 
there  are  a  great  many  ceremonies.     The  Chapellonians  walk 
three   times   round   the   room,   their   right   arms   being   put      initiation  of 
through  the  lappets  of  their  coats,  the  boy  who  is  to  be  made      Apprentices  into 
a  cuz  carrying  a  wooden  sword  before  them.     Then  the  boy  ®     ^^  enes. 

kneels,  and  the  father  of  the  chapel,  after  exhorting  him  to  be 
observant  of  his  business,  and  not  to  betray  the  secrets  of  the  workmen,  squeezes 
a  sponge  of  strong  beer  over  his  head  and  gives  him  a  title,  which  is  generally 
that  of  duke  of  some  place  of  the  least  reputation  near  which  he  lives,  or  did 
live  before,  such  as  those  of  Rag  Fair,  Thieving  Lane,  Puddle  Dock,  and  the  like. 
This  being  done,  the  father  of  the  chapel  gives  the  boy  an  account  of  the  safety 
he  will  enjoy  by  being  made  a  cuz,  which  is,  that  whatever  accident  may  happen 
to  him,  no  ill  consequence  will  attend  it,  such  as  the  falling  from  a  house,  or  into 
the  Thames,  etc.  While  the  boy  is  upon  his  knees,  all  the  Chapellonians,  with 
their  right  arms  put  through  the  lappets  of  their  coats,  as  before,  walk  round 
him,  singing  the  Cuz's  Anthem,  which  is  done  by  adding  all  the  vowels  to  the 
consonants  in  the  following  manner: — 

"  B-a,  Ba;  B-e,  Be;  B-i,  Bi:  Babebi;  B-o,  Bo;  Babebibo;  B-u,  Bu:  Babebibobu  — 
and  so  on  through  the  rest  of  the  consonants." 


V. 

At  the  Beginning  of  the  Nineteenth  Century. 

Coining  down  to  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth  century  we  get 
a  glimpse  of  chapel  customs  at  that  period  from  the  production  of 
John  McCreery,  the  talented  printer-poet,  who  in  connection  with 
the  lines, — 

"  Each  Printer  hence,  howe'er  unblest  his  walls. 
E'en  to  this  day  his  house  a  Chapel  calls,"  — 

portrays  in  the  following  language  the  manner  in  which  English 
printers  conducted  the  trials  of  their  co-workers  for  transgressing 
office  discipline: 


126  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

In  extensive  houses,  where  many  workmen  are  employed,  the  calling  of  the 
chapel  is  a  business  of  great  importance,  and  generally  takes  place  when  a  mem- 
ber of  the  office  has  a  complaint  to  allege  against  any  of  his 
Justice  Dispensed     fellow-workmen;  the  first  intimation  of  which  he  makes  to 
with  Rigor  and  the  father  of  the  chapel,  usually  the  oldest  printer  in  the 

Impartiality.  house:  who,  should  he  conceive  that  the  charge  can  be  sub- 

stantiated, and  the  injury  supposed  to  have  been  received 
is  of  such  magnitude  as  to  call  for  the  interference  of  the  law,  summons  the 
members  of  the  chapel  before  him  at  the  imposing  stone,  and  there  receives  the 
allegation  and  the  defense,  in  solemn  assembly,  and  dispenses  justice  with  typo- 
graphical rigor  and  impartiaHty.  These  trials,  though  they  are  sources  of  neglect 
of  business  and  other  irregularities,  often  afford  scenes  of  genuine  humor.  The 
punishment  generally  consists  in  the  criminal  providing  a  libation,  by  which 
the  offending  workman  may  wash  away  the  stain  that  his  misconduct  has  laid 
upon  the  body  at  large.  Should  the  plaintiff  not  be  able  to  substantiate  his 
charge,  the  fine  then  falls  upon  himself  for  having  maliciously  arraigned  his 
companion ;  a  mode  of  practice  which  is  marked  with  the  features  of  sound  policy, 
as  it  never  loses  sight  of  the  good  of  the  chapel. 

VI. 

Regulations  in  Vogue  About  the  Year  1  840. 

A  clear  conception  of  the  chapel  as  it  was  conducted  in  the  period 
covered  by  the  Typographical  Association  may  be  had  from  perusal 
of  the  appended  description  of  the  methods  that  were  pursued  about 
1840  by  printers  in  the  British  Isles  in  shop  management,  similar 
principles  doubtless  being  followed  in  printing  offices  on  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic  at  that  time: 

A  chapel,  in  the  technical  sense  of  the  word,  is  when  the  workmen  agree  to 
certain  rules  for  the  good  order  of  the  printing  office.     All  the  compositors  in  a 
composing  room  who  are  journeymen  form  the  chapel,  in 
Sanctioned         which  one  of  the  number  is  elected,  during  pleasure  as  presi- 
by  Master  dent,  or  the  father,  as  he  is  styled.     In  their  assembled  body 

Printers.  they  enjoin  regulations  and  enforce  their  due  observance; 

they  also  take  cognizance  of  any  disputes,  and  any  grievances 
that  may  be  complained  of  that  arise  within  the  chapel,  when  called  upon  for 
that  purpose;  and  there  is  no  appeal  from  their  decision.  The  chapel  is  in 
general  sanctioned  by  the  master  printer,  on  account  of  some  of  the  rules  tend- 
ing to  the  preservation  of  his  property  —  such  as  the  infliction  of  a  fine  on 
any  one  connected  with  the  house  leaving  the  premises  without  putting  out  his 

candle  or  leaving  it  in  charge  (that  is,  saying  to  some  one,  "  Mr. ,  take 

charge  of  my  candle,"  this  person  then  becoming  responsible  for  the  charge 
as  well  as  for  his  own  candle),  or  for  throwing  type  quadrats  or  furniture  at 
another;  and  for  the  regular  dispatch  of  business,  so  far  as  regards  the  forward- 
ing of  work  in  general  —  but  in  addition  the  workmen  make  particular  regula- 
tions for  themselves,  with  their  own  mode  of  working  in  companionship,  etc.is 
The  chapel  will  also,  if  appealed  to,  enforce  these  by-laws. 


•*  When  more  than  one  compositor  was  employed  upon  any  work  it  was  styled  a  companionship. 


INCEPTION   OF    THE    CHAPEL.  12  7 

The  fine  for  leaving  a  candle  burning  is,  I  believe,  never  remitted;  it  is  generally 
six  pence  for  a  workman,  double  for  the  overseer,  and  half  a  crown  for  the  master 
of  the  house.  The  person  who  first  sees  the  candle  extinguishes  it  and  delivers 
the  candle  to  the  father,  who  keeps  it  till  the  fine  is  either  paid  or  promised  to 
be  paid ;  for  Monday  is  the  regular  pay  day  in  a  printing  office. 

No  person  but  the  father  can  call  a  chapel,  which  is  generally  held  at  the 
imposing  stone:  and  when  anyone  wishes  to  appeal  to  it  he  notifies  the  same  to 
the  father,  stating  the  objects  generally,  and  accompanying  the  notification  with 
a  penny.  The  father  will  sometimes  decline  to  call  the  chapel,  where  the  object 
appears  trivial;  but  if  the  notification  be  accompanied  with  the  value  of  a  gallon 
of  porter  it  is  imperative  on  him  to  call  it,  under  the  penalty  of  being  deposed. 
The  chapel  never  assembles  without  the  fee  of  a  gallon  of  porter,  in  addition  to 
the  fine  it  may  impose;  and  this  fee  is  always  paid,  even  when  it  assembles  to 
settle  any  disputed  matter  between  workmen,  when  no  fine  is  levied. 

A  workman  who  refuses  to  attend  chapel  after  being  notified  is  punished  by  a 
fine  for  his  contumacy. 

It  is  an  invariable  rule  that  the  chapel  can  do  no  wrong;  and  it  is  a  crime  to 
find  fault  with  its  decisions,  which  it  would  certainly  punish  with  a  fine  if  called 
on  for  that  purpose,  and  the  case  was  proved.     The  chapel 
decides  all  disputes  that  may  arise  in  the  house,  as  well       a  Crime  to 
private,  if  it  be  appealed  to,  as  those  which  may  arise  when       Find  Fault 
two  or  more  are  employed  on  the  same  piece  of  work,  and       ^'^  Decisions. 
frequently  fixes  the  price  which  shall  be  paid  for  it.     In  this 
case  the  person  who  is  on  the  work  must  not  take  less  than  the  chapel  fixes, 
without  permission;  and  if  the  employer  will  not  pay  it,  he  of  course  must  quit 
his  situation.     If,  after  the  chapel  has  fixed  a  price  for  a  piece  of  work,  a  man 
should  venture  to  do  it  for  a  reduced  price,  he  becomes  a  "  rat." 

If  a  member  of  the  chapel  should  be  hardy  enough  to  oppose  its  decisions  there 
are  a  number  of  ways  practiced  to  bring  him,  and  even  the  most  obstinate,  to 
submission.     Every  chapel  is  haunted  by  an  imaginary  spirit, 
and  when  any  person  refuses  to  obey  its  mandates  this  spirit  Peculiar 

begins  to  walk,  as  it  is  termed.     The  first  act  is,  in  general,  Penalties 

to  hide  the  offender's  composing-stick;  if  this  does  not  answer,  Imposed, 

his  galleys  are  secreted;  then  the  page  cords  which  secure 
his  work  are  cut,  and  his  labor  rendered  more  than  useless,  because  he  has  to 
distribute  his  pi  as  well  as  to  recompose  his  matter.  If  he  still  remains  contuma- 
cious the  whole  of  the  types  in  his  cases  are  transposed,  so  that  he  cannot  proceed 
in  his  business;  and  if  he  should  still  set  the  chapel  at  defiance  he  is  smoked,  all 
the  members  of  the  chapel  surrounding  his  frame,  each  with  a  lighted  match  of 
brimstone,  and  singing  a  doleful  ditty.  After  this  he  is  sent  to  Coventry,  and 
every  man  becomes  amenable  to  the  chapel,  if  he  assists  him,  gives  him  any 
information,  or  speaks  to  him;  so  that  he  must  either  submit  to  the  penalties 
inflicted,  or  leave  the  house.  When  he  submits  his  apparatus  is  restored,  and 
the  types  properly  arranged  again  in  his  cases. 

Apprentices  never  belong  to  the  chapel;  neither  is  the  master  of  the  house, 
nor  the  overseer  ever  allowed  to  be  present  when  one  is  held. 

Many  master  printers  are  decidedly  against  chapels,  as  tending  to  encourage 
drinking  and  the  neglect  of  business.  Where  this  has  been  the  case  within  my 
knowledge  the  grievance  has  remedied  itself,  for  the  sober  and  industrious  pre- 
vent the  evil  going  to  an  extreme;  and  where  there  are  a  number  of  men  employed 


128  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

the  majority  will  be  found  opposed  to  being  called  from  their  work  repeatedly 

to  decide  on  fractious  or  quibbling  questions,  in  which  they  feel  no  interest;  and 

by  fining  a  busy,  meddling  person  they  put  a  stop  to  the  frequent  calling  of 

chapels,  which  are  promoted  by  temporary  workmen  who  seldom  stop  long  in 

a  house;  for  among  the  established  workmen  of  a  house  chapels  are  seldom  called. 

It  has  also  been  objected  to  them  that  they  tend  to  excite  an  opposition  to 

the  employer  on  the  question  of  wages.     This  may  have  happened;  but  wherever 

I  have  seen  a  question  respecting  prices  brought  before  a 

Wage  Scales  chapel  I  have  always  seen  it  discussed  in  a  fair  manner. 

Enforced  and  the  value  estimated  impartially  — the  scale  being  kept 

with  Justness.       ^^  view  for  anything  nearly  similar  —  for  among  a  number 

of  workmen  there  will  always  be  found  men  of  principle,  who 

would  not  sanction  an  unreasonable  demand  for  the  temporary  advantage  of  a 

few  shillings  a  week;  and  these  men  have  always  great  influence  in  the  decision. 

Upon  the  whole,  when  I  take  into  account  the  decreased  risk  from  fire  owing 

to  the  fine  from  candles  —  the  prevention  of  waste  of  materials,  by  throwing 

them  about  —  the  appeal  for  wrongs  done  in  companionships,  or  for  neglect,  or 

throwing  impediments  in  the  way  of  business  and  remedying  them  —  I  am  of 

opinion  that  the  advantages  attending  chapels  outweigh  their  disadvantages, 

and  that  the  business  is  carried  on  with  more  regularity  and  promptitude  with 

them  than  without  them,  particularly  when  it  is  taken  into  account  that  the 

rules  and  regulations  laid  down  by  the  employer  for  the  governing  of  his  house 

are  adopted  by  the  workmen  and  become  chapel  laws.ie 

This  graphic  account  of  a  chapel  ceremony  in  London  during  the 
first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  from  the  pen  of  WilUam  Blades : 

One  does  not  nowadays  hear  a  printer's  apprentice  talk  of  "  burying  his 
wife,"  but  half  a  century  ago  it  was  a  common  expression.  The  "  wife  "  was  his 
seven  years'  apprenticeship,  from  which  he  was  delivered  as  the  clock  struck 
nOon  on  the  last  day  of  his  seventh  year,  and  then — 

"  His  buried  wife  could  harrass  him  no  more," — 

as  the  poet-compositor,  Brimmer,  has  sung.     The  "  burial  "  took  place  on  the 

same  day  when  the  quondam  apprentice  was  received  and  welcomed  by  the  father, 

in  presence  of  a  full  chapel.     Then  the  stone  was  cleared 

Preparing  for        and  brushed  down,  clean  sheets  of  paper  being  laid  all  over 

Apprentice's  to  do  duty  for  a  table-cloth.     The  boys  were  despatched  to 

Imtiation.  ^^^  favorite  public-house  for  beer  and  beef,  for  ham  and 

bread.     A  Dutch  cheese  made  an  attractive  center-piece,  and 

then  with  mirth  and  jollity,  with  wit,  if  not  wisdom,  the  father  admitted  the 

neophyte  into  the  full  privileges  of  the  chapel.     Nor  was  the  master  forgotten; 

his  position  forbade  him  taking  part  in  the  feast,  but  unless  greatly  disliked,  he, 

as  well  as  the  overseer,  had  a  portion  of  the  good  cheer  offered  them,  which  they 

politely  accepted.     But  previous  to  all  this  the  youth,  who  for  a  short  time  was 

"  neither  fish,  flesh,  nor  fowl,"  his  new  birth  into  the  chapel  not  having  been 

effected,  had  to  submit  to  certain  indignities,  originally  inflicted  to  impress  the 

youthful  mind  with  the  degradation  and  dishonor  of  the  man,  who  though  a 

printer,  was  neither  an  apprentice  nor  an  accepted  member  of  the  craft,  and  also 

M  William  Savage,  "  Dictionary  of  the  Art  of  Printing  "  (London,  Eng.,  1841),  page  164. 


INCEPTION    OF  THE    CHAPEL.  I29 

to  impress  strongly  upon  his  mind  the  value  of  the  social  status  into  which  he 
was  seeking  admittance.  Imagine  the  last  day  of  his  apprenticeship  to  have 
arrived,  and  the  youth  stands  one  minute  before  noon,  a  bondsman,  "  bound  " 
to  serve  his  master,  but  the  clock  strikes,  and  as  the  last  stroke  dies  away  his 
chains  fall  off.  Out  he  flies  from  his  frame,  knowing  full  well  the  reception  he 
will  have.  His  object  is  to  pass  the  ordeal  scathless,  and  to  report  himself  to 
his  late  master  as  "  out  of  his  time  "  and  perhaps  to  beg  to  be  reinstated  as  a 
fully  blown  workman.  To  do  this  he  is  expected  to  pass  through  composing 
and  pressrooms  to  the  master's  sanctum.  Now  was  the  men's 
opportunity,  for  which  all  preparations  had  been  previously  Passing 
made.  Some  had  old  shoes,  or  their  working  slippers,  a  ^  **q*^  . 
ragged  apron  tied  up  in  a  ball,  or  anything  else  that  would 
serve  the  purpose  of  a  missile;  and  as  the  freed  man  dives  and  ducks  to  avoid 
the  storm,  his  ears  are  greeted  with  all  the  discordant  noises  which  compositors 
know  well  how  to  make:  a  reglet  drawn  with  force  and  speed  over  an  empty 
upper-case  —  the  violent  shaking  of  a  half-empty  quoin-drawer  —  a  mallet  struck 
against  a  letter-board  —  an  iron  chase  for  a  bell,  and  a  "  cross  "  for  a  clapper  — 
a  dustman's  bell  —  shovel  and  poker  —  harsh  whistles  and  discordant  yells  — 
while  if  the  chase  led  through  the  pressroom  the  "  bar-handles  "  clattered,  and 
the  "ball-stocks"  were  beaten  together  —  the  "horse"  was  jerked  up  and 
down  —  and  some  sonorous  place  found  upon  which  the  "  sheep's  foot  "  might 
be  hammered.  This  ordeal  passed,  it  was  necessary  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  father, 
through  whom  all  the  comps  were  summoned  to  a  "  wet  chapel,"  meaning  plenty 
of  beer,  etc.,  and  sometimes,  if  the  new  journeyman  could  afford  it,  to  a  supper 
at  night.  This  over,  the  quondam  apprentice  was  entitled  to  claim  the  pay, 
and  to  benefit  by  the  privileges  of  a  free  and  accepted  journeyman. 

The  following  lines  from  G.  Brimmer's  poem,  "  The  Composing  Room,"  give 
an  account  of  the  writer's  own  experience:  — 

'Tis  twelve  o'clock  —  and  now,  with  loud  acclaim, 

Lo!  the  freed  'prentice  issues  from  the  frame. 

His  seven  years'  servitude  at  length  is  o'er; 

His  buried  wife  can  harass  him  no  more. 

At  him  as  slippers  fly  from  ev'ry  hand. 

He  also  flies  —  'twere  dangerous  to  stand! 

And,  as  he  marks  from  whence  those  gifts  are  thrown. 

He  runs  around  or  bobs  behind  the  stone. 

Nor  slippers  only  —  in  the  hot  pursuit 

One  free  translator  delegates  a  boot. 

T'  express  with  force,  in  its  peculiar  way. 

Congratulation  on  this  happy  day. 

The  youth,  perplexed  —  hemmed  in  on  ev'ry  side  — 

Seeks  for  a  shield,  and  snatches  —  a  broadside  I 

Alas !  the  riot  1  obs  him  of  his  sense : 

How  can  a  sheet  of  paper  yield  defense? 

Now  comes  the  wash  —  the  cross  attacks  the  chase. 

While  mallets  beat  the  boards  in  many  a  place. 

And  quoin-drawers  play  confusion's  double  bass. 

At  length,  exhausted  with  their  strains,  the  band 

Forego  their  labours,  and  quiescent  stand. 

When  forth  steps  one,  who  bears  above  his  brains 

A  vessel  to  receive  their  hard-earn'd  gains. 

The  hint  is  ta'en  —  the  new-loos'd  'prentice  stands 

A  crown  —  and  drops  of  brandy  cheer  all  hands. 

He  drinks  their  health  —  and  then,  with  air  polite. 

Invites  them  all  to  bon-souper  at  night. 


I30  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

The  customs  here  described  were  always  used  in  the  large  towns  of  England 
in  the  first  half  of  the  present  century.  How  far  they  differ  from  those  of  previous 
centuries,  or  from  those  adopted  by  the  earliest  printers  it  is  difficult  to  say;  for 
while  matters  of  much  less  interest  were  noted  and  transmitted  to  posterity, 
these  workmen's  ceremonies,  used  only  by  themselves,  and  among  themselves, 
escaped  all  notice.*^ 


"  Blades'  "  Depositio  Cornuti  Typographic!, "  page  93 


CHAPTER  VI. 
UNIFORM  WAGE  RATES  ESTABLISHED. 

IN  Article  XI  of  the  basic  law  of  the  Typographical  Association  it 
was  required  that  "  the  scale  of  prices  for  labor  appended  to  this 
constitution  shall  in  all  cases  be  considered  as  a  part  thereof, 
and  no  member  of  this  association  shall  on  any  pretense  whatever 
work  either  directly  or  indirectly  for  prices  less  than  those  specified 
therein;"  while  By-law  XII  made  it  "  the  duty  of  the  members  of  this 
association  to  inform  strangers,  who  come  into  the  offices  where  they 
are  employed,  of  the  established  prices,  and  also  of  the  existence  of 
the  association,  and  of  the  necessity  of  becoming  members." 

I. 

Adoption  of  Scale  of  Prices  in  1831. 

The  scale  of  prices  adopted  at  the  beginning  of  the  association  in 
1 83 1  was  amended  on  June  15,  1833,  but  the  few  changes  then  made 
were  only  verbal  and  cleared  up  certain  ambiguities  that  appeared  in 
the  original.  In  some  respects  the  piece  prices  for  ordinary  compo- 
sition were  not  as  high  as  those  in  the  18 15  schedule  of  the  Typo- 
graphical Society.  For  time  work  on  morning  newspapers  there  was 
an  advance  of  $2  per  week  over  the  18 15  rate,  but  wages  of 
compositors  employed  by  the  week  on  evening  newspapers  and  in 
book  and  job  offices  were  the  same  as  those  demanded  and  paid 
sixteen  years  previously.  Neither  was  there  any  alteration  in  the 
weekly  stipend  of  pressmen,  as  compared  with  18 15,  while  the  piece 
rates  of  the  latter  were  adjusted  to  conform  to  the  improvements 
that  had  been  made  in  printing  presses  since  the  adoption  of  the  last 
wage  list  of  the  preceding  union  of  printers.  A  new  feature  of  the 
183 1  scale  was  the  regulation  of  the  hours  of  labor  in  book  and  job 
establishments  and  in  pressrooms  where  journeymen  were  engaged 
on  time  work,  in  which  places  the  working  time  was  limited  to  ten 
hoiirs  daily. 

[131] 


132  NEW    YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

"  Faustus,"  who  said  he  was  a  journeyman  printer,  was  inclined 
to  take  issue  with  the  association  in  regard  to  some  of  its  methods. 
This  typographer,  whose  communication  on  the 
A  Journeyman  subject  was  printed  in  the  New  York  Commercial 
Not  Favorably  Advertiser  on  June  22,  1831,  was  not  favorably 
Impressed.  impressed  with  the  militant  spirit  of  the  new  organi- 

zation. He  was  evidently  a  book  compositor  and 
beHeved  there  was  too  wide  a  difference  between  the  newspaper  rates 
and  those  .demanded  for  bookwork,  to  the  disadvantage  of  men 
engaged  on  the  latter.  His  letter,  which  in  this  connection  is  of 
especial  value  as  showing  the  earnings  of  compositors  on  piecework 
at  that  time,  is  subjoined: 

A  few  weeks  since  peace,  contentment  and  happiness  smiled  from  every  quarter 
—  now  all  is  uproar  and  confusion.  The  flames  first  caught  among  the  carpenters 
or  masons  (who  are  generally  thrown  entirely  out  of  employ  in  the  winter),  thence 
proceeded  to  the  printers  and  spread  with  a  zeal,  rapidity  and  spirit  which  would 
have  done  infinite  honor  to  the  knighthood  of  the  chivalric  ages. 

The  professed  object  of  the  journeymen  printers  to  establish  a  standard  of 
prices  is  in  my  apprehension  most  praiseworthy.  But  in  the  proceedings  of  the 
association  I  have  much  to  approve  —  and  much  to  condemn. 
Earnings  of  The  prices  of  composition  by  the  piece  are  judicious  —  those 

Compositors  by  the  week  are  somewhat  higher,  but  not  too  high  —  if  em- 

on  Piecework.  ployers  feel  disposed  to  give  them.  Journeymen  will  not 
average,  by  the  piece,  at  the  price  established  by  the  associa- 
tion, more  than  $7.50  per  week.  Sometimes,  it  is  true,  we  may  see  a  weekly  bill 
of  $10  or  $1 1 ,  but  this  is  always  done  by  an  uncommon  hand  or  upon  uncommon 
work.  Where  we  see  one  bill  of  $ i o  we  may  see  ten  of  $5.  They  will  not  average 
more  than  $7  or  $7.50  and  I  believe  that  while  these  prices  are  retained  per  i  ,000 
ems  $8  is  a  more  suitable  price  by  the  week  than  $9.  It  is  not  for  me  to  say  —  it 
is  certainly  far  from  my  present  purpose  to  say  —  whether  $8  or  $9  is  the  most 
reasonable  compensation  for  a  journeyman  printer  to  receive  per  week,  but  I 
confess  my  perfect  inability  to  perceive  why  one  man  should  receive  $1  or  $2 
more  than  another,  who  is  equally  as  good  a  compositor  and  works  as  many, 
perhaps  more,  hours,  merely  because  he  works  by  the  week.  If,  however,  there 
be  a  particular  merit  in  working  by  the  week,  which  my  very  imperfect  vision  has 
been  unable  to  observe,  it  will  give  me  a  degree  of  pleasure,  as  ample  as  the  error 
to  be  corrected,  if  some  of  the  gallant  spirits  who  have  pledged  to  each  other 
(their  lives,  their  fortunes,  and  their  sacred  honor)  to  put  us  in  the  right  way. 
The  pressman's  price  per  week  is  established  by  this  association  at  $9,  about  the 
same  they  generally  earn  by  the  piece,  which  is  undoubtedly  a  fair  compensation. 
But  why  is  his  compensation  to  be  the  same  as  that  of  the  compositor,  when  every 
man  well  acquainted  with  the  different  branches  of  printing  knows  his  duties  to 
be  more  laborious? 

In  one  of  the  best  offices  in  Boston,  besides  the  foreman,  there  is  one  compositor, 
and  one  as  good  perhaps  as  any  in  the  city,  who  works  for  $8  per  week.  There 
are  also  two  or  three  others  employed,  who  are  younger  hands,  but  otherwise 
equally  as  good,  and  who  would  be  considered  first-rate  hands  in  any  book 


UNIFORM   WAGE    RATES   ESTABLISHED.  I33 

oflSce  in  New  York,  who  work  for  $7;  others  are  employed  by  the  piece,  at 
about  the  same  prices  as  those  established  by  the  journey- 
men printers  who  recently  organized  themselves  into  an    Boston  Wages 
association  at   St.  John's  Hall,  New  York.     In  the  same    Compared  with 
office  there  are  one  or  two  pressmen  who  work  for  $9  or  $10    ^^^  ^°^^  Rates. 
per  week,  and  others  who  receive  from  20  cents  to  25  cents 
per  token,  according  to  the  size  of  the  press,  and  the  boy  to  roll  behind  the 
press  found  by  the  employer. 

Respecting  the  adequateness  of  the  price  paid  to  compositors  on  the  morning 
papers,  in  this  city,  I  have  no  other  means  of  judging  with  any  degree  of  accuracy, 
than  by  the  apparent  degree  of  value  in  which  these  situations 
are  held  by  compositors  generally.     I  have  known  many  good  Difference  Between 
compositors  who  would  gladly  have  left  their  situations  in  Newspaper  and 
book,  job,  or  weekly  or  semi-weekly  paper  offices,  to  obtain  ®*'°'^  Prices, 
one  in  a  morning  paper  office  at  $10  per  week;  but  I  have 
seldom  or  never  known  a  compositor  in  a  morning  paper  office  willing  to  exchange 
his  situation  for  one  in  a  book  or  job  office,  or  for  any  other  situation  unless  it 
were  on  an  evening  paper,  where  situations,  I  believe,  have  been  still  more 
highly  valued  than  those  on  morning  papers  or  in  book  offices. 

That  the  prices  paid  for  composition  in  many  offices,  and  on  many  works  were 
too  low,  that  an  effort  on  the  part  of  journeymen  was  necessary  in  order  to  raise 
them,  cannot  be  denied.  But  I  do  think  the  scale  of  prices  as  adopted  by  the 
association  extremely  imperfect. 

There  is  another  item  in  their  proceedings  to  which  I  have  still  stronger  objec- 
tions. I  allude  to  the  want  of  distinction  which  they  manifest  with  respect  to 
works  to  be  printed  in  future  and  existing  contracts.  Where  the  printing  of 
works  has  been  contracted  for  and  the  printing  has  been  partly  executed  the 
employer  has  usually  paid  the  journeyman  as  much  as  his  contract  with  the 
publisher  will  admit,  and  we  can  hardly  conceive  of  any  course  of  conduct  more 
unreasonable  and  absurd  than  an  attempt,  whether  successful  or  not,  to  compel 
an  employer  to  raise  the  price  of  composition  on  a  work  already  begun  at  a  price 
which  did  give  perfect  satisfaction  to  the  journeymen.  It  is  a  species  of  injustice 
which  ill  becomes  the  printers  of  the  City  of  New  York.  Existing  contracts 
should  certainly  have  been  excepted. 

With  respect  to  the  odium  which  is  cast  by  members  of  the  society  upon  those 
who  disregard,  or  do  not  join  in  carrying  into  effect  the  proceedings  of  that  body 
(which  odium,  by  the  way,  is  sanctioned  by  the  association, 
constitutionally  organized),   I  have    nothing  to  say  except    Odium  on  Men 
that  it  is  a  proceeding  which  detracts  from  the  dignity  of    Who  Disregard 
any  man  or  body  of  men,  in  proportion  to  the  spirit  in  which    Associated  Effort. 
it  is  executed  or  sanctioned   and  the    respectability   of   the 
sources  of  its  emanation.     "  But  who  is  it  that  is  here  insulting  the  intelligent 
journeymen  printers  of  New  York?  "  methinks  I  hear  breaking  forth  from  sundry 
individuals  of  the  association.     "  Who  dares  send  forth  his  strictures  upon  our 
proceedings?  "  says  another.     "  'Tis  an  employer,"  they  all  reply  with  a  murmur. 
No,  gentlemen,  'tis  not  an  employer.     'Tis  a  journeyman  printer  who  does  not 
and  who  will  not  intentionally  insult  or  injure  you.     He  has  attended  your 
meetings  —  he  is  aware  that  your  interest  and  his  interest  are  one  and  the  same 
interest  —  he  has  been  one  of  the  most  unfortunate  of  your  body  and  sympa- 
thizes with  you,  and  is  even  ready  to  assist  in  redressing  your  grievances. 


134  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

I  am  the  friend  of  the  journeymen  printers;  but  I  am  not  an  enemy  of  em- 
ployers —  hence  the  cause  of  the  above  remarks.  'Twas  not  that  I  loved  journey- 
men less,  but  that  I  loved  honor  and  principle  more. 


II. 

Revision  of  Scale  in    1833. 

The  1831  scale  of  prices  as  revised  in  1833  is  herewith  printed  in 
its  complete  form: 

Composition. 

1.  Works  done  in  the  English  language,  common  matter,  from  English  to  non- 
pareil, 25  cents  per  1,000  ems;  agate,  27  cents;  pearl,  30  cents;  diamond,  375  cents. 
The  headline,  with  blank  after,  and  the  foot  line,  in  all  cases  to  be  counted  not 
less  than  three  lines.  When  a  measure  exceeds  even  ems  in  width,  and  is  less 
than  an  en,  an  en  only  to  be  counted;  but  if  an  en,  or  over,  to  be  counted  an  em. 
Where  guard  lines  are  required  to  pages,  they  shall  be  furnished  by  the  employer 
in  a  solid  shape,  or  shall  be  charged  by  the  compositor. 

2.  Works  printed  in  great  primer,  or  larger  type,  to  be  counted  as  if  done  in 
English. 

3.  All  jobs  done  in  plain  script,  to  be  counted  as  English,  and  charged  at  30 
cents  per  1,000  ems;  those  in  analytical  or  combination  script,  on  inclined  bodies, 
to  be  counted  as  above  and  charged  37I  cents. 

4.  Works  printed  in  Latin  or  Spanish,  3  cents  extra  per  1,000  ems;  in  French, 
5  cents  extra.  Dictionaries  in  the  above  languages  to  be  advanced  in  propor- 
tion, as  in  article  7. 

5.  Greek,  Hebrew,  Saxon,  etc.,  or  any  of  the  other  characters  not  in  common 
use,  if  amounting  to  one  word,  and  not  exceeding  three  words  per  1,000  ems, 
to  be  charged  2  cents  extra.  Where  the  characters  are  of  a  different  size  from 
the  body  of  the  matter,  and  are  to  be  justified  in,  they  shall  be  charged  4  cents 
extra.     All  exceeding  three  words  to  be  charged  in  proportion. 

6.  All  works  done  in  Greek  and  Latin,  or  Greek  and  English,  to  be  charged  a 
price  and  a  half. 

7.  English  dictionaries,  printed  with  figured  vowels  and  accents,  5  cents 
advance;  without  figured  vowels,  but  with  accents,  2  cents  advance.  Concord- 
ances, and  works  of  a  similar  description,  where  figures  and  points  predominate, 
or  any  work  where  capitals,  small  capitals,  or  italic  are  profusely  used,  3  cents 
advance.  Where  superior  letters  or  references  are  used,  as  in  Bibles,  or  works 
of  that  character,  i  cent  extra  per  1,000  ems  shall  be  charged.  Geographical, 
biographical,  and  medical  dictionaries,  gazetteers,  dictionaries  of  the  arts  and 
sciences,  and  works  of  a  similar  character,  are  not  included  in  this  article,  except 
they  are  attended  with  extra  trouble,  beyond  the  usual  descriptive  matter. 

8.  Arithmetical  works,  5  cents  extra  per  1,000  ems.  Rule  work,  part  plain 
and  part  figures,  and  figure  work  where  no  rules  are  used  and  figures  are  required 
to-be  placed  in  columns,  to  be  charged  a  price  and  a  half;  rule  and  figure  work, 
double.  Algebraical  works,  and  works  composed  principally  of  medical,  astro- 
nomical, or  other  signs,  to  be  charged  double. 

9.  Works  done  in  Hebrew,  without  points,  15  cents  advance  per  1,000  ems; 
when  with  points,  the  body  and  the  points  to  be  cast  up  each  according  to  its 
size,  and  to  be  charged  double. 


UNIFORM   WAGE   RATES    ESTABLISHED.  I35 

10.  Works  done  in  Greek,  without  accents,  printed  copy,  page  for  page,  37J 
cents;  other  reprints,  40  cents  per  1,000  ems;  with  accents,  50  cents;  the  asper 
and  lenis  not  to  be  considered  as  accents. 

11.  Church  music,  whether  analytical  or  solid,  to  be  charged  a  single  price, 
according  to  the  size  of  the  type  in  which  it  is  set.  Piano  music  to  be  charged 
a  price  and  a  half,  according  to  the  size,  except  where  it  is  condensed,  when  it 
shall  be  charged  double. 

12.  Works  done  from  manuscript  copy,  to  be  charged  2  cents  extra  per  1,000 
ems,  except  foreign  languages,  which  shall  be  5  cents;  printed  copy,  with  frequent 
interlineations,  to  be  considered  as  manuscript. 

13.  Spelling  books,  and  works  of  that  description,  5  cents  advance  per  1,000 
ems. 

14.  Side  and  center  notes  in  Bibles  and  Testaments,  to  be  counted  the  full 
length  of  the  page  (including  the  lead,  or  one  rule,  which  shall  count  at  least 
one  em),  according  to  the  type  in  which  they  are  set,  and  charged  5  cents  extra 
per  1,000  ems.  Cut-in  notes,  in  the  above  works,  to  be  charged  4  cents  extra 
each  note,  and  the  whole  page  to  be  counted  as  text. 

15.  Side  notes  in  law  and  historical  works,  to  be  counted  the  full  length  of 
the  page,  according  to  the  type  in  which  they  are  set;  and  when  cut  into  the  text, 
to  be  charged  4  cents  extra  each  note. 

16.  Quotations,  mottoes,  contents  of  chapters  and  bottom  notes,  in  smaller 
type  than  the  body,  to  be  paid  for  according  to  the  size  of  the  type  in  which 
they  are  set. 

17.  Works  where  the  measure  does  not  exceed  16  ems  in  width,  to  be  paid  2 
cents  advance  per  i  ,000  ems. 

18.  Time  occupied  by  alterations  from  copy,  by  casing  or  distributing  letter 
not  used  by  the  compositor,  or  other  work  appointed  by  the  employer,  to  be 
paid  for  at  the  rate  of  1 5  cents  per  hour. 

19.  When  compositors  are  required  to  work  more  than  regular  hours  they 
shall  be  allowed  20  cents  an  hour,  or  5  cents  advance  per  i  ,000  ems. 

20.  All  letter  cast  on  a  body  larger  than  the  face  (as  bourgeois  on  long  primer), 
to  be  counted  according  to  the  face;  and  all  letter  cast  on  a  body  smaller  than 
the  face  (as  minion  on  nonpareil),  to  be  counted  according  to  the  body. 

21.  In  all  cases  where  companionship  may  deem  it'  necessary  that  matter 
should  be  made  up  by  one  person,  the  compositors  may  either  appoint,  from  among 
themselves,  or  authorize  the  employer  to  appoint,  a  person  to  perform  that  duty, 
on  terms  to  be  agreed  upon  between  themselves  and  the  person  employed  to 
make  up:  Provided,  however,  that  no  more  than  2  cents  per  1,000  ems  shall  be 
allowed  to  the  employer  for  making  up,  imposing,  taking  the  necessary  proofs, 
and  keeping  the  schedule. 

22.  When  a  compositor  is  required  to  take  out  bad  letters,  and  replace  them, 
in  consequence  of  faults  in  the  founder,  miscasts,  or  worn-out  fonts,  he  shall 
be  paid  at  the  rate  of  1 5  cents  an  hour. 

23.  For  imposing  forms,  no  more  shall  be  allowed  than  3  cents  per  page  for 
quarto,  2  for  octavo,  i|  for  duodecimo  ij  for  sexadecimo,  and  the  like  sum  for 
all  forms  of  a  larger  number  of  pages  —  the  compositor,  in  all  cases,  to  lay  the 
pages  in  regular  order,  or  to  be  responsible  for  their  being  so  done. 

24.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  compositor  imposing  to  take  two  proofs  of  each 
form.  All  proofs  taken  afterwards  shall  be  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  8  cents  each, 
for  letterpress  forms,  and  for  stereotype  forms  and  small  jobs,  2  cents  each. 


136  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

When  an  extra  proof  or  proofs  are  required  by  the  carelessness  of  the  compositor 
they  shall  be  at  his  expense. 

25.  Making  up  furniture  for  a  quarto  form,  18  cents;  an  octavo,  25  cents;  and 
3  cents  extra  for  all  other  impositions  progressively. 

26.  Compositors  employed  on  morning  newspapers  shall  receive  not  less  than 
$12  per  week;  on  evening  papers,  and  in  book  and  job  offices,  not  less  than  $9 
per  week.     Ten  hours  shall  be  considered  a  day  in  book, and  job  offices. 

Presswork. 

With  balls.—  Medium,  30  cents  per  token;  royal,  33!;  super  royal,  37I;  medium 
and  a  half,  39;  imperial,  40  cents;  and  everything  above  imperial,  45  cents. 
Cards,  the  first  100,  30  cents;  for  all  over  100,  10  cents  a  pack.  The  charge  with 
hand  rollers  to  be  the  same  as  with  balls. 

With  rollers. —  Medium,  when  there  shall  be  but  4  tokens  or  less  on  a  form, 
25  cents  per  token;  if  over  4  tokens,  23  cents.  Royal  4  tokens  or  less,  27  cents; 
over  4  tokens,  26  cents.  Super-royal,  4  tokens  or  less,  30  cents;  over  4  tokens, 
28  cents.  Medium,  and  a  half,  4  tokens  or  less,  32  cents;  over  4  tokens,  30  cents. 
Imperial,  4  tokens  or  less,  35  cents;  over  4  tokens,  33  cents.  For  any  size  above 
imperial,  the  charge  shall  be,  when  there  are  4  tokens  or  less,  40  cents;  over  4 
tokens,  35  cents.  All  broadsides,  40  cents  per  token.  Cards,  the  first  100,  25 
cents;  all  over  100,  15  cents  per  100.  All  fine  work  to  receive  an  extra  price,  to 
be  arranged  between  the  employer  and  journeyman.  Work  done  after  regular 
hours,  to  receive  an  advance  of  5  cents  per  token. 

Roller  boys. —  When  the  employer  shall  furnish  a  roller  boy,  there  shall  be 
18  per  cent  deducted  from  the  wages  of  the  pressman  until  it  amounts  to  $2  per 
week,  when  the  deduction  shall  cease. 

Machine  rollers. —  Medium,  4  tokens  or  less,  21  cents  per  token;  over  4  tokens, 
20  cents.     Other  sizes  in  proportion.     Fine  work,  extra  price. 

Lifting  forms. —  When  there  are  not  more  than  8  tokens,  the  pressman  shall 
receive  the  price  of  i  token  extra  for  every  form  he  ^hall  be  required  to  lift. 

Covering  tympans. —  The  sum  of  37^  cents  shall  be  allowed  for  covering  a 
tympan;  and  the  like  sum  for  covering  a  drawer,  or  inner  tympan. 

For  putting  up  or  removing  presses. —  Twenty  cents  per  hour  shall  be  allowed. 

Standing. —  After  a  form  shall  have  been  put  to  press  the  pressman  shall 
receive  15  cents  for  the  first  half  hour,  and  20  cents  for  every  subsequent  hour 
that  he  is  delayed  by  corrections  or  alterations. 

When  a  pressman  is  employed  by  the  week  he  shall  receive  not  less  than  $9 
per  week;  ten  hours,  in  all  cases,  to  be  the  limit  of  a  day's  work.  Overwork,  20 
cents  an  hour. 

Scale  of  Variation  for  the  Sizes  of  Forms. 

Octavo  Pages  Quarto  or 

or  Smaller.  Larger  Pages. 

Pica  ems.  Pica  ems. 

Medium,  to  contain 9,000  11 ,000 

Royal,  to  contain Ii.ooo  13, 500 

Super-royal,  to  contain 13,500  16,000 

Medium  and  a  half,  to  contain 16,000  18,000 

Imperial,  to  contain 18 ,  000  22 ,  000 

Any  form  exceeding  either  of  these,  by  250  ems,  to  be  charged  as  the  next 

highest. 


UNIFORM    WAGE   RATES  ESTABLISHED.  13^ 

III. 

Wage  Changes  In  Subsequent  Years. 

Piecework  for  day  and  night  work  on  morning  newspapers  was 
made  identical  by  the  association  in  1834,  when  a  committee  that 
had  been  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  matter  so 
far  as  it  related  to  the   Times  office  reported  its  identical  Piece 
judgment  "  that  30  cents  per  1,000  ems  for  both  Rate  for  Day 
day  and  night  work,  the  price  now  obtained    by  ^^^  Night  Work, 
the  compositors  in  that  office,  is  agreeable  to  the 
scale  of  prices  of  the  association."     Whereupon  it  was  resolved 
that  such  rate  "be  considered  as  an  equivalent  for  composition 
in  morning  paper  offices,   provided  type  of  a  smaller  description 
than  agate  be  not  used,   and  provided  also  that  agate  be  not 
used  in  greater  proportion  than  at  present  in  the  office  of  the 
Times.'* 

There  was,  however,  an  inclination  on  the  part  of  some  proprietors 
to  reduce  rates,  and  on  March  2,  1835,  it  was  reported  that  a  number 
of  members  of  the  association  had  come  to  a  stand  against  a  decrease 
of  wages. 

On  the  twenty-sixth  of  March,  1836,  the  union  resolved  to  appoint 
a  committee  of  nine  "  to  inquire  into  and  report  upon  the  expediency 
of  advancing  the  scale  of  prices  in  such  a  ratio  as 
will  keep  pace  with  the  advance  on  all  the  neces-  Newspaper 
saries  of  life."     A  general  revision  of  the  newspaper  Scale  Revised, 
scale  was  attempted  a  little  later  in  the  season,  on  Hours  Regulated. 
which  occasion  a  movement  was  also  inaugurated 
to  regulate  the  hours  of  labor  on  both  morning  and  evening  journals, 
it  being  the  first  union  legislation  of  the  kind  ever  enacted  in  the 
interest  of  printers  engaged  at  newspaper  composition.     On  April  9th 
this  proposition  was  carried:     "  Compositors  employed  on  morning 
newspapers  shall  receive  not  less  than  $12  per  week,  or  3  2  cents  per 
1,000  ems  when  employed  by  the  piece  —  the  day  to  consist  of 
eleven  hours,  and  to  end  at  12  o'clock  at  night;  extra  work  to  be 
charged  at  the  rate  of  25  cents  per  hour.      On  penny  daily  journals 
not  less  than  $10  per  week  —  the  day  to  consist  of  ten  hours  and 
to  end  at  7  o'clock  p.  m."     A  resolution  fixing  the  prices  on  daily 
evening  papers  at  $10  per  week  and  28  cents  to  30  cents  per  1,000 
ems,  according  to  size  of  type,  was  passed  on  July  30th  and  a  com- 
mittee appointed  to  inform  employers. 


13^  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

IV. 

Panic  of  1837  Seriously  Affects  Printing  Trade. 

Hardly  had  this  new  schedule  been  put  into  operation  when  a 
serious  situation  confronted  the  association,  the  whole  country  having 
been  suddenly  reduced  to  a  chaotic  condition  by  a  financial  panic. 
"  The  commercial  revulsion,  which  was  rather  apprehended  than 
fully  experienced  in  1834,  was  abundantly  realized  in  1837,"  graph- 
ically wrote  one  who  had  passed  through  that  period  of  depression. 
"  Manufactories  were  stopped  and  their  hands  thrown  out  of  work. 
Trade  was  almost  stagnant.  Bankruptcies  among  men  of  business 
were  rather  the  rule  than  the  exception.  Property  was  sacrificed 
at  auction  —  often  at  Sheriff's  or  assignee's  sale  —  for  a  fraction  of 
its  value ;  and  thousands  who  fondly  dreamed  themselves  millionaires, 
or  on  the  point  of  becoming  such,  awoke  to  the  fact  that  they  were 
bankrupt.  The  banks  were,  of  course,  in  trouble  —  those  which  had 
been  Government  depositories,  or  '  pets,'  rather  deeper  than  the 
rest."i 

The  temporary  hard  times  of  1834  had  so  severely  affected  the 
membership  that  the  association  decided  to  forego  the  custom  of 
holding  a  banquet  that  year.     J.  B.  Anderson,  in 
Unemployment    behalf  of  a  committee  that  had  inquired  into  the 
t/"h%-  ^  expediency  of  celebrating  the  third  anniversary  of 

in  18 14  ^^®  union,  made  an  unfavorable  report  on  May  17, 

1834,  showing  the  disheartening  effect  that  the 
money  stringency  had  upon  the  printing  trade  at  that  time.  "  That 
circumstances  of  pecuniary  depression  existing  and  felt  at  the  present 
time,  and  likely  to  exist  and  be  felt  for  a  time  to  come,"  reasoned 
Mr.  Anderson  in  his  report,  which  v/as  adopted  by  the  meeting, 
"  have  induced  the  belief  that  any  endeavor  to  procure  a  dinner 
such  as  they  would  take  pride  and  pleasure  in  seeing  the  members  of 
the  association  sit  down  to,  will  be  one  of  very  doubtful  accomplish- 
ment. Many  of  the  earliest  and  most  faithful  members  of  our  body 
who  have  hitherto  made  it  a  point  to  unite  in  celebrating  our  annual 
dinner  and  who  have  added  to  the  general  conviviality  of  such  occa- 
sions, are  now  without  employment  and  without  the  probability  of 
getting  any.  The  co-operation,  therefore,  of  those  individuals  — 
and  they  are  not  few  in  number  —  cannot  reasonably  be  expected ; 
for,  though  they  are  just  as  anxious  as  ever  to  advance  the  objects 

•  Horace  Greeley,  "  Recollections  of  a  Busy  Life,"  page  123. 


UNIFORM   WAGE  RATES  ESTABLISHED.  I39 

of  the  association,  and  to  swell  the  numbers  of  those  who  are  desirous 
to  commemorate  its  institution,  yet  anxiety  cannot  nevertheless  fill 
an  empty  pocket  nor  even  buy  a  big  dinner.  The  committee  think 
it  better,  therefore,  that  the  custom  should  be  suspended  for  once, 
by  common  consent,  than  that  any  step  should  be  taken  in  the 
matter  which  is  likely  to  fall  short  of  success,  which,  in  the  present 
case,  they  believe  to  be  the  fair  presumption." 

Some  employers  at  the  very  outset  of  the  1837  depression  deter- 
mined to  combine  and  reduce  wages.     This  con- 
clusion was  combatted  by  the  journeymen's  asso-    Employers 
ciation,  which  appointed  a  committee  to  draft  an    Combine  to 
address  to  the  working  printers,  "  urging  them  to    Reduce  Wages, 
come  forward  and  sustain  the  scale,"  and  the  union's 
views  were  vigorously  expressed  in  the  appeal  that  follows: 
To  the  Journeymen  Printers  of  New  York  City  and  Vicinity: 

Fellow-Craftsmen: — At  an  adjourned  meeting  of  the  Typographical  Asso- 
ciation of  New  York  City,  held  at  the  association  rooms  on  Saturday  evening, 
June  24,  1837,  information  having  been  given  of  a  regularly  organized  "  combina- 
tion "  on  the  part  of  certain  of  our  employers  to  take  advantage  of  the  present 
depressed  state  of  our  trade  and  business  in  general,  in  order  to  reduce  our  present 
prices,  and  to  render  us,  if  possible,  obedient  vassals  to  the  nod  of  the  oppressor, 
a  committee  was  appointed  to  address  you  in  this  particular,  and  urge  you  to  a 
prompt  and  resolute  resistance. 

That  committee  is  of  opinion  that  the    time    has    now  arrived  when  you 
are  to  prove  to  the  world  one  of  two  things  —  either  that  you  are  freemen  and 
capable  of  understanding  and  maintaining  your  rights;    or 
that  you  are  base  and  servile  sycophants,  ready  and  willing    journeymen  Urged 
to  receive  whatever  compensation  and  terms  your  employers    to  Sustain 
may  choose  to  allow.     You  are  now  to  show  whether,  in    Prevalent  Rates. 
your  judgment,  your  employers  or  yourselves  possess  the 
right  of  fixing  a  value  on  your  labor.     If  there  yet  remains  one  spark  of  the 
courage,  manhood  and  determination  which  sustained  you  when  forming  the 
present  scale  of  prices,  let  the  employing  printers  of  New  York  and  the  United 
States  see  that  it  still  exists,  and  can  be  easily  fanned  to  a  flame,  let  them  see  that 
the  insignificant  and  paltry  pittance  which  you  now  obtain  for  your  support 
shall  not  be  reduced  at  their  pleasure  —  that  for  them  to  grow  richer  you  will 
not  consent  to  become  poorer. 

That  a  pressure  exists,  and  that  it  is  more  difficult  for  all  employers  to  procure 
money  with  which  to  meet  expenses,  we  are  all  aware,  but  why  should  your 
wages  be  reduced  on  that  account?     The  prices  for  printing 
advertisements  and  for  newspapers  have  not  been  reduced.    Life's  Necessaries 
The  prices  that  are  now  paid  to  printers  are  no  more  than    Higher  Than  When 
will  barely  support  them,  and  the  common  necessaries  of    Scale  Was  Adopted, 
life  are  even  higher  than  when  your  present  scale  was  formed. 
Then  why  should  you  submit  to  a  reduction?    Why  be  the  passive  minion  of 
the  will  of  tyrants?     The  committee  can  discover  no  reason  why  you  should, 
and  it  is  their  opinion  that  if  true  to  yourselves  you  will  not  be. 


I40  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

Depend  upon  it,  that  if,  in  obedience  to  the  mandate  of  grasping  avarice  — 

if  because  your  employers  say  you  must,  you  determine  to  yield,  and  go  to  work 

for  less  than  the  scale  demands,  you  will  not  only  cover 

Oppression         yourselves  with  the  consequent  odium,  but  you  will  neces- 

FoUows  sarily  involve  yourselves  in  debt  from  week  to  week;  for  it 

Submission.       jg  folly  to  suppose  that  if  your  wages  are  once  reduced  your 

employers  will  of  their  own  accord  advance  them  again,  even 

though  business  should  resume  its  accustomed  course.     No,  having  accomplished 

their  purposes,  and  brought  you  in  submission  to  their  feet,  they  will  keep  you 

there,  and  the  iron  hand  of  oppression  will  be  laid  more  heavily  than  ever.     Your 

employer  knows  well  that  without  constant  employment  your  wages  are  not 

sufficient  for  your  support,  and  those  of  the  unholy  alliance  which  is  now  raising 

its  hydra  head  against  you  are  no  doubt  impressed  with  the  belief  that  by  seizing 

upon  the  present  period  of  depression  in  the  trade  they  may  compel  you  to 

work  for  whatever  they  may  please  to  pay. 

The  committee  would  not  be  understood  to  include  all  employers  as  coming 

under   their   just   reprehensions.     No,    thank    Heaven,    there   are    honorable 

exceptions,    there    are  employers    who  have  an  eye  to  the 

Employers  Who  comfort  and  happiness  of  their  employees,  their  reward  no  man 

Have  an  Eye  to  can  take  away,  for  it  consists  in  the  pleasing  consciousness  of 

Workmen's  Comfort  a^  exercise  of  a  measure  of  justice  and  the  performance  of 

noble  action.      Our  criticism  applies  to  but  a  dishonorably 

combined  few,  whose  object  seems  to  be  to  shift  the  severity  of  the  times  from 

their  own  shoulders  to  the  shoulders  of  their  journeymen,  caring  little  for  their 

sufferings  so  that  they  escape  —  fattening  on  the  profits  of  your  labor,  while 

your  wives  and  children  are  denied  many  of  the  common  necessaries  of  life. 

The  truth  is  your  employers  are  much  more  able  to  pay  the  existing  prices 
than  you  are  to  have  your  wages  reduced;  the  pressure  operates  in  a  much  greater 
degree  to  your  disadvantage  than  to  theirs;  the  depreciated  "  shinplasters  " 
of  the  banks,  which  are  bought  up,  no  doubt,  with  considerable  profit  to  the 
purchasers,  are  palmed  off  upon  you  in  requital  for  your  toil,  as  though  each 
rag  was  worth  its  face  in  gold;  these  rags  you  must  take,  though  on  every  dollar 
you  get  for  your  labor  you  suffer  a  heavy  loss.  Patiently  you  have  borne 
all  this,  and  would  continue  still  to  bear  it;  but  in  the  nameof  even-handed  justice, 
and  for  the  sake  of  Heaven,  your  wives  and  your  children,  let  the  line  of  demarca- 
tion be  here  drawn  —  say  to  the  overreaching  oppressor,  "  Thus  far  shalt  thou 
come,  but  no  farther." 

The  committee  are  well  convinced  that  the  chief  reason  the  unprincipled 
combination  of  your  employers  have  thus  dared  to  invade  your  rights,  and 
attempt  the  reduction  of  your  wages,  is  because  of  a  rumored 
Rumored  want  of  the  union  spirit  among  yourselves.     Without  union 

Lack  of  nothing  can  be  effected  —  with  it,  everything.     Come  for- 

Union  Spirit.  ward,  then,  you  who  are  not  members  of  the  association,  and 

join  in  putting  a  shoulder  to  the  wheel.  Support  the  asso- 
ciation, and  the  association  will  support  you.  There  are  some  of  you  now  in  the 
city  who  are  not  members;  why  is  this?  You  all  receive  the  benefits  which 
result  from  it.  Why,  then,  do  you  not  join  it,  and  thereby  extend  its 
benefits? 

The  committee  would  also  respectfully  impress  on  the  minds  of  the  mem- 
bers the  necessity  of  a  strict  attention  at  all  meetings  of  the  association  and  a 


UNIFORM    WAGE    RATES    ESTABLISHED.  I4I 

firm  support  of  its  principles.  Let  each  and  all  of  us  determine  upon  union,  strong 
and  effectual  union,  and  let  the  watchword  be,  "  The  prices  of  the  association 
must  and  shall  be  sustained." 

Chas.  a.  Adams, 
H.  D.  Bristol, 
W.  H.  McCartney, 
Geo.  Hatten, 
W.  N.  Rose, 

Committee. 

Much  difficulty  was  experienced  by  the  association  in  maintain- 
ing   its    wage    standard.       Morning  newspaper  compositors  were 
apparently  desirous  of  effecting  another  change  in 
rates  even  at  the  sacrifice  of  their  personal  comfort.    Higher  Wages, 
To  obtain  an  advance  in  wages  some  at  least  were    But  Longer 
willing  to   increase   the  amount   of   their  working    Working  Time. 
time.     One  of  these  workers  at  a  meeting  of  the 
association  on  August  26,  1837,  "  gave  notice  that  at  the  constitu- 
tional period  he  should  move  an  amendment  to  the  scale  of  prices  rela- 
tive to  week  work  on  morning  papers,  viz. :    $14  per  week,  twelve  and 
one-half  hours  per  day."     The  records  do  not  show  that  the  mover 
pressed  his  resolution  to  increase  the  daily  working  time  by  one  and 
one-half  hours  in  order  to  gain  this  greater  monetary  compensation. 

The  association  itself  felt  the  effect  of  the  depreciated  currency 
during  the  panic,  the  Board  of  Directors  on  December  9,  1837,  learn- 
ing that  "  the  treasurer  having  on  hand  a  $3  bill  on  the  Bank  of 
Pontiac,  Michigan,  and  not  being  able  to  pass  it,  was  authorized  to 
dispose  of  it  on  the  best  terms." 

Industrial  distress  continued  for  several  years,   and  during  its 
pendency  the  Typographical  Association   suffered  severe  reverses. 
When  it  considered  on  April  4,  1840,  a  turn-out  that 
had  occurred  in  two  newspaper  establishments  and    strikes  in 
a  large  book  office  it  concluded  "  that  this  associa-    Three  Large 
tion  do  not  conceive  that  a  reduction  of  wages  would    Establishments. 
be  conducive  either  to  the  interest  of  the  employer 
or  employed,  and  that  the  sound  and  price-paying  offices  and  com- 
petent workmen  are  now  perfectly  satisfied  of  the  fact."     It  then 
"  resolved  that  the  thanks  of  the  association  be  given  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Gazette,  as  also  the  Courier  and  Harper's  offices,  for  their 
manly  and  patriotic  conduct  in  resigning  their  situations  at  the  shrine 
of  honesty,  and  that  we  use  our  exertions  in  every  way  in  our  power 
to  support  and  sustain  them  in  their  praiseworthy  acts,  and  that'every 
man  in  a  situation  shall  subscribe  whatever  the  association  deem  fit 
to  support  not  only  them,  but  every  office  that  acts  likewise." 


142  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

Throughout  the  panic  the  union  refused  to  officially  sanction  a 
suspension  of  its  wage  scale.     This  fact  was  particularly  emphasized 
at  a  meeting  held  on  June  27,  1840,  when  Mr.  Poole 
Union  Declines  offered  a  resolution  "that  the  time  has  now  arrived 
to  Suspend         when  the  Typographical  Association  of  this  city 
List  of  Prices,     deem  it  their  duty,  for  the  preservation  of  their 
own  members,  to  suspend  indefinitely  that  portion 
of  the  scale  of  prices  which  relates  to  book  offices;"  the  president 
declaring  it  out  of  order.     Then  Mr.  Geddes  moved  "  that  the  chair 
appoint  a  committee  of  five   to  wait  upon  journeymen    printers 
employed  in  the  several  book  offices  of  this  city  and  request  them 
to  attend  a  meeting  of  this  association,  to  explain  the  peculiar  cir- 
oimstances  of  their  different  offices,  with  a  view  of  affording  such 
information  as  shall  determine  the  propriety  of  amending  the  present 
scale  of  prices  in  book  offices."     This  was  defeated  and  the  follow- 
ing, presented  by  the  secretary,  met  a  similar  fate:     **  That  a  com- 
mittee of  three  be  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  expediency  of  alter- 
ing the  scale  of  prices  in  book  offices,  and  to  report  at  next  meeting." 
Resistance  to  the  introduction  of  the  contract  system  in  news- 
paper composing  rooms  commenced  soon  after  the  wage  scale  of 
1836    was    adopted.       A    committee    had    been 
Opposed  to       appointed  to  institute  an  inquiry  into  this  method 
Composition      of  performing  work  on  a  daily  journal,  and  a  report 
by  Contract,      on  the  subject  was  submitted  to  the  association  and 
accepted  on  February   18,   1837.     "  The  scale  of 
prices  adopted  by  this  association  was  intended  to  create  a  regular 
and  general  standard  of  remuneration  for  the  labor  of  every  journey- 
man, and  placing  each  member  upon    an    equaUty,  according  to 
ability,   with  his  fellow-members,"   declared  the   committee,   who 
continued:     "  The  idea  of  contracting  by  any  given  number  of  men 
for  doing  the  work  upon  a  daily  paper,  where  the  amount  of  labor 
required  must  of  necessity  vary  according  to  circumstances,  is,  in 
the  opinion  of  your  committee,  foreign  to  the  true  spirit  of  the  con- 
stitution, and  fraught  with  the  most  manifest  danger  to  the  best 
interests  of  our  craft.     It  will  eventually  1  create  as  many  different 
prices  as  there  are  printing  establishments  in  the  city  and  destroy 
the  very  basis  on  which  our  association  is  founded.     Your  committee 
are  decidedly  of  opinion  that,  although  some  employers,  in  their 
own  peculiar  and  plausible  language,  may  call  the  practice  above 
spoken  of  *  Printing  by  Contract,'  it  means  when  translated  into 
plain  English,  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  new,  or  perhaps  a  more 
genteel,  name  for  *  ratting.'  " 


CHAPTER  VII. 

UNFAIR  LISTS  DISSEMINATED. 

CONSIDERABLE    attention  was   given    by    the    association 
throughout  its   career  to  the  preparation  and  distribution 
of    "  rat  "    circulars.     Large  standing  committees   had  this 
work  in  charge,   and   journeymen  and  master  printers  who  were 
placed  under  the  ban  of  the  union  for  violation  of   its  rules  were 
relentlessly  excoriated  in  communications  that  were  spread  broad- 
cast by  the  authority  of  the  union.     The  first  refer- 
^^* "  ence  to  unfair  workers  was  made  in  the  minutes  of 

_.. .  .  June  25,  1 83 1 ,  when  it  was  ' '  resolved  that  no  member 

Distributed.  ^^  ^^i^  association  be  permitted  to  set  up  matter 
for  papers  not  paying  the  prices  without  incurring 
the  character  of  '  rats,'  "  involving  all  men  employed  in  such  offices 
regardless  as  to  whether  or  not  they  received  the  union  scale.  On 
the  seventeenth  of  the  succeeding  September  this  was  referred 
with  power  to  the  Correspondence  Committee:  "  That  as  soon 
as  a  correct  list  of  the  '  rats  '  now  employed  in  the  city 
can  be  obtained,  that  said  list  be  printed  and  circulated  in 
every  city  and  county  in  the  Union."  Again,  on  January  21,  1832, 
a  committee  was  appointed  "  to  report  the  names  and  residences  of 
'  rats  '  now  employed  in  this  city."  Benefit  of  a  hearing  was  also 
denied  to  members  who  committed  the  unpardonable  offense,  as 
was  instanced  at  the  meeting  of  the  organization  on  July  21st  in  the 
last-named  year.     According  to  the  minutes  of  the  session  "  a  motion 

was  made  that be  expelled  from  the  association 

on  the  charge  of  being  a  'rat,'  which  was  carried  without  giving  him 
a  chance  oj  being  heard  in  his  defense."     The  secretary  underscored 
the  italicized  words  doubtless  as  a  personal  protest  against  the  sum- 
mary manner  in  which  judgment  had  been  pronounced  in  this  case. 
But  before  and  after  the  revision  of  the  scale  of  prices  in  1833 
there  was  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  members  to  forgive  any 
of  their  erring  brethren  who  might  seek  rehabilita- 
Spirit  of  tion  in  the  association.     There  was  a  standing  corn- 

Forgiveness     mittee  of  twelve  appointed  on  February  16,  1833, 
Dominates,      clothed  with  discretionary  powers  to  carry  out  the 
provisions  of  a  resolution  **  to  inform  those  who  may 
now  be  employed  at  prices  below  our  scale  that  the  members  of  this 
association  are  willing  to  banish  all  prejudices  and  animosities  which 

[143] 


144  NEW    YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

they  may  have  heretofore  entertained  against  them  on  account  of 
their  conduct  with  regard  to  the  profession,  and  to  admit  them  to 
favor  and  fellowship,  provided  they  will  instantly  abandon  the  situ- 
ations they  hold  (unless  their  employers  shall  grant  them  full  prices) 
and  henceforth  be  governed  by  the  aforesaid  scale." 

On  the  same  date  the  union  reversed  its  action  of  June  25,  1831, 
by  establishing  the  doctrine  "  that  a  man  has  a  right  to  work  in  any 
office  provided  he  receives  the  prices  as  laid  down  in  the  association 
scale."  The  question  came  up  on  the  report  of  a  committee  that  had 
investigated  charges  against  a  member,  and  while  exonerating  him, 
expressed  itself  **  in  unqualified  terms  of  disapprobation  for  his 
having  gone  to  the  Journal  of  Commerce  at  any  price."  Speaking 
on  the  subject,  A.  C.  Flanagan  opposed  the  utterance  on  the 
ground  that  a  man  had  a  perfect  right  to  work  in  that  or  any  other 
office  provided  he  was  paid  the  union  rates.  "  The  principle  had 
at  one  time,"  he  argued,  "  obtained  a  standing  in  the  association  that 
no  person  should  work  in  an  office,  even  though  he  got  the  wages, 
where  '  rats  '  were  employed,  but  it  has  been  found  necessary  to 
abandon  this  principle,  it  being  considered  unsound  doctrine." 
These  views  were  held  to  be  correct  by  the  meeting,  which  after 
ordering  the  elimination  of  the  objectionable  clause  from  the  report, 
adopted  the  committee's  recommendation  to  acquit  the  accused 
member. 

At  the  general  meeting  of  March  16, 1833,  the  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee of  twelve  that  had  been  named  "  to  devise  and  put  in  operation 
some  plan  to  suppress  within  its  limits  the  detest- 
General  S'ble  practice  of  *  ratting  '  "  reported  that  the  efforts 

Amnesty  of  the  investigators  "  have  been  directed  solely  to 

Proclaimed,  ^j^e  accomplishment,  if  possible,  of  a  reformation 
among  the  underworkers  now  employed  in  the  office 
of  the  Journal  of  Commerce,  Daily  Advertiser  and  New  York  American. 
To  this  end  overtures  have  been  made  to  them,  and  in  a  spirit  of 
kindness  and  conciliation  they  have  been  urged  to  accede  to  proposi- 
tions for  their  own  advantage,  and  thus  efface  from  the  history  of 
the  profession  one  of  the  foulest  stains  that  ever  obscured  its  char- 
acter. The  proffers  and  promises  of  your  committee  have  been  met 
by  some  with  approbation,  and  a  seeming  determination  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  opportunity  thus  afforded  of  a  complete  redemption 
from  their  present  degradation ;  and  by  all  with  whom  your  committee 
have  conversed  with  more  or  less  willingness  to  yield  to  the  demands 
of  reason  and  justice,  as  well  as  to  use  the  influence  they  may  possess 
with  others  of  their  kind  to  bring  about  so  great  a  good.    But  the 


UNFAIR   LISTS   DISSEMINATED.  I45 

timidity  consequent  upon  a  consciousness  of  error,  together  with 
their  natural  imbeciUty  and  want  of  principle,  having  occasioned 
much  delay  in  their  deliberations,  and  no  certain  conclusions  being 
yet  fixed  upon  by  their  *  ratships,'  your  committee  have  deemed  it 
advisable  to  defer  a  general  report  until  the  next  regular  meeting 
of  the  association;  previously  to  which  a  period  will  no  doubt  be 
agreed  upon  at  which  something  final  will  be  known;  and  in  case 
other  and  reverse  measures  shall  hereafter  be  thought  necessary,  the 
'  rats  '  will  thus  be  left  without  excuse  as  to  the  sufficiency  of  time 
allowed  them  to  determine  whether  they  will  abandon  their  present 
situations  for  the  sake  of  principle,  or  hold  them  still  in  servitude 
and  shame." 

That  the  association  was  anxious  to  enroll  all  competent  printers 
in  the  city  in  order  to  strengthen  its  ranks,  unmindful  of  the  past 
misconduct  of  some,  was  again  demonstrated  on  November  23, 
1833,  at  which  meeting  a  motion  was  carried  "  that  all  members 
of  the  profession  be  invited  to  take  seats  and  a  label  put  up  in  the 
room  below,  inviting  all  printers  to  attend  the  meeting;"  and 
"  Messrs.  A.  H.  Simmons,  Flanagan  and  McCartney  were  appointed 
standard  bearers." 

This  general  amnesty  brought  about  desirable  results,  in  a  single 
year  58  printers  being  initiated,  and  in  1833  the  membership  rose 
to  220. 

PubHcation  of  a  list  of  firms  conducting  non-union  shops  was 
determined  upon  at  a  special  meeting  of  the  association  on  October 
26,  1833.       Steps  in  this  direction  were  taken  at 
the  behest  of  George   F.   Hopkins,   an  employer.        Boycotting 
The  committee  that  had  been  appointed  to  receive        Non-Union 
from  him  "  any  communication  he  might  be  disposed        Concerns, 
to  make  to  the  Typographical  Association,"  informed 
the  members  that   "  we  have  the  honor  to  report  that  we  have 
waited  on  Mr.  Hopkins  and  received  from  him  a  suggestion  that 
we  pubHsh  the  names  of  all  employing  printers  who  do  not  pay  the 
scale  of  prices."     It  was  therefore  decided  to  instruct  the  "  Rat  " 
Committee  to  advertise  such  proprietors. 

Further  action  was  taken  in  this  respect  in  May,  1836,  it  then 
being  "  resolved  that  the  *  Rat'  Committee  be  instructed  to  ascertain 
and  pubUsh  in  the  Union  and  Transcript  the  names  of  all  employers 
who  do,  as  well  as  those  who  do  not,  conform  to  the  scale  of  prices." 
That  committee  was  also  directed  "  to  ascertain  and  pubHsh  forth- 
with the  names  of  all  persons  working  under  the  present  scale  of 
prices." 


146  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Publishment  of  unfair  lists  continued  without  setback  until  April, 
1840,   when  court  proceedings  were  instituted  by  one  who  con- 
sidered that  he  had  suffered  from  an  alleged  libelous 
Suit  Instituted      attack  made  upon  his  reputation  by  the  "Rat" 
for  Alleged  Committee  of  the  association.     All  the  information 

Libelous  Attack,   ^j^^^  could  be  gleaned  concerning  the  suit  was  con- 
tained in  the  minutes  of  a  special  meeting  on  the 
twenty-fifth  of  that  month,  on  which  date  the  following  preamble 
and  resolution  were  adopted  and  a  committee  appointed : 

Whereas,  An  action  of  libel  has  been  brought  against  the  association  in  the 
person  of  Charles  H.  Andrews,  chairman  of  the  "  Rat  "  Committee,  and  as  the 
publication  which  induced  the  said  action  was  the  act  of  the  association  we  feel 
ourselves  bound  to  support  our  chairman  to  the  very  utmost,  and  that  as  the 
result  of  the  said  suit  is  intimately  connected  with  the  prosperity  of  the  body  we 
should  avail  ourselves  of  every  possible  means  to  insure,  as  far  as  can  be,  a  favor- 
able result,  and  as  the  enlistment  of  legal  talent  is  one  grand  means  of  insuring 
a  verdict  in  our  favor;  therefore. 

Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  three  be  appointed  to  engage  counsel  to  such 
extent  and  of  such  a  character  as  they  may  deem  best,  and  that  the  expenses 
of  said  legal  services  be  defrayed  by  this  body;  that  a  fund  shall  be  provided 
by  means  of  weekly  subscriptions  of  such  amounts  as  members  shall  feel  at 
liberty  to  subscribe,  without  stipulating  any  sum,  feeling  assured  that  at  this 
crisis  no  one  will  be  found  backward. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

ASSISTED   IMMIGRATION  OF  PRINTERS  DENOUNCED. 

TO  DEFEAT  the  efforts  of  the  Typographical  Association  to 
maintain  its  wage  scale  some  employers,  it  was  alleged,  had 
advertised  in  Europe  that  there  was  a  dearth  of  printers  in 
this  country  and  advised  foreign  typographers  and  pressmen  to 
come  to  New  York,  where  they  would  find  immediate  employment 
at  high  prices  for  their  labor.      The  matter  was  brought  to  the 
attention  of  the  organization  on  September  8,  1832, 
when  it  was  charged  that  many  workmen  already      Foreign 
had  been  persuaded  to  leave  their  homes  in  the  Old      Journeymen 
World,  to  the  detriment  of  themselves  and  their      Misled. 
fellow-printers  in  the  United  States,  while  others 
were  preparing  to  emigrate  under  the  false  notion  that  situations 
were  plentiful  at  good  pay  in   the  Metropolis.     It  was  therefore 
decided  to  send  an  emissary  to  Great  Britain  to  apprise  journeymen 
in  those  English-speaking  countries  of  the  exact  status  of  affairs  and 
to  warn  them  that  it  was  a  well-laid  plan  of  a  few  master  printers 
to  create  a  glut  in  the  labor  market  that  would  result  in  a  reduction 
of  wages  and  possible  dissolution  of  the  union.     So  serious  did  the 
matter  appear  to  the  New  York  Gazette  and  General  Advertiser  that 
on  the  morning  of  September  1 5  th  it  directed  public  notice  to  the 
question  in  the  following  stirring  editorial : 

The  Typographical  Association  of  Journeymen  Printers  of  this  city,  who 
some  time  since  fixed  upon  prices  for  their  labor,  gave  umbrage  to  some  of  the 
employers,  who  advertised  that  hundreds  might  find  employment  in  this  city. 
At  a  meeting  on  the  8th  inst.  it  was  stated,  and  no  doubt  correctly,  that  many 
Euporean  journeymen  had  been  induced  by  the  above  advertisement  to  come 
here  for  employment,  and  that  others  were  preparing  to  leave  their  homes  in 
consequence  of  the  above  allurement,  most  of  whom  will  probably  find  them- 
selves destitute  in  a  strange  land.  The  journeymen  of  the  city,  therefore,  with 
feelings  that  are  honorable  to  them,  have  resolved  to  send  out  Richard  P.  Hall, 
as  bearer  of  a  circular  to  the  journeymen  of  Great  Britain,  with  power  to 
co-operate  with  their  associations  to  discourage  emigration,  that  must  if  under- 
taken end  in  disappointment  and  distress. 

Of  course,  this  attitude  of  an  influential  daily  newspaper  was 
pleasing  to  the  association,  which  at  a  regular  meeting  on  the  same 

[147] 


148  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

date  appointed  a  committee  to  tender  its  thanks  to  "John  Lang 
Esq.,  for  the  liberal  and  honorable  manner  in  which  the  associa- 
tion was  mentioned  in  the  New  York  Gazette  and  at 
Union  Values      the  same  time  convey  in  no  measured  terms  the  high 
Editor  Lang's      respect  and  veneration  entertained  of  him  by  the 
Friendship,         members  of  this  association."     In  compliance  with 
these  instructions  the  committeemen  communicated 
with  the  editor  of  the  Gazette  on  September  17th,  stating  that  they 
felt  "  honored  in  being  selected  to  convey  to  you  the  expression  of 
respect  entertained  of  your  character  by  the  members  of  the  New 
York  Typographical  Association  both  as  a  man  and  as  an  employer. 
It  will  afford  us  great  satisfaction  whenever  an  act  of  ours  shall 
meet  with  the  approbation  of  the  *  Veteran  Printer,'  who  by  his 
integrity,  industry  and  perseverance  has  arisen  to  a  high  standing 
in  society,  and  enjoys  the  confidence  and  respect  of  his  fellow-citizens. 
Permit  us,  sir,  individually  to  tender  our  tespects  and  good  wishes 
for  your  future  health  and  happiness."      No  less  cordial  was  the 
response  of  Editor  Lang,  who  on  September  i8th  wrote  as  follows 
attesting  his  appreciation  and  further  cementing  the  bonds  of  friend- 
ship that  had  existed  between  him  and  the  organized  printers  since 
the  formation  of  the  association: 

Your  communication  to  me  of  yesterday's  date,  however  unexpected,  is  not 
the  less  gratifying.  In  my  notice  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Typographical 
Association  to  which  you  refer  my  only  object  was  to  do  an  act  of  justice  to 
the  feelings  of  honorable  men  who,  from  the  nature  of  their  associations,  are 
naturally  prompted  to  noble  doings. 

I  did  not  anticipate  the  embarrassment  arising  from  being  complimented  by 
your  intelligent  association  for  giving  vent  to  feelings  which  ought  to  belong 
to  all  who  have  the  advantages  appertaining  to  the  chapel.  Your  appreciation 
of  my  feelings,  expressed  in  terms  so  flattering  and  so  well  calculated  to  reach 
a  brother's  feelings,  must  not  pass  without  a  fear  that  my  standing  and  worth 
are  overrated  by  the  association  which  has  deputed  you  gentlemen  to  address 
me  as  the  "  Veteran  Printer,"  etc.  Your  individual  sentiments  of  respect  and 
good  wishes  I  cordially  accept  and  most  warmly  reciprocate,  and  I  beg  that  you 
will  convey  to  the  society  the  kindest  wishes  of  an  old  printer  nearly  worn  down  • 
but  not  so  much  battered^  as  to  be  insensible  of  the  gratification  which  he  now 
enjoys  in  hearing  from  you,  that  he  is  justified  *  in  the  estimation  of  the  Typograph- 
ical Association  of  New  York. 

To  the  members  of  the  institution,  and  to  you,  their  organ,  individually,  I 
extend  the  hand  of  fellowship. 


*  Technical  phrases  used  by  printers. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

FINANCIAL    SUPPORT    TO    OTHER    TRADES. 

GENEROSITY  was  among  the  marked  characteristics  of  the 
Typographical  Association  almost  from  the  moment  that  it 
was  established.  It  was  ever  in  sympathy  with  the  struggles 
of  organized    workers    in    other   trades   and  gave  liberally    from 
its  funds   to   sustain  them.     When  the   Independent  Journeymen 
Carpenters'    Association  ordered  a  strike  in  the  spring  of  1833  for 
an  advance   of   daily   wages  from  $1.37^  to  $1.50 
the   union    of    printers    was    especially    active    in    xurn-out  of 
supporting   that   turn-out,    resolving    on    June   ist    Carpenters  for 
that    a    committee    be    appointed    to    solicit    sub-    Better  Wages. 
scriptions  in  behalf  of  the  striking  mechanics,  who 
won  their  demands  in  about  a  month. 

Refusal  of  manufacturers  to  employ  union  hatters  precipitated  a 
general  strike  in  that  trade  near  the  close  of  1834,  and  the  Typo- 
graphical Association  immediately  interested  itself 
in    the    movement.     It    met    on    December    20th,    Hatters  Struggle 
pledged  its  support  to  the  journeymen  hat  makers    to  Maintain 
and  adopted  measures  to  raise  contributions  for    Their  Union. 
their  relief.     "  Being  apprised  of  the  attempt  now 
making  by  many  employing  hatters  to  destroy  the  society  of  journey- 
men of  that  profession  belonging  to  the  Trades  Union,  and  desirous 
of  assisting  our  fellow-mechanics  in  the  stand  they  have  taken  against 
the  infringement  of  the  rights  of  man,  as  well  as  to  express  our  dis- 
approbation of  such  a  procedure,"  the  printers  resolved  "  that  both 
individually  and  as  an  association  we  will  use  all  the  means  in  our 
power  to  sustain  the  journeymen  hatters  in  their  present  struggle. 
The  maintenance  of  good  government  depends  upon  the  virtue  and 
happiness  of  the  governed;  and  all  experience  hath  shown  that  dis- 
satisfaction in  a  people  is  the  result  nine  times  out  of  ten  of  oppres- 
sion on  the  part  of  the  aristocracy,  who,  through  intrigue  and  a  con- 
trolling power  over  lawmakers,  have  succeeded  in  every  civilized 
country  on  earth,  but  this,  to  wrench  from  the  mass  of  the  people 
their  natural  rights ;  to  goad  them  with  nearly  all  the  burdens  incident 

[149] 


150  NEW    YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

to  government,  and  to  compel  them  to  support  their  oppressors  in 
indolence  and  luxury.  And  unless  the  workingmen  of  America  look 
well  to  their  rights  and  interests,  or  at  least  such  portion  of  them  as 
now  remain,  they  will  soon,  we  believe,  be  on  a  par,  if  not  below, 
those  of  Europe."  Eventually  the  union  of  hatters  won  from  the 
employers  the  recognition  for  which  it  had  been  contesting. 

A  committee  of  eleven  was  selected  by  the  association  on  March 

19,  1836,  "  to  take  up  contributions  for  the  tailors  who  are  now  on 

strike."     This  was  a  dispute  of  long  duration,  and 

Pecuniary        when  the  printers  met  on  June  1 8th  it  was  announced 

Relief  for        that  the  tailors  had  "  partially  succeeded  in  their 

Tailors.  stand     out."     The     committee     on    contributions 

reported   then   that   it   had   collected   $48.3 7 1,    of 

which  sum  $26.62^  had  been  given  to  the  garment  workers,  "  who 

no  longer  needed  assistance,"  so  the  balance  of  $21.75  was  ordered 

to  be  "  presented  to  the  journeymen  leather  dressers,  who  are  in 

need  of  assistance." 


CHAPTER  X. 

OTHER  IMPORTANT  TRANSACTIONS. 

AN  EMPLOYMENT  office,  with  an  out-of-work  register  that 
accorded  priority  rights  to  idle  members  who  entered  their 
names  therein,  was  estabHshed  in  1831  in  consonance  with 
Article  X  of  the   by-laws,   which   provided    that   "  a   book  shall 
be  kept  at  the    association  room  for  the  purpose   of   registering 
the  names  of  such  members  as  are  in  want  of  employment,  and 
also    of  vacant    situations,    and   any   journeyman 
who  may  have  placed  his  name  on  the  book  shall    Priority  Rights 
forfeit   6   cents    for    every    twenty-four  hours   his    Accorded  to 
name  shall  remain  thereon  after  he  has  obtained  a    ^^^^  Members, 
situation." 

Apprehensive  that  the  introduction  of  subjects  of  a  religious 
nature  at  labor  meetings  would  tend  to  create  dissension  and  detri- 
mentally affect  the  interests  of  the  workers,  the 
Typographical  Association  on  November  16,  1833,        Religious 
set  its  stamp  of  disapproval  upon  the  discussion        Discussion 
of  such  questions  at  the  sessions  of  the  central       Eschewed. 
union  of  trades.     "  It  hath  been  represented  to  this 
association,"  the  printers  declared  in  a  resolve,  "  that  at  a  recent 
meeting  of  the  General  Trades  Union  a  religious  topic  was  intro- 
duced, occasioning  some  debate,  to  the  hindrance  of  the  legitimate 
business  of  that  body.     The  introduction  and  discussion  of  religious 
subjects  are  expressly  prohibited  by  the  union.     The  Typographical 
Association  of  New  York,  therefore,  solemnly  protests  against  such 
discussions  in  the  Trades  Union  as  fraught  with  the  most  destructive 
consequences  to  the  peace,  prosperity  and  existence  of  the  union. 
Resolved,   that  our  delegates  be  requested  to  use  their  utmost  in- 
fluence to  oppose  the  introduction  or  discussion  of  subjects  con- 
nected with  religion." 

Reporting  at  a  general  meeting  on  February  15,  1834,  the  chair- 
man of  a  committee  that  had  been  previously  created  to  inquire 
into  the  expediency  of  forming  a  library  proposed  that  a  "  com- 
mittee be  appointed  to  solicit  donations  either  in  money  or  books. 

I151I 


152  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

The  absence  of  knowledge,"  continued  the  report,  "debases  both  the 
civil  and  moral  character  of  a  nation  or  an  individual. 
Establishing        Whenever  a  community  become  ignorant,  they  can 
a  Library  neither  understand  nor  maintain  their  rights,  and 

for  Printers.        are  only  fit  to  bow  themselves  in  the  dust  before  a 
tyrannic  master,  and  praise  him   that  he  conde- 
scends to  tread  upon  them  —  to  be  transfixed  by  the  bayonets  or 
crushed  beneath  the  car,  of  a  military  despot, — 

' "  Who  does  bestride  the  narrow  world 
Like  a  Colossus,  and  petty  men 
Walk  under  his  huge  legs,  and  peep  about 
To  find  themselves  dishonorable  graves.' 

A  distinguished  orator,  in  addressing  the  mechanics  of  the  city  upon 
a  late  occasion  respecting  the  recent  measures  that  have  been  taken 
towards  meliorating  their  conditions,  remarked,  with  great  truth, 
that  the  circumstances  which  surrounded  them  are  auspicious  to  the 
purpose  —  that  if  they  neglected  to  avail  themselves  of  the  advan- 
tages and  prospects  which  were  now  presented  to  them  they  would 
not  only  merit,  but  receive  opprobrium  and  oppression;  and  if  the 
present  opportunities  were  sacrificed  by  inactivity  or  folly,  slavery 
and  infamy  would  be  their  portion,  and  their  offspring  at  some  future 
day  would  drag  the  inherited  chains  of  degradation  across  the  graves 
of  their  sires  with  reproaches  and  imprecations!  To  prevent  so 
melancholy  and  degrading  a  condition  must  be  the  earnest  desire 
of  every  man  who  wishes  to  promote  the  happiness  of  his  fellows." 

The  union  coincided  with  the  conception  of  the  committee  "  that 
an  increase  of  learning  will  do  much  towards  the  prevention  of  so 
deplorable  a  catastrophe,"  and  in  due  time  established  a  library  for 
the  use  of  its  members.  In  the  minutes  of  the  association  for  Novem- 
ber 1 8,  1837,  it  is  recorded  that  "  the  librarian  having  left  the  city 
last  fall,  Mr.  McCartney  moved  that  the  duty  be  performed  by  the 
secretary.  Lost.  Mr,  Davis  moved  that  it  be  incorporated  with 
the  office  of  janitor.     Adopted." 

Like  all  patriotic  Americans  the  members  of  the  printers'  organi- 
zation held  in  grateful  remembrance  the  distinguished  services  that 
had  been  rendered  by  Lafayette  in  the  cause  of 
Honoring  liberty  during  the  Revolution,  and  on  June  21,  1834, 

Lafayette's         upon  the  announcement  of  the  demise  of  the  beloved 
Memory.  citizen  of  France,  "  resolved  that  the  Typographical 

Association  cheerfully  respond  to  the  invitation  of 
the  Honorable  the  Corporation  and  will  meet  in  the  park  at  the 
appointed  time  to  join  in  the  ceremonies  commemorative  of  the 
character,  virtues  and  services  of  the  deceased  General  Lafayette." 


1 


OTHER  IMPORTANT  TRANSACTIONS.  1 53 

The  idea  of  a  Labor  Temple  in  New  York  City  originated  with 
this  early  association  of  printers,  the  president  at  a  meeting  held  on 
February  21,  1835,  offering  a  resolution  that  "  inas- 
much as  it  appears  to  be  a  current  opinion  that  some        a  Labor 
of   the   different   societies   composing  the   General       Temple 
Trades  Union  are  not  supplied  with  as  good  accom-        Projected. 
modation  for  the  purpose  of  assembHng  together 
as  they  wish,  and  as  it  is  often  put  forth  in  public  newspapers  that 
trade  unions  in  other  places  have  erected  convenient  and  spacious 
halls  for  that  object  and  have  received  immense  advantages  there- 
from, and  as  we  are  slow  to  believe  that  the  mechanics  of  this  Empire 
City  would  willingly  fall  behind  their  brethren  in  other  cities  in  point 
of  enterprise;  therefore,  resolved  that  our  delegates  to  the  convention 
of  the  trades  submit  the  following  resolution  to  that  body:     'Re- 
solved, that  a   committee  be  appointed  to  inquire  into  and  report 
on  the  expediency  and  practicability  of  erecting  a  suitable  building 
for  the  use  of  the  convention  and  the  several  societies  composing 
the  General  Trades  Union.'     That  if  the  above-mentioned  committee 
should  deem  the  project  feasible  they  report  a  plan  by  which  the 
necessary  funds  may  be  raised  and  cause  each  society  belonging  to 
the  union  to  be  furnished  with  a  copy  thereof.'  "     The  proposition 
received  general  attention,  but  was  never  put  into  operation. 

The  association  was  a  progressive  body  and  considered  favorably 
all  enterprises  that  it  believed  would  redound  to  the  benefit  of  the 
masses.     It  was  the  thought  of  the  members  when 
they  convened  on  January  23,  1836,  that  a  news-    Establishing  a 
paper  devoted  to  the  interests  of  Labor  would  serve    One-Cent  Daily 
to  educate  the  rank  and  file  of  the  various  societies    Labor  Paper, 
of  trades  in  the  principles  of  industrial  reform  and 
be  instrumental  in  cohering  the  different  elements,   thus  adding 
strength  to  their  movement,  so  they  readily  assented  to  a  proposal 
for  the  establishment  of  a  daily  journal.     H.  D.  Bristol,  from  the 
delegation  to   the  General  Union  of  Trades,  broached  the  matter, 
stating  that  the  subject  of  supporting  a  daily  paper  had  been  brought 
before  the  central  society.     He  read  the  report  of  the  committee 
thereon  "  and  asked  for  instructions  how  to  vote  by  this  body, 
whereupon,  after  much  discussion,  the  resolution  from  the  report  of 
said  committee,  that  it  is  expedient  for  the  convention  to  establish 
a  daily  penny  paper,  conceiving  it  to  be  highly  necessary  to  sustain 
the  honor  and  interests  of  the  union,  was  adopted."      Then  on 
March  19,  1836,  it  was  decided  "  to  solicit  subscriptions  to  the  stock 
in  the   Union,"  which  resolution  also  provided  "  that  persons  sub- 


154  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

scribing  for  the  above-named  stock  shall  receive  advance  from  the 
profits,  if  any  accrue,  in  proportion  to  the  amount  invested."  The 
paper  was  finally  started,  but  it  was  extinguished  after  a  few  months, 
like  many  other  undertakings,  with  the  advent  of  the  panic  in  that 
period. 


CHAPTER  XL 

PIONEER  NATIONAL  TYPOGRAPHICAL  CONVENTION. 

FROM  the  seventh  to  the  eleventh  of  November,  1836,  the  orig- 
inal national  convention  of  printers*  societies  in  this  country 
was  held  in  Washington,  D.  C.  The  New  York  association 
was  probably  the  first  to  discuss  the  feasibility  of  founding  a 
National  Typographical  Society.  As  early  as  August  15,  1835,  it 
passed  a  resolve  "  that  a  committee  of  five  be  appointed  to  take 
into  consideration  the  expediency  of  forming  the  trade  associations 
and  societies  of  printers  in  the  United  States  into  a  General  Union; 
and  if  it  shall  be  deemed  expedient,  that  said  committee  be 
authorized  to  report  a  plan  by  which  the  same  may  be  effected." 
Nearly  a  year  elapsed  before  anything  was  done  in  the  matter, 
and  when  on  July  30,  1836,  a  call  was  received  from  the  Columbia 
Typographical  Society  for  a  convention  in  Washington  in  the 
succeeding  November,  it  was  promptly  endorsed,  these  delegates 
being  chosen:  Charles  A.  Davis,  John  L.  Brown  and  Augustus 
H.  Krauth. 

A  constitution  was  adopted  by  the  convention,  naming  the  organi- 
zation the  National  Typographical  Society;  establishing  the  repre- 
sentation of  local  unions  of  from  one  to  three  delegates,  according 
to  numerical  strength;  providing  for  annual  sessions;  defining  the 
duties  of  officers;  constituting  the  officers  a  Board  of  Control  for 
the  adjustment  of  difficulties  that  might  arise  between  sessions, 
and  empowering  conventions  to  enact  general  laws  for  the  govern- 
ment of  local  societies.  Separate  addresses  by  the  delegates  were 
issued  to  the  various  typographical  unions  and  to  journeymen 
printers  in  general  in  the  United  States. 

I. 

Special  Address  to  Local  Unions. 

Subordinate  organizations  were  urged  to  yield  "  so  much  of  opinion, 
of  power,  and  of  government  as  shall  be  required  to  give  harmony, 
stability,  and  efficacy  to  the  whole  system;  to  accomplish  the  great 
purposes  aimed  at,  and  to  secure  a  good  organization  something  of 

[155] 


156  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

concession — much  of  resolution  and  determination  —  will  be  needed." 
Success  awaited  the  cause,  was  the  opinion  of  the  convention, 
"  provided  a  proper  spirit  of  conciliation,  allied  to  an  unshaken  firm- 
ness of  purpose,  shall  be  observed  on  the  part  of  local  societies.  Our 
employers,  though  some  of  them  may  be  opposed  to  us  awhile,  will 
eventually  become  convinced  that,  in  endeavoring  to  ameliorate 
our  own  condition,  we  have  not  forgotten  their  interests,  but  have 
on  the  contrary  consulted  and  secured  them ;  and  in  no  recommenda- 
tion of  ours  is  the  least  principle  of  right  infringed  or  reason  violated, 
but  strict  and  impartial  justice  extended  to  all  concerned." 

One  of  the  regulations  that  the  convention  recommended  the  sub- 
ordinate bodies  to  ratify  related  to  apprentices,  it  being  required 
that  every  beginner  "shall  serve  until  he  is  21 
Employment  of  years  of  age,  and  at  the  time  of  entering  as  an 
Apprentices  apprentice  shall  not  be  more  than  15  years  of  age; 
Regulated.  a^d  every  boy  taken  as  an  apprentice  shall  be  bound 

to  his  employer  in  due  form  of  law."  Other  rules 
on  the  subject  provided  that  runaway  apprentices  should  not  be 
received  in  any  union  office;  that  a  boy  legally  released  from  his 
master,  or  one  whose  employer  had  died,  could  enter  another  estab- 
lishment, be  regularly  indented  and  complete  his  six  years'  term. 
"  If  it  be  made  obligatory  upon  the  parents  or  guardians  of  boys  to 
have  them  bound  as  apprentices  for  a  term  of  not  less  than  six  years," 
went  on  the  address,  "  does  the  employer  suffer  injustice?  By  no 
means.  He  is  benefited.  The  employer,  the  journeyman  and  the 
apprentice  are  all  benefited  by  this  regulation,  and  the  provision 
made  to  bring  into  membership,  in  one  or  the  other  of  the  several 
local  societies,  all  who  may  not  be  connected  therewith  —  and  after 
a  distant  specified  period  to  admit  none  who  have  not  served  six 
years  at  the  trade — will  be  found,  upon  proper  reflection,  to  be  pro- 
ductive of  the  happiest  results,  as  it  will  secure  to  the  employer  the 
whole  time  of  the  apprentice,  and  prevent  those  from  working  as 
journeymen  who  have  not  served  a  regular  apprenticeship." 

Local  unions  were  empowered  to  establish  such  tariff  of  prices 

"  as  may  be  suitable  to  the  section  of  the  country  in  which  they 

may  be  located;  always  having  a  due    regard  to 

Wage  Scales,      ^j^g  wants  of  the  profession."      It  was  made  the 

"  Rat "  duty  of  societies  to  sustain  one  another  in  their 

Circulars.  ^^^^^  of  prices.     Strikes  for  advances  of  wages  had 

to  be  sanctioned  by  the  National  Board  of  Control 

before  being  ordered  by  a  local  union,  and  all  other  societies  were 

required  to  contribute  such  sums  as  were  necessary  to  conduct  each 


PIONEER  NATIONAL  TYPOGRAPHICAL    CONVENTION.  157 

dispute.  Individuals  who  violated  the  constitution  or  regulations 
of  subordinate  associations  were  subject  to  expulsion,  and  members 
were  not  permitted  to  work  in  offices  where  such  expelled  persons 
were  employed.  Men  pronounced  "  rats  "  by  one  society  were  to 
be  considered  such  by  all  others,  and  the  unions  were  obliged  to 
circulate  lists  of  unfair  printers  throughout  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
national  organization. 

Before  the  Washington  convention  assembled  the  New  York  union 
had  given  some  attention  to  the  subject  of  membership  certificates 
for  itinerant  printers,  the  Board  of  Directors  on 
October  i,  1836,  deciding  "to  recommend  to  the  Traveling 
association  to  procure  a  card  for  members  in  good  Cards 
standing  when  about  to  leave  the  city."  Doubtless  Authorized, 
an  interchange  of  cards  had  been  in  practice  prior 
to  the  above  date,  as  in  his  application  for  reinstatement  in  the 
Columbia  Typographical  Society  an  expelled  member  explained 
on  September  26,  1835:  "I  have  for  a  long  time  past  wished  to 
go  to  New  York,  but  I  cannot  procure  employment  there  without  I 
take  with  me  a  certificate  from  this  society,  which  of  course  I  cannot 
procure  unless  the  society  will  reinstate  me  in  my  membership, 
which  I  now  most  respectfully  and  earnestly  request  them  to  do." 
Action  was  taken  on  the  question  of  traveling  cards  by  the  national 
association,  whose  constitution  made  it  imperative  for  the  officers 
to  issue  "in  blank  form  to  local  societies,  for  the  use  of  their  members, 
an  engraved  card  to  be  called  the  '  union  card,'  with  suitable  designs 
and  inscriptions;  and  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  local  societies  to  issue 
one  of  these  cards  to  every  member  in  good  standing  when  about 
to  leave  the  section  of  the  country  over  which  they  may  have  juris- 
diction; and  on  the  member  arriving  under  the  jurisdiction  of  another 
society,  and  depositing  his  card  with  the  president,  and  receiving  a 
certificate  of  such  deposit,  it  must  secure  for  him  the  confidence  and 
good  offices  of  that  body.  In  case  of  his  departure  in  good  standing 
from  said  place  the  proper  officers  of  the  society  will  give  him  another 
similar  card,  which  shall  be  his  passport  with  the  next  society." 


II. 

General  Appeal  to  Printers. 

In  the  general  address  to  craftsmen,  organized  and  unorganized, 
the  convention  delegates  stated  that  "  from  recent  attempts  at 
encroachments  on  the  rights  of  journeymen,  and  to  prevent  such 


158  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

in  future,  it  has  been  judged  most  prudent  to  seek  safety  in  union. 
This  concert  of  action  becomes  the  more  imperative  since  we  daily 
perceive  the  rapid  strides  which  printing  is  making 
Reasons  for      over  a  vast  extent  of  country,  and  the  measures 
Concerted         which  may  be  adopted  to  injure  us.     It  is  a  lament- 
Action,  able    fact    that    the  newspaper  press   has   almost 
entirely  passed  from  under  the  control  of  members 
of  the  profession,  into  the  hands  of  speculators  and  partisans,  who, 
ignorant  of  the  feelings  and  sympathies  of  the  craft,  create  dissen- 
sions and  difficulties  when  they  cannot  make  them  subservient  to 
their  will  and  interest." 

Referring  to  the  alleged  unlawful  association  of  workmen  the 
delegates  pointed  out  that  only  a  short  time  previously  "  associa- 
tions by  men  in  the  humbler  spheres  of  life  were  regarded,  even  by 
men  of  sound  legal  knowledge,  as  a  departure  from 
Workingmen     common  usage,  which  ought  to  be  considered  as  a 

T^^f-.i  "^j  X  combination  against  wealth  and  rank,  and  contrary 

Entitled  to  ,.,.,..  '  ,    , 

Organize.  *^  common  law,  for  which  opmions  they  pretended 

to  have  many  strong  judicial  precedents  to  sustain 
them.  But  already  have  the  true  principles  of  political  knowledge 
spread  almost  with  the  celerity  of  sound,  and  stamp  the  im^prove- 
ments  of  the  age.  All  that  dread  of  danger  has  disappeared  and 
given  place  to  more  congenial  feelings ;  so  much  so  that  it  has  now 
become  the  duty  of  the  working  classes  to  watch  the  employment 
of  capital  in  the  hands  of  the  speculator.  Indeed,  it  is  an  important 
object  for  the  study  of  legislators,  to  restrain  the  capitalist  in  his 
wild  career  of  gain,  that  he  may  not  injure  the  poor  mechanic  in  the 
line  of  his  profession .  Should  this  maxim  be  overlooked ,  the  wealthy  of 
this  land  may  increase  in  riches,  but  the  most  abject  poverty  and  dis- 
tress will  be  sure  to  follow  in  the  track.  Does  it  not  then  become  the 
industrious  mechanic  to  protect  himself  and  family  from  pauperism, 
by  adopting  a  mode  of  defense  which  will  cause  a  more  general  dis- 
tribution of  that  property  which  is  produced  by  his  hard  earnings?" 
Warfare  against  the  association  was  carried  on  by  some  employers, 
the  address  contended,  "  by  th?  service  of  boys,  raising  six  or  eight 
at  a  time  for  a  few  years,  to  subserve  their  nefarious 
Evils  of  purposes,  and  then  cast  them  on  the  profession  for 

Surplus  support.      By  this  means  they  continually  keep  the 

Boy  Labor.      stream  flowing  into  the  larger  cities,  driving  the 
journejmien  from  their  situations  to  make  room  for 
those  youths  who  will  labor  for  a  mere  pittance  to  obtain  a  livelihood, 
and  hence  become  an  object  to  some  avaricious  employers  —  incon- 


PIONEER   NATIONAL   TYPOGRAPHICAL    CONVENTION.  159 

siderate  men.  This  we  consider  a  cruel  and  an  unjust  practice,  and 
are  determined  as  far  as  lies  in  our  power  to  meet  the  evil  with  energy 
and  firmness.  We  call  upon  each  local  society  to  unite  with  us  in 
denouncing  it,  and  upon  every  parent  or  guardian  to  protect  the 
interest  of  their  charge  by  compelling  their  boys  to  be  regularly 
bound  as  apprentices,  and  to  be  taught  a  full  knowledge  of  their 
business,  and  not  to  allow  them  to  be  thrown  into  the  company  of 
immoral  and  profligate  youths,  encouraged  by  receiving  more  money 
than  they  are  acquainted  with  the  value  of." 

In  conclusion  the  craft  was  impressed  by  the  delegates  that, 
"  although  we  do  consider  it  the  duty  of  all  printers  to  join  and 
lend  their  aid  to  some  association,  we  would  rather  invite  than  use 
coercive  measures  to  induce  them  to  becomie  members.  We  would 
do  this  in  the  best  of  faith,  that  we  might  have  all  the  good  and  moral 
men  of  the  craft  enrolled  as  brothers  of  one  family,  and  none  to  stand 
aloof  but  the  unworthy  and  debased." 


III. 

New  York  Delegates  Report. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  New  York  association  on  November  26th  its 
representatives  presented  a  statement  of  the  most  prominent  meas- 
ures proposed  at  the  convention,  which  had  honored 
the  Metropolitan  organization  by  electing  Charles  From  New  York 
A.  Davis  temporary  chairman  and  corresponding  to  Washington 
secretary  and  John  L.  Brown  vice-president.  When  75  Years  Ago. 
the  union  convened  on  January  13,  1837,  the  dele- 
gates submitted  detailed  accounts  of  expenses  incurred  by  them. 
These  are  of  much  interest  in  this  age  of  rapid  transit  as  showing 
the  methods  and  cost  of  transportation  between  New  York  and 
Washington  75  years  ago,  besides  conveying  to  the  reader  some 
idea  of  the  time  consumed  in  making  what  was  then  considered  a 
distant  journey,  but  which  may  now  be  made  in  about  five  hours 
for  a  railroad  fare  of  $5.65.  A  railway  was  in  operation  between 
Baltim.ore  and  Washington  in  1836,  but  the  remainder  of  the  route 
had  to  be  traversed  on  two  steamboats  —  one  from  New  York  to 
Philadelphia  and  the  other  to  Baltimore,  whence  the  trip  was  com- 
pleted by  rail.  Including  necessary  stopovers  the  journey  of  the 
delegates  from  New  York  to  Washington  occupied  more  than  two 
and  one-half  days,  and  the  fare  alone  for  each  was  $9.50.  The 
\  following  transcript  is  from  the  minutes  of  the  association,  the  bills 


l6o  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

of  the  other  two  delegates  being  the  same  as  that  rendered  by  Mr. 
Davis,  and  they  generously  contributed  the  balance  of  $12  due  them 
to  the  treasury  of  the  association: 

Charles  A.  Davis  presented  a  statement  of  the  expenses  of  his  delegation  to 
Washington,  amounting  to  $49  —  $45  of  which  he  had  received  —  and  which 
is  as  follows: 

Nine  days'  time  at  the  rate  of  $io  per  week f  iS .  oo 

Porterage  to  steamboat .25 

Passage  to  Philadelphia 3.00 

Breakfast  and  dinner 1. 00 

Porterage  to  hotel .25 

Supper  and  lodging 1 .  00 

Porterage  to  steamboat .25 

Passage  to  Baltimore 4.00 

Breakfast  and  dinner i .  00 

Porterage  to  hotel .25 

Supper  and  lodging 1 .  00 

Porterage  to  railroad  car .25 

Fare  to  Washington 2.50 

Porterage  to  boarding  house .25 

Return  traveling  expenses  (particulars  as  above) IS .  00 

Board  in  Washington 4.00 

I49 . 00 

IV. 

Second  National  Conclave  of  Union  Printers. 

The  next  national  typographical  convention  met  in  the  City  Hall 
in  New  York  City  on  Monday,  September  4,  1837,  and  was  in  session 
until  Saturday,  the  9th.  Eight  societies  in  the  United  States  — 
Baltimore,  Cincinnati,  Harrisburg,  Mobile,  New  Orleans,  New  York, 
Philadelphia  and  Washington  —  were  represented,  and  a  fraternal 
delegate  from  Nova  Scotia  was  admitted  with  plenary  powers. 

Preparations  for  the  convention  were  begun  by  the  New  York 
association  on  June  28th,  when  the  Board  of  Directors  appointed  a 
committee  "  to  wait  on  the  Common  Council  for 
Convention        the  purpose  of  obtaining  a  room  for  the  meeting 
Held  in  New     of  the  National  Typographical  Society."     On  the 
York  City.         twelfth  of  August  the  committee  informed  the  direc- 
tors   that   "Alderman  R.  J.  Smith  and  Assistant 
Alderman  Snedecor,  of  the  Tenth  Ward,  had  presented  the  petition 
and  had  succeeded   in  obtaining   the  room."     Charles  A.  Davis, 
A.  V.  Stephens  and  William  H.  McCartney  were  chosen  delegates  on 
August  26th,  and  a  committee  of  ten  was  selected,  "  with  power,  to 
inquire  into  the  practicability  of  getting  up  a  public  dinner  to  the 
delegates  who  may  be  in  attendance." 


PIONEER   NATIONAL  TYPOGRAPHICAL   CONVENTION.  l6l 

Revision  of  the  constitution  was  the  initial  act  of  the  convention, 
amendments  being  made  "  to  accord  with  the  views  and  instructions 
of  the  several  members."     The  title  of  the  organiza- 
tion was  changed  to  the  National  Typographical      Revision 
Association.     It   was   made    "  the   duty   of   every      of  the 
member  of  any  association  or  society,  on  arriving      Constitution, 
in  a  place  from  another  section  of  country,  to  wait 
on  some  one  connected  with  the  association  and  show  his  card ;  said 
member  waited  on  to  introduce,  as  soon  as  practicable,  the  stranger 
among  his  craftsmen  of  the  association,  for  examination  of  card." 
Local  unions  were  required  to  pay  annually  into  the  national  treasury 
25  per  cent  of  the  whole  amount  received  by  them,  this  fund  to  be 
used  "  for  defraying  the  expenses  of  the  attendance  of  their  dele- 
gates and  other  necessary  expenditures." 

Among  the  general  laws  passed  by  the  convention  were  these 
important  regulations : 

After  January  i,  1839,  it  shall  not  be  lawful  for  any  local  society  to  permit 
members  of  said  society  to  work  in  any  office  where  boys  may  be  taken  as  appren- 
tices to  the  printing  business,  to  serve  for  a  less  period  than  five  years. 

After  January  i,  1844,  it  shall  not  be  lawful  for  any  local  society  to  consider 
any  applicant  for  membership  unaccompanied  by  sufficient  proof  that  he  had 
served  the  period  of  five  years  as  a  regularly  indented  apprentice  at  the  printing 
business. 

The  convention  adjovimed  on  Saturday,  September  9th,  with  the 
understanding  that  the  next  conclave  should  convene  in  Pittsburgh 
in  September,  1838,  but  on  August  loth  of  that  year  the  Board  of 
Control,  "  at  the  earnest  solicitation  of  a  number  of  delegates  and 
societies,"  postponed  the  meeting  in  Pittsburgh  until  the  "  first 
Monday  of  September,  1839,  at  which  time  and  place  it  is  fondly 
expected  the  representatives  from  the  different  societies  will  be  in 
attendance. ' '  It  is  uncertain  as  to  whether  the  postponed  convention 
was  held,  no  record  of  it  having  been  found. 
6 


CHAPTER  XII. 
FIRST  GENERAL  TRADES  UNION  ORGANIZED. 

PRINTERS  were  the  first  of  the  trades  to  suggest  the  formation 
of  a  central  body  of  organized  workingmen  in  New  York 
City.     Their  association  on  June  22,  1833,  adopted  a  resolu- 
tion   ordering    the    appointment   of    a   committee    of    three    "  to 
draft  a  circular  to  the  different  mechanics  of   this   city,   in  the 
name  of  this  association,   to   join  in  a   Union  of 
Printers  Suggest  Trades."     Consonant   with   these   instructions  the 
Original  Central   committee  soon  afterward  sent  the  following  to  all 
Labor  Union.        i^^q  trade  unions  that  were  then  in  existence  in  the 
city: 

To  the  Journeymen  Mechanics  and  Artisans  of  New  York: 

The  time  has  now  arrived  for  the  mechanics  of  our  city  to  arise  in  their  strength 
and  determine  that  they  will  no  longer  submit  to  the  thralldom  which  they  have 
patiently  borne  for  many  years,   nor  suffer  employers  to 
Decided  appropriate  an  undue  share  of  the  avoir  [just  dues]  of  the 

Conviction  of         laborer  to  his  disadvantage.     This  is  evident  from  the  noble 
Its  Utility.  a,nd  energetic  efforts  which  they  recently  made  to  sustain 

their  brethren,  the  Independent  Journeymen  House  Car- 
penters, when  demanding  their  rights.  They  have  now  become  alive  to  the 
necessity  of  combined  efforts  for  the  purpose  of  self -pro  taction;  and  a  few  enter- 
prising men  have  determined  to  call  a  meeting  to  effect  a  General  Union 
of  the  Journeymen  Mechanics  and  Artisans  of  every  branch  in  this  city. 
On  account  of  the  many  facilities  which  printers  possess  for  disseminating  informa- 
tion and  their  decided  conviction  of  its  utility,  the  Typographical  Association 
of  New  York  appears  destined  to  take  the  lead  in  this  grand  movement,  and  its 
members,  as  far  as  in  their  power,  will  use  their  utmost  endeavors  to  consummate 
s:  desirable  an  object.  The  committee,  therefore,  submit  the  following  as  their 
view  of  the  manner  in  which  the  design  may  be  attained: 

1.  Let  each  society,  trade  or  art  in  the  city  call  a  meeting  of  its  members  and 
appoint  three  delegates  to  meet  in  general  convention,  to  hold  office  for  one 
year. 

2.  For  the  purpose  of  enabling  this  convention  to  render  efficient  aid  in  case 

they  should  be  called  on  by  any  branch  of  mechanics  or 
Efficient  artisans  who  may  be  there  represented,  a  capitation  tax  of 

Aid  to  All  I  cent,  or  more,  per  week,  shall  be  levied  on  every  journey- 

Branches,  man  in  the  city,  which  in  case  of  strike  shall  entitle  all  pay- 

ing it  to  such  sum  weekly  as  the  convention  may  determine 
can  be  afforded  from  the  funds. 

[162I 


FIRST   GENERAL   TR.\DES    UNION   ORGANIZED.  163 

3.  When  the  members  of  any  trade  or  art  shall  feel  aggrieved,  and  wish  to 
advance  their  wages,  they  shall,  by  their  delegates,  make  a  representation  of 
their  grievances  to  the  convention,  who  shall  deliberate  on 
the  same  and  determine  whether  or  not  it  is  then  expedient  Methods 

for  the  members  of  such  trade  to  demand  an  advance;  and  of  Defense 

should  they  determine  that  a  resort  to  a  strike  is  necessary.  Outlined. 

then  all  of  this  trade  who  shall  have  contributed  to  the  funds 
their  regular  quota  shall  be  entitled  to  receive  a  specific  sum  until  their  difficulties 
are  adjusted. 

If  a  combination  of  employers  should  in  any  manner  be  entered  into,  to  reduce 
the  present  rate  of  wages,  the  convention  shall  be  always  bound  to  the  extent 
of  their  means  to  sustain  the  journeymen  in  their  efforts  to  repel  all  such  attempts. 

This  committee  would  respectfully  suggest  that  the  first  meeting  of  delegates 
should  take  place  on  Monday,  July  15,  1833,  at  7  o'clock  p.  M.,  at  Stoneall's, 
corner  of  Fulton  and  Nassau  streets. 

All  trades  approving  the  sentiments  of  this  circular  will  please  to  appoint  their 
delegates  accordingly,  and  address  a  note  signifying  the  same,  with  the  names 
of  their  delegates,  to  either  of  the  undersigned  committee. 

John  Finch, 
Edward  S.  Bellamy, 

WiLLOUGHBY   LyNDE. 

Three  delegates  were  elected  on  July  13th  by  the  Typographical 
Association  to  represent  it  in  the  proposed  central  body.  They 
were  Ely  Moore,  Billings  Hay  ward  and  John  W.  Moulton.  At  the 
initial  convention  on  July  isth  nine  trade  societies  were  represented 
and  three  others  communicated  by  letter  their  approval  of  the 
formation  of  the  General  Trades  Union,  the  first  president  of  which 
was  Ely  Moore,  the  other  officers  being:  Henry  Walton,  vice-presi- 
dent; James  McBeath,  recording  secretary;  John  H.  Bowie,  cor- 
responding secretary;  Robert  Townsend,  Jr.,  treasurer;  Robert 
Beatty,  William  McDonald,  J.  D.  Person,  Wilham  B.  Paddon,  Lewis 
Thomas  Jones,  Joseph  Parsons,  Finance  Committee.  Before  Sep- 
tember ist  delegates  from  sixteen  unions  were  seated  in  the  newly- 
formed  organization.  A  constitution  was  adopted  by  the  convention 
and  ratified  by  its  component  associations.  The  preamble  to  this 
fundamental  law  set  forth  the  aims  of  its  framers  in  these  words: 

Whenever  a  number  of  men  unite  themselves,  whether  it  be  for  the  purpose  of 
revolutionizing  public  opinion,  or  the  promotion  of  their  own  interests,  it  is 
proper  that  they  should  state  the  causes  and  considerations  which  urge  them  to 
such  union. 

We,  the  journeymen  artisans  and  mechanics  of  the  City  of  New  York  and  its 
vicinity,  therefore  —  believing  as  we  do,  that  in  proportion  as  the  line  of  distinc- 
tion between  the  employer  and  employed  is  widened,  the  condition  of  the  latter 
inevitably  verges  towards  a  state  of  vassalage,  whilst  that  of  the  former  as  cer- 
tainly approximates  towards  supremacy ;  and  that  whatever  system  is  calculated 
to  make  the  many  dependent  upon,  or  subject  to,  the  few,  not  only  tends  to  the 


164  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION   NUMBER    SIX. 

subversion  of  the  natural  rights  of  man,  but  is  hostile  to  the  best  interests  of  the 
community  at  large,  as  well  as  to  the  spirit  and  genius  of  our  Government — 
deem  it  expedient,  in  order  to  guard  against  the  encroachments  of  aristocracy, 
to  preserve  our  natural  and  political  rights,  to  promote  our  pecuniary  interest, 
and  to  establish  the  honor  and  safety  of  our  respective  vocations  upon  a  more 
secure  and  permanent  basis,  to  form  ourselves  into  a  General  Union,  and  do 
agree  to  adopt  for  our  government  the  following  constitution. 

Among  other  things  the  constitution  provided  for  the  repre- 
sentation of  each  union  in  the  convention  by  three  delegates,  to  hold 
office  for  one  year;  that  "  each  trade  or  art  may  represent  to  the 
convention,  through  their  delegates,  their  grievances,  who  shall  take 
cognizance  thereof  and  decide  upon  the  same;"  and  that  "  no  trade 
or  art  shall  strike  for  higher  wages  than  they  at  present  receive, 
without  the  sanction  of  the  convention."  Dues  were  fixed  at  6j 
cents  monthly  per  union  member. 

The  first  report  of  the  proceedings  of  the  General  Trades  Union 
that  was  received  by  the  Typographical  Association  was  made  on 
October  19th  by  Billings  Hayward,  who  thus  interestingly  described 
the  opening  sessions : 

A  meeting  was  held  at  Mr.  Stoneall's  on  the  night  designated  in  the  circular 
by  which  they  were  convened,  at  which  delegates  from  most  of  the  influential 
societies  and  associations  attended.  The  call  of  the  circular  was  approved,  and 
a  resolution  entered  into  that  its  objects  be  carried  into  effect  by  the  organization 
of  themselves  into  a  body  to  be  called  the  General  Trades  Union. 

At  an  adjourned  meeting  of  the  delegates,  held  at  Mr.  Cronly's,  a  committee 
was  appointed  to  draft  a  constitution  for  its  government,  which  after  much 
deliberation  was  finally  adopted  by  the  convention;  and  we  are  happy  to  add 
that  it  has  since  received  the  approbation  of  most  of  the  societies  and  associa- 
tions represented  therein. 

It  has  been  determined  by  the  convention  that  (should  it  meet  the  approba- 
tion of  their  constituents)  to  celebrate  the  union  of  the  trades  in  a  manner  com- 
mensurate with  the  advantages  so  ardently  expected  to  be  derived  from  it,  and 
which  there  is  every  prospect  of  realizing.  With  this  view  a  committee  was 
appointed  by  the  convention  to  select  a  suitable  place  for  the  celebration,  which 
reported  in  favor  of  Chatham  Street  Chapel,  where  it  is  contemplated  by  the 
convention  to  meet  with  their  constituents  on  the  afternoon  of  the  twenty-fifth 
November.  Mr.  Ely  Moore  has  been  appointed  to  deliver  an  address.  As  it 
is  contemplated  to  form  in  procession  in  the  park  and  march  from  thence  to  the 
chapel,  arrangements  have  been  made  to  procure  a  banner  for  the  General  Trades 
Union,  upon  which  will  be  represented  some  distinguishing  tool  or  implement 
peculiar  to  each  trade  or  art  belonging  to  the  union;  and  it  is  expected  that  all 
the  societies  who  have  thus  united  for  the  protection  of  their  mutual  rights  will 
appear  on  this  occasion  with  their  several  banners  and  badges  to  do  honor  to 
the  day. 

Delegates  Hajrward  and  Moulton  gave  further  details  concerning 
the  contemplated  celebration  of  the  founding  of  the  General  Trades 


FIRST   GENERAL   TRADES   UNION   ORGANIZED.  165 

Union  at  a  meeting  of  the  printers'  association  on  November  i6th. 
They  reported  that  the  order  of  the  day  had  been  agreed  to  — 
"  the  line  to  be  formed  in  the  park  at  12  o'clock,  from  whence  the 
procession  will  take  up  their  march  through  Broadway  to  Broome 
street;  up  Broome  street  to  the  Bowery,  to  the  Chatham  Street 
Chapel,  where  an  address  will  be  delivered  by  Ely  Moore,  Esq.,  after 
which  the  members  will  again  proceed  to  the  park,  where  they  will 
give  three  cheers  and  be  dismissed.  It  affords  the  undersigned 
much  pleasure  to  be  enabled  to  state  that  present  indications 
warrant  the  belief  that  the  contemplated  display  will  by  far  exceed 
anything  of  the  kind  which  has  been  got  up  since  the  French 
celebration,  both  in  point  of  numbers  and  brilliancy  of  appearance; 
and  as  the  right  of  the  procession  has  been  assigned  to  our 
association,  from  whose  body  the  orator  has  been  selected,  and  as 
the  press,  the  emblem  of  our  profession,  occupies  the  most  exalted 
place  on  the  grand  banner  of  the  imion,  we  are  called  upon  by 
more  than  ordinary  motives  to  fill,  with  credit  to  ourselves  and 
the  procession  which  we  shall  head,  the  place  which  has  been 
assigned  to  us." 

Commemoration    of     the    auspicious    event    was    postponed    to 
Monday,  December  2d,  on  which  date  some  4,000  members  of  21 
trades    unions    participated.     Fifty    banners   were 
displayed   in    the    parade,    including    the    General    Auspicious 
Trades    Union    ensign,    depicted    as    a    "  tasteful    Event 
painting  representing  Archimedes  raising  the  globe    Commemorated. 
with  a  fore-sharpened  lever  resting  on  the  peak 
of  a  mountain  for  a  fulcrum."     The  masterly  address  by  Ely  Moore 
was  applauded  by   the  assemblage  throughout  its  delivery.     He 
spoke  as  follows : 

Fellow-Mechanics: — We  have  assembled  on  the  present  occasion  for  the 
purpose  of  pubHcly  proclaiming  the  motives  which  induced  us  to  organize  a 
general  union  of  the  various  trades  and  arts  in  this  city  and  its  vicinity,  as  well 
as  to  defend  the  course,  and  to  vindicate  the  measure  we  design  to  pursue.  This 
is  required  of  us  by  a  due  regard  to  the  opinions  of  our  fellow-men. 

We  conceive  it  then  to  be  a  truth,  enforced  and  illustrated  by  the  concurrent 
testimony  of  history  and  daily  observation,  that  man  is  disposed  to  avail  himself 
of  the  possessions  and  services  of  his  fellow-man,  without  rendering  an  equivalent, 
and  to  prefer  claims  to  that  which  of  right  belongs  to  another.  This  may  be 
considered  a  hard  saying,  but  we  have  only  to  turn  our  eyes  inward  and  examine 
ourselves,  in  order  to  admit  to  the  full  extent  the  truth  of  the  proposition,  that 
man  by  nature  is  selfish  and  aristocratic.  Self-love  is  constitutional  with  man, 
and  is  displayed  in  every  stage  and  in  all  the  diversities  of  life;  in  youth  and  in 
manhood,  in  prosperity  and  in  adversity.  It  not  only  discovers  itself  in  the 
strifes  and  contentions  of  states  and  empires  but  in  the  smallest  fraternities  — 


l66  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

in  the  factory  and  the  workshop  —  in  the  village  school  and  the  family  circle- 
In  fact,  wherever  society  exists,  however  small  the  number,  or  rude  the  members, 
you  will  find  self-love  stimulating  to  a  contest  for  power  and  dominion.  This 
prevailing  disposition  of  the  human  heart,  so  far  from  being  an  evil  in  itself, 
IS  one  of  the  elements  of  life  and  essential  to  the  welfare  of  society.  The  selfish 
generate  the  social  feelings.  It  is  only  pernicious  in  its  tendency  and  operation, 
therefore,  when  it  passes  its  true  and  natural  bonds,  and  urges  man  to  encroach 
upon  the  rights  and  immunities  of  man. 

In  order  to  mitigate  the  evils  that  ever  flow  from  inordinate  desire  and  unre- 
stricted selfishness,  to  restrain  and  chastise  unlawful  ambition,  to  protect  the 
weak  against  the  strong,  and  to  establish  an  equilibrium  of 
Restrain  power  among  nations  and  individuals  conventional  compacts 

Unlawful  were  formed.     These   confederate   associations   have    never 

Ambition.  been  fully  able  to  stay  the  march  of  intolerance,  of  mercenary 

ambition  or  of  political  despotism.  Even  in  this  fair  land 
of  freedom,  where  liberty  and  equality  are  guaranteed  to  all,  and  where  our 
written  constitutions  have  so  wisely  provided  limitations  to  power,  and  securities 
for  rights,  the  twin  fiends,  intolerance  and  aristocracy,  presume  to  rear  their 
hateful  crests!  But  we  have  no  cause  to  marvel  at  this.  Wherever  man  exists 
under  whatever  form  of  government,  or  whatever  be  the  structure  or  organization 
of  society,  this  principle  of  his  nature,  selfishness,  will  appear,  operating  either 
for  evil  or  for  good.  To  curb  it  sufficiently  by  legislative  enactments  is  impos- 
sible. Much  can  be  done,  however,  towards  restraining  it  within  proper  limits, 
by  unity  of  purpose  and  concert  of  action  on  the  part  of  the  producing  classes. 
To  contribute  towards  the  achievement  of  this  great  end  is  one  of  the  objects  of 
the  General  Trades  Union.  Wealth,  we  all  know,  constitutes  the  aristocracy 
of  this  country.  Happily  no  distinctions  are  known  among  us  save  what  wealth 
and  worth  confer.  No  legal  barriers  are  erected  to  protect  exclusive  privileges, 
or  unmerited  rank.  The  law  of  primogeniture  forms  no  part  of  American  juris- 
prudence; and  our  Revolution  has  converted  all  feudal  tenures  into  allodial  rights. 
The  greatest  danger,  therefore,  which  threatens  the  stability 
An  Undue  o^  ^^^  Government,  and  the  liberty  of  the  people,  is  an  undue 

Accumulation         accumulation  and  distribution  of  wealth.     And  I  do  conceive 
of  Wealth.  ^jj^^  j-g^j  danger  is  to  be  apprehended  from  this  source,  not- 

withstanding that  tendency  to  distribution  which  naturally 
grows  out  of  the  character  of  our  statutes  of  conveyance,  of  inheritance,  and 
descent  of  poverty;  but  by  securing  to  the  producing  classes  a  fair,  certain  and 
equitable  compensation  for  their  toil  and  skill,  we  insure  a  more  just  and  equal 
distribution  of  wealth  than  can  ever  be  effected  by  statutory  law. 

Unlike  the  septennial  reversion  of  the  Jews,  or  the  agrarian  law  of  Rome, 
the  principle  for  which  we  contend  holds  out  to  individuals  proper  motives  for 
exertion  and  enterprise.  We  ask,  then,  what  better  means  can  be  devised  for 
promoting  a  more  equal  distribution  of  wealth,  than  for  the  producing  classes 
to  claim,  and,  by  virtue  of  union  concert,  secure  their  claims  to  their  respective 
portions?  And  why  should  not  those  who  have  the  toil  have  enjoyment  also? 
Or  why  should  the  sweat  that  flows  from  the  brow  of  the  laborer  be  converted 
into  a  source  of  revenue  for  the  support  of  the  crafty  or  indolent? 

It  has  been  averred  with  great  truth  that  all  governments  become  cruel  and 
aristocratical  in  their  character  and  bearing  in  proportion  as  one  part  of  the  com- 
munity is  elevated  and  the  other  depressed;  and  that  misery  and  degradation 


FIRST    GENERAL   TRADES    UNION    ORGANIZED.  167 

to  the  many  is  the  inevitable  result  of  such  a  state  of  society.     And  we  regard 
to  be  equally  true  that  in  proportion  as  the  line  of  distinction  between  the 
employer  and  employed  is  widened  the  condition  of  the  latter 
inevitably  verges  towards  a  state  of  vassalage,  while  that  of       objects  of 
the  former  as  certainly  approximates  towards  supremacy,  and       the  General 
that  whatever  system  is  calculated  to  make  the  many  depend-       Trades  Union, 
ent  upon  or  subject  to  the  few  not  only  tends  to  the  subver- 
sion of  the  natural  rights  of  man,  but  is  hostile  to  the  best  interests  of  the  com- 
munity as  well  as  to  the  spirit  and  genius  of  our  Government.     Fully  persuaded 
that  the  foregoing  positions  are  incontrovertible,  we,  in  order  to  guard  against  the 
encroachments  of  aristocracy,  to  preserve  our  natural  and  political  rights,  to 
elevate  our  moral  and  intellectual  condition,  to  promote  our  pecuniary  interests, 
to  narrow  the  line  of  distinction  between  the  journeymen   and  employer,  to 
establish  the  honor  and  safety  of  our  respective  vocations  upon  a  more  secure 
and  permanent  basis,  and  to  alleviate  the  distress  of  those  suffering  from  want 
of  employment,  have  deemed  it  expedient  to  form  ourselves  into  a  General 
Trades  Union. 

It  may  be  asked  how  these  desirable  objects  are  to  be  achieved  by  a  general 
union  of  trades?  How  the  encroachments  of  aristocracy,  for  example,  are  to 
be  arrested  by  our  plan?  We  answer,  by  enabling  the  producer  to  enjoy  the 
full  benefits  of  his  productions  and  thus  diffuse  the  streams  of  wealth  more 
generally,  and  consequently  more  equally,  throughout  all  the  ramifications  of 
society.  This  point  conceded,  and  conceded  it  must  be,  it  is  not  requisite,  we 
conceive,  that  the  line  of  investigation  should  be  dropped  very  deep  in  order  to 
bring  it  up  tinged  with  proof  that  the  verity  of  our  position  necessarily  follows. 
But  for  the  particular  means  by  which  the  several  objects  just  enumerated  are 
to  be  attained  we  beg  leave  to  refer  to  our  constitution  and  to  our  general 
plan  of  organization. 

There  are  doubtless  many  individuals  who  are  resolved,  right  or  wrong,  to 
misrepresent  our  principles,  implead  our  measures  and  impugn  our  motives.     Be 
it  so.     They  can  harm  us  not.     Let  them  if  they  please  draw 
the  vengeful  bow  to  the  very  double,  and  let  fly  the  barbed    Misrepresentation 
arrows  —  the  temper  and  amplitude  of  the  shield  of  the  union,    of  Union 
we  trust,   will  be  found  sufficient  to   ward  off  the  stroke.    Principles. 
Their  shafts,  though  winged  by  hate  and  hurled  with  their 
utmost  strength,  will  scarcely  reach  the  mark;  but, like  the  spent  javelin  of  aged 
Priam,  fall  to  the  ground  without  a  blow.     We  have  the  consolation  of  knowing 
that  all  good  men  —  all  who  love  their  country  and  rejoice  in  the  improvement 
of  the  condition  of  their  fellow-men  —  will  acknowledge  the  policy  of  our  views 
and  the  purity  of  our  motives.     The  residue,  I  trust,  will  not  defame  us  with 
their  approbation.     Their  censure  we  can  endure,  but  their  praise  we  should 
regard  as  an  eternal  disgrace.     And  why,  let  me  ask,  should  the  character  of  our 
union  be  obnoxious  to  censure?     Wherefore  is  it  wrong  in  principle?     Which  of 
its  avowed  objects  reprehensible?     What  feature  of  it  opposed  to  the  public 
good?     I  defy  the  ingenuity  of  man  to  point  to  a  single  measure  which  it  recog- 
nizes that  is  wrong  in  itself  or  in  its  tendencies.     What!  is  it  wrong  for  men  to 
unite  for  the  purpose  of  resisting  the  encroachments  of  aristocracy?     Wrong! 
to  restrict  the  principle  of  selfishness  to  its  proper  and  legitimate  bounds  and 
objects?     Wrong!  to  oppose  monopoly  and  mercenary  ambition?     Wrong!  to 
consult  the  interests  and  seek  the  welfare  of  the  producing  classes?     Wrong!  to 


l68  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

attempt  the  elevation  of  our  moral  and  intellectual  standing?  Wrong!  to  estab- 
lish the  honor  and  safety  of  our  respective  vocations  upon  a  more  secure  and 
permanent  basis?  I  ask  —  in  the  name  of  Heaven,  I  ask  —  can  it  be  wrong  for 
men  to  attempt  the  melioration  of  their  condition  and  the  preservation  of  their 
natural  and  political  rights?  I  am  aware  that  the  charge  of  "  illegal  combination  " 
is  raised  against  us.  The  cry  is  as  senseless  as  'tis  stale  and  unprofitable.  Why, 
I  would  inquire,  have  not  journeymen  the  same  right  to  ask 
Baseless  Cry  their  own   price   for   their  own   property,   or   services,   that 

of  Illegal  employers  have?     Or  that  merchants,  physicians,  and  lawyers 

Combination.  have?  Is  that  equal  justice  which  makes  it  an  offense  for 
journeymen  to  combine  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  their 
present  prices,  or  raising  their  wages,  while  employers  may  combine  with  impunity 
for  the  purpose  of  lowering  them?  I  admit  that  such  is  the  common  law.  All 
will  agree,  however,  that  it  is  neither  wise,  just,  nor  politic,  and  that  it  is  directly 
opposed  to  the  spirit  and  genius  of  our  free  institutions  and  ought  therefore  to 
be  abrogated. 

It  is  further  alleged  that  the  General  Trades  Union  is  calculated  to  encourage 
strikes  and  turn-outs.    Now,  the  truth  lies  in  the  converse.     Our  constitution  sets 
forth    that    "  each  trade  or  art  may  represent  to  the  con- 
Rights  of  vention,  through  their  delegates,  their  grievances,  who  shall 
Employers  take  cognizance  thereof  and  decide  upon  the  same."     And 
Not  Invaded.         further,  that  "  no  trade  or  art  shall  strike  for  higher  wages 
than  they  at  present  receive,  without  the  sanction  of  the  con- 
vention."    True,  if  the  convention  shall  after  due  deliberation  decide  that  the 
members  of  any  trade  or  art  there  represented  are  aggrieved,  and  that  their 
demands  are  warrantable,  then  the  convention  is  pledged  to  sustain  the  members 
of  such  trade  or  art  to  the  uttermost.     Hence,  employers  will  discover  that  it 
is  altogether  idle  to  prolong  a  contest  with  journeymen  when  they  are  backed 
by    the  convention.     And  journeymen  will  perceive  that  in  order  to  obtain 
assistance  from  the  convention  in  the  event  of  a  strike,  or  turn-out,  that  their 
claims  must  be  founded  in  justice  and  all  their  measures  be  so  taken  as  not  to 
invade  the  rights,  or  sacrifice  the  welfare  of  employers.     So  far  then  from  the 
union  encouraging  strikes  or  turn-outs,  it  is  destined,  we  conceive,  to  allay  the 
jealousies  and  abate  the  asperities  which  now  unhappily  exist  between  emploj'ers 
and  employed.     We  all  know  that  whenever  journeymen  stand  out  for  higher 
wages  the  public  are  sufferers,  as  well  as  the  parties  more  immediately  con- 
cerned.    The  Trades  Union,  we  conceive,  will  have  a  tendency  to  correct  this 
evil. 

Again,  it  is  alleged  that  it  is  setting  a  dangerous  precedent  for  journeymen 
to  combine  for  the  purpose  of  coercing  a  compliance  with  their  terms.  It  may, 
indeed,  be  dangerous  to  aristocracy  —  dangerous  to  monopoly  —  dangerous  to 
oppression  —  but  not  to  the  general  good,  or  the  public  tranquillity.  Internal 
danger  to  a  state  is  not  to  be  apprehended  from  a  general  effort  on  the  part  of 
the  people  to  improve  and  exalt  their  condition,  but  from  an  alliance  of  the  crafty, 
designing  and  intriguing  few.  What!  tell  us  in  this  enlightened  age  that  the 
welfare  of  the  people  will  be  endangered  by  a  voluntary  act  of  the  people  them- 
selves? That  the  people  will  wantonly  seek  their  own  destruction?  That  the 
safety  of  the  state  will  be  plotted  against  by  three-fourths  of  the  members  com- 
prising the  state !  O  how  worthless,  how  poor  and  pitiful,  are  all  such  arguments 
and  objections! 


FIRST   GENERAL  TRADES   UNION  ORGANIZED.  169 

Members  of  the  General  Trades  Union,  permit  me  to  caution  you  against 
the  wiles  and  perfidy  of  those  individuals  who  will  approach  you  as  friends,  but 
who,  in  reality  and  in  truth,  are  your  secret  enemies.     You 
will  know  them  by  this  sign:     An  attempt  to  excite  your       Wiles  and 
jealousy  against  certain  individuals,  who,  peradventure,  may       Perfidy  of 
stand  somewhat  conspicuous  among  you;  by  insinuations         ^'^®  Friends, 
that  these  men  have  ulterior  designs  to  accomplish;  that 
political  ambition  lies  at  the  root  of  the  whole  matter,  and  all  that.     This  will 
be  done,  recollect,  not  so  much  to  injure  the  individuals  against  whom  the  insinu- 
ations are  ostensibly  directed  as  to  abuse  you,  by  impairing  your  confidence  in 
the  union.     It  is  the  heart  of  the  union  at  which  these  assassins  aim  to  strike! 
'Tis  the  union,  your  political  safeguard,  that  they  would  prostrate!     'Tis  the 
union,  the  citadel  of  your  hopes,  that  they  would  sack  and  destroy!    I  entreat 
you,  therefore,  to  shun  such  counselors  as  you  would  pestilence.     Remember 
the  tragedy  in  the  Garden  of  Eden,  and  hold  no  communion  with  the  adversary. 
But  why  caution  you  thus,  when  your  own  good  sense  would  so  readily  teach 
you,  that  the  very  attempt  to  deceive  you  was  an  insult  to  your  understandings? 
Because,  did  they  not  presume  upon  your  ignorance  and  credulity,  they  would 
never  attempt  to  alienate  your  affections  from  the  union.     Remember,  then, 
fellow-mechanics,  that  the  man  who  attempts  to  seduce  you  from  your  duty 
to  yourselves,  to  your  families  and  your  brother  mechanics  by  misrepresenting 
the  objects  of  the  union,  offers  you  not  only  an  insult,  but  an  injury !     Remember ! 
that  those  defamers  would  exult  at  your  misfortune  —  would  "laugh  at  your 
calamity,  and  mock  when  your  fear  cometh."     Age  would  trample  down  your 
liberties,  and  rejoice  at  beholding  — 

The  seal  of  bondage  on  your  brows  — 
Its  badge  upon  your  breasts  1 

You  will  not  regard  it  as  ill-timed,  nor  irrelevant  to  the  present  occasion,  my 
friends,  should  I  invite  your  attention  for  a  moment  to  the  important  bearing 
which  the  useful  arts  have  upon  the  welfare  of  society.     In 
order  to  estimate  their  importance  correctly  it  is  necessary       Influence  of 
to  contemplate  the  condition  of  man  as  we  find  him  in  a       Mechanic  Arts 
state  of  nature,  where  the  arts  are  unknown  and  where  the       ^P°°  Society, 
lights  of  civilization   have  never  dawned   upon  his  path. 
Wherever  man  is  thus  situated,  we  find  him  a  creature  of  blind  impulse,  of  pas- 
sion and  of  instinct  —  of  groveling  hopes,  of  low  desires;  and  his  wants,  like  those 
of  the  brute,  supplied  only  by  the  spontaneous  productions  of  nature  —  his  only 
covering  a  scanty  supply  of  hair  —  his  food,  the  acorn  and  the  loathsome  insect  — 
the  cavern  his  dwelling,  the  earth  his  couch  and  the  rock  his  pillow!    The  supe- 
riority of  man's  condition,  therefore,  over  that  of  other  animals  is  attributable 
solely  to  the  influence  of  the  mechanic  arts.     Without  their  aid  the  native  powers 
of  his  mind,  however  great,  could  never  have  been  developed,  and  the  physical 
sciences,  which  he  has  been  enabled  to  master  in  a  state  of  civilization,  would 
have  still  been  numbered  among  the  secrets  of  nature.     What  progress,  for  ex- 
ample, could  he  have  made  in  the  science  of  astronomy  without  the  aid  of  the 
telescope?     In  chemistry,  without  the  retort  and  receiver?     In  anatomy  and 
surgery,  without  the  knife  and  the  tourniquet?      In  agriculture,  without  the 
hoe  and  the  mattock,  the  spade  and  the  plough,  the  scythe  and  the  pruning 
hook? 


I70  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Who  were  the  pioneers  of  the  West?     What  class  of  society  prepared  the  way 

for  the  agriculturist,  the  merchant  and  the  professional  man?     Were  they  not 

artificers?     Was  not  the  forest  made  to  bow  beneath  the 

Artificers  stroke    of   the  axe?   the  stubborn  glebe  to  yield  to  the  hoe 

Pave  the  Way       and  ploughshare?     Was  not  the  harvest  gathered  with  the 

to  Progress.  rake  and  the  reaping  hook?  the  grain  converted  into  flour 

by  the  mill  and  mortar?  and  the  raw  material  into  fabrics 

by  the  wheel  and  the  loom,  and  fashioned  into  garments  with  the  shears  and  the 

needle?     The  game  of  the  forest  and  of  the  prairie  secured  with  the  trap  and  the 

rifle?     The  habitation  erected  by  means  of  the  trowel,  the  hammer  and  the  saw? 

Unquestionably,  without  the  agency  of  the  arts  the  adventurer  must  have  returned 

disappointed  or  perished  in  the  enterprise.     Place  man  without  a  knowledge  of 

the  arts  and  their  uses  in  a  country  with  a  rigid  climate,  a  stubborn  and  ungrateful 

soil,  and  want,  starvation,  and  death  must  be  his  destiny.     No  country  can  be 

cleared  or  settled,  nor  colony  founded  without  the  aid  of  the  mechanical  arts. 

First  settlers,  therefore,  are  as  much  dependent  upon  the  useful  arts  for  their 

subsistence,  comfort  and  welfare  as  are  the  plants  of  the  field  for  their  life  and 

growth  upon  the  light  of  the  sun  and  the  dews  of  Heaven ! 

I  will  no  longer  detain  you  on  this  part  of  my  subject,  but  in  conclusion  will 
merely  observe  that  the  culture  of  the  mechanic  arts  is  not  only  calculated  to 
elicit,  expand  and  invigorate  the  inventive  faculties  of  man  —  to  strengthen 
his  natural  imbecility  —  inform  his  natural  ignorance,  and  enrich  his  natural 
poverty;  but  also  to  advance  his  morals,  refine  his  manners,  and  elevate  his 
character. 

My  object  in  inviting  you  to  a  consideration  of  this  subject  at  the  present 
time  is  to  impress  upon  your  minds  the  importance  of  the  situation  which  you 
in  reality  ought  to  occupy  in  society.     This  you  seem  to 
Workingmen  have  lost  sight  of  in  a  very  great  degree;  and  from  some 

Unconscious  of  cause  or  other  have  relinquished  your  claim  to  that  con- 
Their  Worth.  sideration  to  which  as  mechanics  and  as  men  you  are  entitled. 
You  have,  most  unfortunately  for  yourselves,  and  for  the 
respectability  of  your  vocations,  become  apparently  unconscious  of  your  own 
worth,  and  been  led  to  regard  your  callings  as  humble  and  inferior  and  your 
stations  as  too  subordinate  in  life.  Why  should  the  producer  consider  himself 
inferior  to  the  consumer?  Or  why  should  the  mechanic  who  builds  a  house 
consider  himself  less  important  than  the  owner  or  occupant?  It  is  strange 
indeed,  and  to  me  perfectly  unaccountable,  that  the  artificer  who  prepares  the 
accommodations,  the  comforts,  the  embellishments  of  life,  should  consider  himself 
of  less  consequence  than  those  to  whose  pleasure  and  convenience  he  ministers. 
It  was  observed  by  some  one  of  the  olden  time,  that  "  a  man's  pretensions  was 
the  standard  by  which  the  world  judged  of  his  merits."  Were  you  to  be  judged 
by  this  standard,  my  friends,  your  merits,  I  apprehend,  would  be  somewhat 
difficult  to  find.  Do  not  consider,  from  these  observations,  however,  that  I 
would  urge  you  to  put  forth  claims  that  are  not  well  founded,  or  make  pre- 
tensions to  that  to  which  you  are  not  entitled.  Far  from  it.  I  merely  wish 
you  to  take  a  fair  estimate  of  your  worth  and  importance  —  but  not  to  overrate 
yourselves  or  your  callings.  I  would  have  you  remember,  however,  that  when  a 
man  sinks  in  his  own  estimation  he  is  sure  to  sink  also  in  the  estimation  of  the 
world.  And  just  so  in  relation  to  any  occupation  or  calling  in  life.  If  those  who 
follow  it  confess  it  to  be  degrading,  the  world  is  sure  to  consider  it  in  no  better, 
but  generally  in  a  worse  light. 


FIRST   GENERAL  TRADES   UNION   ORGANIZED.  171 

In  order  to  be  convinced  of  the  blessings  conferred  upon  society  by  means  of 
the  useful  arts,  we  have  only  to  look  around  us  for  a  moment.  But  like  all 
blessings  familiar  to  us,  they  are  not  properly  appreciated;  and  the  services  of 
those  who  practice  them,  like  the  services  of  all  common  benefactors,  are  vastly 
underrated. 

The  art  of  printing  has  perhaps  contributed  more  essentially  to  the  welfare 
of  mankind,  to  the  advancement  of  society,  and  to  the  promotion  and  diffusion 
of  political,  physical  and  ethical  truths,  than  all  the  arts 
beside.     It  is  in  fact  an  art  that  is  "  preservative  of  all  arts."  Printing 

Wherever  it  is  known  and  encouraged  the  progressive  im-  Preserves 

provement  of  society  is  certain,  and  the  march  of  mind  ^"  ^^3-  ' 

secure  and  unembarrassed.     But  where  the  press  has  never 
shed  its  light  or  dispensed  its  intellectual  treasures  the  night  of  ignorance  and 
the  gloom  of  superstition  rest  upon  the  soul  and  obscure  the  intellect  of  man; 
and  should  it  be   struck  from  existence,  with  its  rich  treasures  of  instruction, 
the  world  ere  long  would  be  merged  in  night  and  barbarism 

The  invention  of  the  mariner's  compass,  or  rather  the  discovery  of  that  mystic 
and  incomprehensible  law  which  gives  polarity  to  the  needle,  claims  to  be  ranked, 
on  account  of  its  importance,  next  to  the  press.     The  navigator 
is  no  longer  compelled  to  keep  the  coast  within  view  in  order        utility  of 
to  steer  his  course  aright,  but  now  seeks  the  middle  of  the        the  Mariner's 
ocean  with  confidence  and  security;  nor  does  it  require  a        Compass, 
period  of  ten  years,  as  in  the  days  of  Ulysses  and  ^neas,  to 
make  a  voyage  from  Ilium  to  the  island  of   Ithaca,   or    the   shores  of  Italy. 
Neither  does  the  modern  navigator  require  a  Palinurus,  as  did  the  pious  Trojan 
of  old,  to  stand  at  the  helm  and  observe  the  stars  of  Heaven.     He  possesses  in 
the  compass  a  safer  guide  than  either  Orion  or  Arturus.     But  for  the  compass 
those  geographical  limits,  which  from  the  dawn  of  creation  had  concealed  one- 
half  of  the  world  from  the  other,  had  never  been  passed;  and  America,  perhaps, 
at  this  moment  would  have  been  a  pathless  world  of  woods  made  vocal  by  the 
serpent's  hiss,  the  panther's  scream,  and  the  wild  man's  terrific  yell;  and  per- 
chance here  —  even  on  this  consecrated  spot,  where  now  stands  the  temple  of  the 
living  God  —  the  wild  fox  would  have  made  his  den,  or  the  red  man  his  habitation! 

The  steam  engine  next  takes  rank  in  point  of  importance.     Its  effects  on  the 
condition  of  society  are  of  incalculable  importance.     In  almost  every  branch 
of  the  arts  it  is  hailed  as  an  auxiliary.     Its  application  to 
nautical  purposes  is  of  greater  utility,  and  of  deeper  concern-       power  and 
ment  to  the  world  than  the  world  at  present  imagines.     It  is       Benefit  of  the 
an  agent  whose  power  and  influence  will  be  most  beneficially       Steam  Engine. 
felt  in  contributing  towards  the  preservation  of  the  American 
Union  by  overcoming  those  physical  barriers  that  have  isolated  one  section  of 
our  country  from  the  other.     By  means  of  its  power  space  is  annihilated,  and  the 
inhabitants  from  the  extremes  of  the  Union  are  now  brought  into  frequent  and 
friendly  intercourse.     Let  it  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  neither  the  printing 
press,  nor  the  mariner's  compass,  nor  the  steam  engine  could  have  been  produced 
without  the  aid  of  the  common  mechanic.     The  toil  and  skill  of  the  artificer  in 
wood  and  iron  and  steel  were  requisite  to  their  completion.     The  square  and  the 
compass,  the  axe  and  the  plane,  the  hammer  and  the  anvil  were  all  indispensable 
to  their  production. 

Thus  far  I  have  confined  my  remarks  chiefly  to  the  mechanic  arts;  but  we 
must  not  stop  here;  the  field  we  have  entered  upon  embraces  a  still  wider  range. 


172  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

We  have  only  viewed  the  unadorned  parts,  and  the  furrow  ground.  The  gardens 
and  groves  of  flowers  and  of  beauty  we  have  yet  to  explore.  These  latter  belong 
to  the  genius  and  the  fine  arts  —  the  former  to  the  arts  of  want  and  necessity; 
yet  in  the  progress  of  civilization  and  improvement  they  become  in  a  thousand 
ways  so  intimately  blended  and  so  allied,  by  their  constant  association,  that 
their  connection  remains  fixed  and  inseparable;  and  it  is  difficult  to  treat  the  one 
without  some  reference  to  the  other. 

A  love  and  an  admiration  for  the  fine  arts  and  a  due  appreciation  of  their 
merits  tend  to  improve  the  mind  and  beget  in  it  the  principles  of  good  taste, 
order  and  refinement,  which  soon  exhibit  their  influence  in 
Fine  Arts  ^^e  increasing  excellence  of  everything  we  do,  contrive  or 

Improve  execute.     These  help,  also,  when  duly  cultivated,  to  augment 

the  Mind.  quj.  pleasures  and  happiness.     For  example,  there  is  a  paint- 

ing on  silk  representing  the  implements  employed  in  our 
various  pursuits,  displayed  in  the  form  of  a  circle  and  united  by  an  oaken  wreath. 
This  design,  as  you  all  know,  is  emblematical  of  the  Trades  Union.  This  then  is 
fine  arts  (and  a  noble  specimen  it  is  too).  What,  you  will  ask,  is  its  utility,  and 
how  can  it  inspire  pleasure?  Can  you  as  mechanics  and  artists  look  upon  that 
banner  without  being  reminded  of  your  united  strength?  Can  you  contemplate 
that  proud  emblem  of  your  union  and  your  power  without  feeling  the  secret 
emotions  of  pride  and  pleasure  steal  into  your  bosoms  and  throb  through  your 
hearts?  Can  you  witness  the  close  alliance  of  your  interests  and  your  welfare, 
as  there  represented,  and  not  feel  your  mutual  sympathies  and  friendship  and 
love  warmed  and  elevated  and  strengthened?  And  can  you  feel  all  this  and  say 
that  the  picture  has  no  utility?  that  it  imparts  no  pleasure?  There,  again,  is  a 
painting  on  canvas  representing  the  face  of  a  good  and  amiable  personage.  This 
is  also  fine  art.  Now  what  is  the  essence?  Not  flesh,  nor  bones  —  neither  is 
it  breath,  nor  life,  nor  spirit,  and  yet  it  has  the  expression  of  all  these.  What, 
then,  is  the  end  —  the  use — of  all  these  presentations?  Most  assuredly  it  is  a 
pleasure;  pleasure  too  of  the  noblest  and  most  exalted  character. 

We  will  now  examine  some  of  those  branches  of  the  fine  arts  which  have  a 
more  intimate  union  and  fellowship  with  the  arts  of  trade  and  manufacture. 
When  a  temple  or  other  public  edifice  is  to  be  erected  appli- 
Architect  and         cation  is  made  to  an  architect  for  a  design;  and  in  proportion 
Builder  Go  to  his  genius,  his  judgment  and  his  taste,  do  we  place  our 

Hand  in  Hand,  confidence  in  him.  He  gives  drawings  of  the  plan  elevation 
of  the  building,  together  with  all  its  appropriate  decorations, 
both  for  the  exterior  and  interior;  by  these  the  workmen  are  guided.  In  most 
instances  the  architect  is  employed  to  superintend  the  uprearing  of  the  struc- 
ture, and  he  goes  hand  in  hand  with  the  master  builder  until  every  part  of  the 
work  is  complete.  The  carver  and  the  stucco-worker  are  also  worthy  of  mention, 
and  come  in  for  their  share  of  praise  in  all  that  pertains  to  the  art  of  enrichment 
and  decoration.  If  niches  or  pedestals  are  reserved  for  statues  or  for  busts  an 
artist  of  a  noble  branch  is  called  in.  The  sculptor  is  applied  to  and  the  breathing 
images  from  his  chisel  beautify  and  give  a  richness  and  a  glory  to  the  whole 
edifice. 

Look  again  at  the  beautiful  wares  of  gold  and  of  silver  manufacture  and  of 
porcelain  and  furnitures.  In  them  we  discover  the  combined  skill  of  the  artist 
and  the  artisan;  while  our  eyes  dwell  with  pleasure  and  delight  upon  the  beautiful 
delineations  of  the  pencil  or  on  the  more  bold  reliefs  thrown  out  by  the  ingenious 
hand  of  the  ornamentalist. 


FIRST   GENERAL  TRADES   UNION   ORGANIZED.  I73 

In  the  productions  of  the  loom,  also,  we  behold  this  pleasing  alliance  of  the 
two  arts.     The  flowers  and  vines  of  ten  thousand  forms,  so  elegantly  and  grace- 
fully displayed  over  the  carpeting  of  our  floors,  on  the  uphol- 
stery of  our  windows  and  couch  of  sleep,  and  also  upon  the       pleasing 
garments   of  our  females,  all  attest  the  close  and  intimate       Productions 
connection  of  the  mechanic  arts  with  the  art  of  design,  the       "^  *^^  Loom, 
art  of  usefulness  and  necessity  with  those  of  taste,  elegance 
and  pleasure.     I  have  dwelt  the  longer  on  this  part  of  my  subject  in  order  that 
you  might  be  enabled  to  realize  more  fully  the  obligations  that  society  is  under 
to  you,  as  artists  and  mechanics,  as  well  as  to  impress  upon  your  understandings 
the  fact  of  the  mutual  dependency  of  the  various  trades  and  arts  upon  each  other. 
And,  my  friends,  it  is  important  for  you  to  bear  in  mind  that  your  interests  and 
welfare  are  as  closely  allied,  as  intimately  blended,  and  as  mutually  dependent 
one  upon  another  as  are  your  respective  pursuits. 

Once  more,  then,  permit  me  to  ask,  why  is  it  that  artists  and  mechanics  have 
so  far  lost  sight  of  the  importance  of  their  callings?  Why  is  it  that  those  who 
produce,  prepare  and  distribute  the  comforts,  the  pleasures 
and  conveniences  of  life  should  not  consider  themselves  Trades 
(what  they  really  are)  the  benefactors  of  mankind  and  assume  Consolidate 
that  station  in  society  to  which  their  callings  and  their  worth  '^^^"^  Strength, 
so  justly  entitle  them?  Do  you  marvel  at  it?  Do  you  think 
it  strange  and  mysterious?  You  need  not.  A  reason  can  be  readily  assigned 
why  other  classes  of  society  regard  you  as  their  inferiors.  Know,  then,  that  you 
have  by  your  servility  —  by  your  want  of  self-respect  —  by  your  lack  of  con- 
fidence in  yourselves,  and  in  each  other,  courted  your  present  standing.  You 
alone  have  been  instrumental  in  assigning  yourselves  the  subordinate  and  humil- 
iating station  in  society  of  which  you  now  complain.  You  have  long  had  the 
power  to  better  your  general  condition,  but  you  have  either  been  too  indolent 
or  too  careless  to  exercise  it.  Most  sincerely  do  I  congratulate  you  upon  your 
present  prospects.  Never  did  your  affairs  wear  so  cheering  an  aspect  as  at  present. 
You  have  at  length  wisely  concluded  to  throv;  yourselves  upon  your  rights  — 
to  gather  up  your  energies  and  consolidate  your  strength.  Only  be  true  to  your- 
selves, and  faithful  to  each  other,  and  the  issue  cannot  be  doubtful.  All  the 
circumstances  that  surround  you  are  auspicious!  The  general  diffusion  of  knowl- 
edge, the  rapid  march  of  improvement  —  and  especially  the  excellent  plan  of 
organization  which  you  have  recently  adopted  —  all  argue  well  for  your  future 
prosperity.  But  should  you  neglect  to  avail  yourselves  of  the  advantages  that 
are  now  presented  you  would  not  only  merit,  but  receive,  opprobrium  and  oppres- 
sion. Beware,  therefore,  that  you  do  not  sacrifice  your  present  advantages  and 
prospects  by  folly  or  indolence  lest  slavery  and  infamy  be  your  portion,  and  your 
offspring  at  some  future  day  drag  their  inherited  chains  across  your  graves  and 
load  your  memories  with  reproaches  and  imprecations! 

I  am  aware  we  shall  be  told  that  repubhcan  governments  are  inpropitious  to 
the  cultivation  and  encouragement  of  the  arts  —  especially  the  fine  arts.     This 
has  long  been  a  fashionable  doctrine;  but  it  is  as  false  as 
fashionable.     It  is  a  libel  on  popular  governments.     When         Republics 
we  demand  the  evidence  we  are  confidently  pointed  to  the         Mechanical 
page  of  history,  and  referred  to  the  patronage  and  facilities         Genius. 
afforded  to  artists  by  arbitrary  governments  —  to  the  munif- 
icent pensions  and  donations  granted  by  the  Ptolemies  of  Egypt  —  the  Augustuses 
of  Rome,  and  the  Louises  of  France.     Well,  I  am  quite  willing  that  history  should 


174  NEW  YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

decide  the  question  —  that  it  should  be  the  sole  arbiter  in  the  case.  In  what 
part  of  the  world,  then,  at  what  period,  and  under  what  form  of  government,  did 
the  elegant  and  useful  art  first  spring  up  and  flourish  most?  Was  it  on  the  border 
of  the  Nile,  or  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates  —  or  under  the  Mcmphian  or  Baby- 
lonian despots?  Not  so.  But  on  the  barren  soil  of  Attica,  the  land  of  Codrus 
and  of  Miltiades  —  within  tlie  stormy  republic  of  Greece!  When  we  inquire 
what  discoveries  and  progress  were  made  in  the  arts,  by  the  millions  and  millions 
of  thinking  beings  that  lived  and  died  anterior  to  the  era  of  Grecian  liberty,  we 
are  referred  to  the  pyramids  of  Memphis,  to  the  "Tower  on  Shinais  Plain,"  and 
to  the  temples  of  Thebes  —  monuments  of  folly  all!  We  date  the  decline  of 
the  arts  in  Greece  from  the  decline  of  her  liberty.  For  the  proof  we  invite  you 
to  compare  the  state  of  the  arts  of  the  Alexandrian  with  that  of  the  Periclean 
age.  When  you  come  down  to  the  Augustan  age  —  the  proud  era  of  Marccnas  — 
'tis  imitation  all.  Not  an  artist  stands  forth  in  the  consciov.  .  pride  of  originality. 
All  are  content  to  copy  the  Grecian  masters.  It  is  true,  the  fine  arts  experienced 
a  partial  resuscitation  under  the  princes  of  the  Flavian  house,  but  with  them 
expired  the  arts  of  Rome;  and  when  Constantine  the  Great  wished  to  adorn  an 
arch  at  Byzantium  he  was  obliged  to  tear  down  one  of  Trajan's  at  Rome  for 
sculptures.  But  we  are  not  confined  to  ancient  history  alone  for  proofs  and  illus- 
trations. The  history  of  our  own  country  within  the  last  half  century  has  fur- 
nished ample  testimony  that  not  only  mechanical  genius,  but  the  intellectual 
powers  generally  are  more  universally  developed  in  free  than  in  despotic 
governments.  Where  is  the  nation  that  can  point  to  such  illustrious  names 
in  war  —  in  eloquence  —  in  philosophy  —  in  astronomy  —  in  mechanics,  and 
in  painting  as  those  of  Washington  and  Henry  and  Franklin  and  Rittenhouse 
and  Fulton  and  West?  The  greatest  efforts  of  the  human  mind  have  ever 
been  made  under  the  auspices  of  free  governments.  The  patronage  of  Mace- 
donian, Alexandrian  and  Pergemean  princes  was  unable  to  arouse  in  their  sub- 
jects the  intellectual  energies  that  characterized  the  citizens  of  Athens  in  the 
days  of  her  "  fierce  democracy."  The  fact  is,  a  nation's  freedom  and  its  genius 
rise  and  fall  together.  And  so  with  regard  to  arts.  They  are  fostered  and 
cultivated  in  proportion  as  the  government  is  free  and  the  people  enlightened  and 
happy.  But  when  liberty  declines  the  arts  decline  with  her  and  they  inevi- 
tably sink  into  one  common  grave! 

So  far  from  the  Government  under  which  we  live  being  unfavorable  to  our 
interests  as  artists  and  mechanics,  it  is  in  every  respect  most  propitious!  There 
never  was  a  land  under  Heaven  where  the  intellectual  powers  of  man  had  so  fine 
a  field  and  such  fair  play  as  they  have  in  our  own  country  and  in  our  own  times. 
If  our  march,  therefore,  is  not  onward  to  honor,  competency  and  fame,  the 
fault  is  all  our  own. 

Will  you  meet  me  with  the  excuse  that  your  early  opportunities  in  life  were 

limited?     that  you  have  no  time  for  improvement?     that  it  is  too  late  to  enter 

the  lists  for  distinction?     and  that  you  must,  therefore,  be 

Workmen  content  to  live  and  die  in  obscurity?     Such  are  the  common 

Become  apologies  of  the   indolent,  the  spiritless,  and  the  dissolute. 

Celebrities.  j^^j.  ^^  such  pretexts,  therefore,  be  made  by  members  of  the 

Trades  Union.     Would  you  have  your  ambition  fired,  your 

hopes  elevated,  or  your  resolution  strengthened  by  glorious  example?    Then 

contemplate  for  a  moment  the  history  of  those  illustrious  men  whose  names 

stand  as  "  landmarks  on  the  cliff  of  fame  " — who  were  the  artificers  of  their 

own  fortunes,  and  who,  like  yourselves,  were  mechanics  and  artists. 


FIRST   GENERAL   TRADES    UNION   ORGANIZED.  175 

Franklin,  who  astonished  and  confounded  the  schoolmen  of  Europe,  and  with 
impunity  dallied  with  the  lightnings  of  Heaven,  was  once  an  obscure  journey- 
man printer!     His  elevation  was  the  result  of  his  own  efforts. 

Roger  Sherman,  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  men  in  the  extraordinary  age 
in  which  he  lived  —  and  William  Gifford,  the  immortal  author  of  the  Baviad 
and  Mseviad,  were  both  shoe  makers.     George  Walton,  the 
distinguished    patriot   and   jurist   of   Georgia,   acquired   his         Imitate  the 
education  by  torch-light  during  the  term  of  his  apprentice-         Virtues  of 
ship  to  a  carpenter!     General  Knox  was  a  bookbinder  —  and         *^®  Great. 
General  Greene  (the  second  Washington)  a  blacksmith.     But 
we  are  not  limited  to  the  past  for  examples.     Our  distinguished  townsman, 
Fmzee,  was  a  common  stone  mason.     As  a  sculptor  he  now  stands  unequalled 
in  this  country,  and  as  a  self-taught  artist  unsurpassed  by  any  in  the  world. 
Would  you  enjoy  the  fame  of  those  illustrious  men?     Then  follow  their  example 
and  imitate  their  virtues.     Like  them  be  diligent  —  be  honest — be  firm  —  be 
indefatigable.     Pursue  knowledge  with  a  diligence  that  never  tires,  and  with  a 
perseverance  that  never  falters;  and  honor  and  glory  and  happiness  will  be  your 
reward!    You  have  no  longer  an  excuse  why  you  should  not  prosper  and  flourish 
both  as  a  body  and  as  individuals.     You  know  your  rights  and  consequently 
feel  your  strength.     If  mortification  and  defeat  should  attend  you,  blame  not 
your  fellow-men  —  the  cause  will  be  found  within  yourselves.     Neither  blame 
your  country  —  the  fault  will  not  be  hers!     No  —  Land  of  Genius  —  Land  of 
Refuge  —  Land  of  the  Brave  and  Free ! —  thy  sons  have  no  cause  to  reproach 
thee !     All  thy  deserving  children  find  favor  in  thine  eyes  —  support  on  tny 
arm  and  protection  in  thy  bosom! 

Ill  feeling  and  animosity  between  the  employers  and  employed 
were  engendered  by  the  organization  of  the  General  Trades  Union. 
Its  support  of  the  strikes  of   different   trades   for 
increased  wages  or  against  reductions  caused  the       Notable 
masters  to  combine,  and  so  bitter  was  their  opposi-        Conspiracy 
tion  to  the  efforts  of  the  workingmen's  central  body        Trials, 
that  when  in    1836   the  tailors  struck  against    a 
decrease  of  their  bill  of  prices  the  general  association  of  employers 
caused  the  arrest  of   20  strikers  for  conspiracy.     Their  trial  was 
attended  by  large  crowds  and  created  intense  excitement,  the  crime 
in  this  instance  consisting  in  organizing  for  the  avowed  purpose  of 
self-protection.     Chief  Justice  Savage  of  the  New  York  Supreme 
Court  had  rendered  a  decision  in   1834  in  the  case  of  the  Geneva 
cordwainers,   declaring   that   a   mutual   agreement 
among  journeymen  to  raise  wages  was  a  conspiracy         Labor 
and  an  indictable  offense.     The  sense  of  public  jus-         Enters 
tice  was  so  outraged  by  that  judgment  that  upon         Pohtics. 
the  conviction  of  the  accused  tailors  only  a  slight 
penalty  was  imposed,  and  the  labor  organizations  were  not  sup- 
pressed.   Then  it  was  that  the  workingmen  resolved  to  enter  politics 


176  NEW    YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

in  order  to  secure  the  repeal  of  the  conspiracy  laws  and  reorganize 
the  judicial  system.  In  1834  they  gave  a  decided  expression  of 
sentiment  against  the  existing  banking  methods,  which  were  char- 
acterized as  aristocratic  and  unjust,  and  they  had  also  placed  them- 
selves on  record  in  opposition  to  competitive  prison  labor.  They 
formed  the  Equal  Rights  party,  which  afterward  became  known 
as  the  Loco-foco  party.  The  panic  of  1837  in  the  meantime  had 
a  depressing  effect  upon  the  labor  movement,  and  the  General 
Trades  Union  appears  to  have  been  engulfed  in  that  financial 
catastrophe. 


ELY  MOORE, 
Eminent  Union  Printer,  Celebrated  Orator,  Labor^s  First 
Congressman,  1835-9,  President  of  New  York  Gen- 
eral Trades  Union,  1833-8,  and  President  of 
National  Trades  Union,  1834-5. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
A  CELEBRATED  PRINTER-ORATOR. 

THE  ablest  and  most  prominent  member  of  the  Typographical 
Association  of  New  York  was   Ely   Moore.     He   was  the 
son  of   Capt.  Moses   Moore  and   was  bom  in  Hunterdon 
County,   New  Jersey,   on  July   4,  1798.     After  receiving  a  public 
school  education    he  learned  the  art  of  printing.     Removing  to 
New  York  City  early  in  life  the  young  compositor 
followed  his  chosen  trade  for  a  time,   joined  the    Life  Sketch 
union  of  printers,  assisted  in  the  formation  of  the    of  Ely  Moore, 
General  Trades  Union,  was  its  president  at  the  be-    Union  Typo. 
ginning  and  was  also  the  first  presiding  officer  of 
the  National  Trades  Union,  serving  in  that  capacity  during  1834 
and  1835.     He  was  editor  of  the   National   Trade    Union,  a  New 
York  publication  devoted  to  the  advancement  of  Labor,  and  in  1838 
and  1839  was  political  editor  of  the  New  York  Evening  Post.     In 
185 1  he  owned  and  edited  the  Warren  Journal  of.  Belvidere,  N.  J. 
Limited  indeed  were  his  resources,  but  through  his  own  energetic 
efforts  Ely  Moore  became  an  orator  of  rare  distinction.  His  forensic 
eloquence  not  only  materially  promoted  the  claims  of  the  workers, 
whose  cause  he  espoused  from  the  rostrum  with  vigor  and  sincerity, 
but  was  the  means  of  elevating  him  to  stations  of  great  public  trust. 

I. 

Agitation  Against  Contract  Prison  Labor. 

While  Ely  Moore  was  president  of  the  city  and  national  general 
unions  of  trades  the  question  of  convict  labor  was 
uppermost  in  the  minds  of  organized  workingmen  in      Appointed 
all  the  industrial  centers  of  the  State.^    They  de-      on  Prison 
nounced  the  prison  monopoly  and   petitioned  the      Commission. 
Legislature  to  aboUsh  contract  labor  in  the  ponal  in- 
stitutions.    Under  the  law  of  that  period  it  was  the  duty  of  prison 
agents  "to  use  every  proper  means  to  furnish  the  prisoners  confined 

1  On  June  30,  1834.  it  was  estimated  that  there  were  11,500  members  of  labor  organizations  in 
New  York  City  and  Brooklyn.  Later  in  the  same  year  the  General  Trades  Union  approximated 
the  whole  number  of  mechanics  in  the  Metropolis  at  something  over  31,000,  with  a  total  of  125,000 
for  the  entire  State, 

[177] 


178  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

in  the  respective  prisons  with  employment  the  most  beneficial  to  the 
public,  and  the  best  suited  to  their  various  capacities :  and  to  use  their 
best  endeavors  to  defray  all  the  expenses  of  the  prisons  by  the  labor  of 
the  prisoners."  These  officials  were  also  directed  to  make  contracts 
for  the  work  of  convicts  upon  such  terms  as  they  deemed  most 
advantageous  to  the  State.  It  was  declared  that  under  this  com- 
petitive system  the  prisons  were  converted  into  workshops,  in  which 
most  of  the  mechanical  trades  were  carried  on  and  taught  to  the 
inmates,  who  performed  an  immense  amount  of  work  at  much 
cheaper  rates  than  were  paid  to  free  mechanics.  One  of  the  objec- 
tions urged  against  the  system  was  the  manner  in  which  the  discre- 
tion of  letting  the  contracts  had  been  abused.  Another  reason 
presented  in  opposition  to  it  was  that  it  tended  to  fraud  and  favor- 
itism on  the  part  of  the  agents.  So  unanimous  was  the  protest  of 
the  working  people  against  the  methods  practiced,  and  such  was  the 
state  of  excitement  and  general  public  feeling  aroused  on  the  subject, 
that  a  legislative  act  was  passed  on  May  2,  1834,  providing  for  the 
appointment  of  a  Commission  of  three  to  inquire  into  and  report  to 
the  Legislature  of  1835,  among  other  matters,  "  whether  any,  and  if 
any,  what  mechanical  business  carried  on  at  either  of  said  prisons 
ought  to  be  discontinued  by  reason  of  its  injurious  competition 
with  the  labor  of  mechanics  or  artisans  out  of  the  prisons,  or  for 
other  cause."  Ely  Moore  was  selected  as  the  advocate  of  Labor 
on  the  Commission,  the  other  two  members  being  Elisha  Litchfield 
and  Aphaxad  Loomis.  These  Prison  Commissioners  made  an  ex- 
haustive investigation,  and  on  January  29,  1835,  submitted  their 
report.  They  found  that  of  1,466  malefactors  confined  in  the 
prisons  at  Auburn  and  Mount  Pleasant  (Sing  Sing)  987  were 
employed  at  mechanical  trades — 953  on  contract  work  and  34 
on  articles  for  State  use.  The  remaining  479  were  engaged  as 
laborers  in  the  shops  and  yards  or  about  the  kitchens  and 
hospitals. 

Chief  among  the  complaints  was  "  that  the  products  of  the  labor 

of  convicts  compete  with  and  lessen  the  fair  price  and  amount  sold 

of  the  mechanical  products  of  honest  citizens,  in 

Harmful  to         those  articles  manufactured  in  the  prisons,  and  that 

Manufacturers    by   this   means  master   mechanics  lose  a   part  of 

and  Mechanics,  their  business  and  journeymen  their  employment." 

To  this  contention  the  Commissioners  stated  that 

they  were  "satisfied  from  personal  examination,  and  from  the  evidence 

taken,  that  in  some  articles,  and  to  some  extent,  this  complaint  is 

well  founded  and  ought  to  be  relieved." 


A    CELEBRATED   PRINTER-ORATOR.  179 

Another  complaint  was  "  that  by  teaching  convicts  mechanical 
trades  the  occupation  of  mechanics  in  general  is  degraded  in  public 
estimation,  and  a  class  of  bad  men  are  turned  out  to  seek,  in  the 
shops  of  honest  citizens,  employment  in  the  business  they  had  learned 
in  the  prisons ;  and  by  this  means  mechanics  are  more  exposed  than 
other  citizens  to  the  association  of  convicts,  and  consequently  more 
Hable  than  others  to  be  corrupted  in  their  morals  by  them."  Part 
of  this  Hne  of  reasoning  was  considered  to  be  illogical  by  the  Commis- 
sioners, who  maintained  that  "  the  idea  that  mechanical  business 
in  general  is  degraded  in  public  estimation  merely  because  it  is 
carried  on  in  the  State  prison  is  in  the  abstract  unfounded  and 
illusory ;  but  it  is  morally  certain  that  mechanics  of  any  given  trade 
which  is  taught  in  the  prisons  are  more  exposed  to  the  association 
of  discharged  convicts  than  they  would  be  if  that  particular  business 
was  not  learned  by  prisoners;  and  it  is  equally  clear  that  as  a 
body  of  men  the  association  of  such  convicts  is  both  dangerous  and 
degrading  to  persons  of  good  character." 

The  investigators  were  of  the  opinion  (i)  that  "  common  humanity 
requires  that  the  lives,  bodily  health  and  mental  sanity  of  confined 
convicts  should  be  preserved,  and  experience  has 
demonstrated  that  this  can  only  be  done  by  active      Reasons  for 
employment;"  (2)  that  "  common  justice  requires      Employing 
that  convicts  should  contribute  by  their  labor  to      Prisoners, 
their  own  support;"  (3)  that  "  the  influence  of  labor 
upon  the  minds  of  convicts  is  salutary,  and  tends  to  the  diminution 
of  crime  in  society  by  restraining  the  vicious  propensities  always 
excited  by  indolence,  and  by  employing  in  useful  purposes  powers 
of  body  and  mind  that  will  find  employment  in  some  form  or  other, 
for  good  or  for  evil."     They  were  opposed  to  shutting  up  in  cells 
constantly  without  labor  old  and  heinous  offenders. 
Likewise  they  objected  to  transportation  on  the        Opposed 
English  Botany  Bay  plan,  because  "  to  carry  it       to  Botany 
into  execution  would  require  a  naval  and  military       ^*y  P^^* 
annament  and  a  foreign  territory,  and  such  a  change 
of  the  relative  powers  of  the  General  and  State  Governments  as  can 
only  be  effected  by  some  important  changes  in  their  respective  con- 
stitutions."    They  also  thought  that  it  would  be  unwise  "  to  banish 
convicts  from  the  State,  without  providing  for  them  a  place  of  refuge 
and  a  guard."     It  "  would  be  turning  them  loose  to  commit  depre- 
dations upon  our  neighbors.     The  injustice  we  should  offer  to  others 
by  such  a  system  would  be  in  turn  visited  upon  our  own  heads  by 
other  States." 


l8o  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

The  suggestion  made  by  some  citizens  that  convicts  might  be 
employed  on  public  works  prosecuted  by  the  State  was  declared  by 

the  Commission  to  be  "impracticable  to  any  useful 
Convict  Labor  extent.  If  employed  on  public  buildings,  or  on 
on  Public  Works  cutting  stone  for  locks  for  canals,  or  in  other  branches 
Impracticable.       of  mechanical  labor,  the  evil  is  in  no  respect  removed. 

The  State  works  are  as  useful  in  employing  citizen 
mechanics  as  private  enterprise.  The  whole  amount  of  mechanical 
labor  for  the  citizen  mechanic  to  perform  would  not  be  increased 
by  such  a  change." 

It  was  believed  by  the  Commissioners  "  that  a  remedy  adequate  to 
every  practical  and  perceptible  extent  of  the  evil  may  be  adopted 
without  changing  the  essential  principles  of  our  present  penitentiary 
system.  The  errors  in  the  practice  of  the  present  prisons  have 
crept  in  by  means  of  long-continued  efforts  by  the  Legislature, 
and  by  the  officers  of  the  prisons,  to  render  the  labor  of  con- 
victs productive  and  to  relieve  the  State  from  the  biu-then  of  a 
heavy  annual  appropriation  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  prisons 
without  considering  the  effect  upon  the  mechanical  industry  of  the 
country.  The  cause  of  the  present  embarrassment  is  easily  dis- 
covered. The  officers  of  the  prisons  have  been  entrusted  with  the 
disposal  of  a  large  operative  power,  for  the  piirpose  of  turning  it 
into  profit.  The  most  convenient  way  of  doing  it  is  to  hire  out  their 
men  at  so  much  apiece  by  the  day;  and  that  mode  giving  the  least 
trouble  for  the  agent,  also  found  favor  with  the  public  for  its  entire 
simplicity,  and  its  requiring  the  employment  of  no  active  capital 
and  creating  no  risk  of  loss.  Consequently  every  opportunity  has 
been  embraced  to  hire  out  in  this  way  as  many  of  the  disposable 
hands  as  possible.  Difficulty  was  found  in  getting  employment  for 
the  whole  number  of  convicts.  To  induce  contractors  to  employ 
them  it  was  necessary  to  hire  them  for  long  periods  of  time  so  that 
they  might  become  profitable  workmen.  Contractors  were  also 
desirous  of  rendering  their  business  permanent,  as  far  as  practicable. 
No  limit  was  imposed  by  law  either  as  to  the  number  of  convicts 
to  be  let  to  one  person  or  to  be  employed  in  one  branch  of  business, 

or  as  to  the  length  of  time  for  which  they  might  be 
Contract  let  out.     Had  the  former  Legislature  anticipated  the 

System  results  which  its  general  powers  and  directions  have 

Unrestricted,     produced,  it  would  doubtless  have  guarded  these 

unlimited  enactments  by  proper  restrictions.  Some 
limits  to  the  number  to  be  employed  in  any  one  branch  of  business 
should  have  been  made.     The  branches  carried  on  should  have  been 


A   CELEBRATED  PRINTER-ORATOR.  l8l 

those  with  which  the  country  is  chiefly  suppUed  by  importation,  and 
pubUcity  of  the  time  and  place  of  letting  contracts  should  have  been 
given,  so  as  to  allow  full  and  free  competition  and  to  produce  such 
prices  that  the  contractors  could  not  afford  to  undersell  the  market." 

Had  the  penal  authorities,  the  Commission  averred,  "  confined  the 
operations  in  the  prisons  in  each  branch  of  business  to  the  extent  that 
it  could  be  carried  on  by  the  convicts  already  skilled 
in  the  particular  branch  there  could  have  been  no    inmates  Should 
just    ground   for    complaint.      Take    for  example    Work  at  Their 
shoe   makers,   of  whom  there  are  43   among  the    ^^°  Trades, 
convicts  confined  at  Auburn,  who  were  mechanics 
before  their  conviction.     Instead  of  employing  43  only  at  that  branch, 
there  are  48  engaged  in  that  business.     But  if  they  had  employed 
but  the  original  shoe  makers  at  that  business,  and  had  not  taught 
the  trade  to  other  convicts,  it  would  have  been  right  in  every  sense. 
They  would  have  merely  compelled  the  idle  and  wicked  to  follow 
with  assiduity  their  regular  calling;  the  number   of  mechanics  in 
that  branch  would  not  have  been  increased,  nor  would  discharged 
convicts  be  turned  out  to  enter  shops  where  they  were  not  free  to 
enter  before  conviction." 

What  to  do  with  the  residue  of  the  convicts,  such  as  laborers, 

farmers,  and  those  of  trades  that  could  not  be  well  carried  on  in  the 

prisons  was  the  next  question  that  engaged   the 

attention  of  the  Commission,  which  advocated  the    ^^^°g  o' 

, .  r  .  1  •        U.-U   i.   u  U.-I       Imported  Articles 

inauguration  of  a  unique  plan,  urging  that      the   g         .    , 

only  resource  left  is  to  introduce  new  kinds  of  busi-  solution. 
ness  from  foreign  countries,  and  teach  convicts  trades 
in  those  branches  only.  This  may  be  rather  troublesome  at  first,  but 
it  is  entirely  practicable  and  when  once  fairly  established  would  prob- 
ably be  quite  as  profitable  to  the  State  as  the  business  now  pursued. 
Indeed  there  are  other  considerations  of  no  small  magnitude  inducing 
to  such  a  measure.  It  has  always  been  considered  highly  desirable 
for  every  State  to  have  within  itself  the  power  of  supplying  its  own 
wants;  and  if  the  State  prisons  and  the  labor  of  convicts  could  be 
made  the  means  of  producing  or  even  of  promoting  an  end  so  desir- 
able it  would  be  a  matter  of  much  felicitation.  There  are  a 
great  variety  of  articles  now  extensively  used  in  this  country,  and 
with  which  it  is  supplied  chiefly  or  wholly  by  importation  from 
foreign  countries,  and  the  chief  value  of  which  consists  in  the  labor 
bestowed  in  the  manufacture.  Among  them  may  be  named  files, 
needles,  pins,  shears,  scissors,  snuffers,  fine  knives,  razors,  and  all 
fine  cutlery;  wrought  nails,  butts,  screws,  cotton,  linen,  silk,  woolen 


l82  NEW    YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

and  worsted  hose;  cotton,  linen,  worsted,  silk  and  rubber  webbing; 
carriage  lace,  carpeting,  rugs;  and  finally,  and  especially,  the  manu- 
facture of  silk  goods  from  the  cocoons.  The  Commissioners  see  no 
good  reason  why  some  of  the  above  enumerated  articles  may  not, 
with  propriety  and  profit,  be  introduced  in  the  prisons.  When  the 
business  should  be  once  fairly  established,  by  the  proper  instruction 
of  a  few  convicts,  it  would  require  no  further  expense  for  that  pur- 
pose; but  the  business  would  be  continued  as  is  done  in  the  branches 
now  prosecuted.  The  labor  of  convicts  could  be  let  out  by  the  piece, 
after  the  manufacture  was  once  established,  as  is  now  done  in  many 
articles;  and  which  is  perhaps,  unless  under  peculiar  circumstances, 
the  preferable  mode  of  disposing  of  their  labor,  as  it  dispenses  with 
the  necessity  of  having  the  presence  of  contractors  or  their  agents 
much  in  the  prisons.  Where  convict  labor  is  let  by  the  day  the  con- 
tractors' agents,  having  no  motives  to  preserve  the  good  government 
of  the  prison,  and  interested  only  in  getting  out  of  the  convicts  the 
greatest  possible  amount  of  labor,  are  strongly  tempted  to  hold  out 
private  inducements  to  convicts,  and  perhaps  to  cause  the  keepers 
to  inflict  stripes  sometimes  improperly.  By  this  means,  also,  the 
second  class  of  evils  complained  of,  as  well  as  the  first,  will  be  removed. 
Discharged  prison  convicts  will  not  seek  employment,  in  the  trades 
they  learned  in  prison,  in  the  shops  of  citizen  mechanics,  and  by  that 
means  expose  their  apprentices  and  journeymen  to  corruption,  for 
the  reason  that  few  or  no  shops  will  be  carrying  on  any  business 
taught  in  prison,  except  such  as  shall  have  been  taught  afterwards. 
While  this  result  would  be  obtained  the  other  and  highly  important 
matter  in  which  all  citizens  are  interested,  the  moral  reformation  of 
the  convict,  will  be  equally  promoted.  Convicts  having  no  regular 
calling  will  be  taught  one  by  which  they  may  when  discharged  gain 
an  honest  livelihood  by  estabhshing  the  business  on  a  small  scale 
in  some  neighborhood  where  the  prejudices  of  the  community  are  not 
so  strong  against  prison  convicts  but  that  they  will  purchase  their 
wares  and  assist  them  in  effecting  their  endeavors  to  earn  an  honest 
maintenance  for  themselves  and  perhaps  an  innocent  family." 

The  Commissioners  were  astonished  to  find  that  locks  were  being 
made  by  convicts.     "  Some  remarks  are  due  to  the  peculiar  situation 
of  one  or  two  branches  of  business  carried  on  in 
Manufacture     ^j^g   prisons,"   they  commented  in  regard  to  the 
o     oc  s  m       matter.     "  The  Commissioners  are  of  opinion  that 
Institutions.      independent  of  the  question  as  a  branch  of  mechan- 
ical labor,  the  business  of  lock  making,  now  carried 
on  in  both  prisons,  is  an  improper  one  to  be  taught  to  convicts, 
and  dangerous  to  the  public  safety.     It  is  stated  in  the  testimony 


A    CELEBRATED   PRINTER-ORATOR.  183 

that  a  skillful  lock  maker  may,  from  merely  observing  the  external 
form  of  the  key-holes,  prepare  skeleton  keys  by  which  he  will  readily 
unlock  all  ordinary  locks;  and  his  knowledge  of  the  internal  guards 
and  fonn  of  work  is  such,  that  unless  a  lock  is  of  peculiar  construc- 
tion, he  finds  no  difficulty  in  preparing  keys  for  many  locks  even  of 
the  more  expensive  kind.  A  great  share  of  the  recent  burglaries 
have  been  committed  by  means  of  false  keys.  Not  long  since  an 
ingenious  convict  at  Auburn  contrived  to  deposit  two  patterns  of 
bank  locks  which  had  been  made  in  prison  in  a  secure  cover,  safely 
imbedded  in  the  body  of  a  water  log  used  outside  of  the  prison  walls 
to  convey  water  into  the  prison,  and  which  had  been  brought  into 
the  place  where  the  convict  was  at  work  to  be  repaired.  The  log 
when  finished  was  restored  to  its  place  outside  the  wall,  and  had  it 
not  been  for  the  treachery  of  a  fellow-convict,  the  ingenious  felon 
wotild  probably  have  secured  his  prize  in  triumph  after  his  discharge. 
In  the  opinion  of  the  Commissioners  an  effort  should  be  made  to 
induce  the  contractors  to  give  up  their  contracts  or  at  least  to  have 
no  new  convicts  learn  the  art.  It  is  a  dangerous  trade  for  that  class 
of  citizens  to  be  familiar  with." 

In  conclusion  the  Commission  recommended  that  Sing  Sing  pris- 
oners be  placed  at  v/ork  quarrying  marble  near  that  institution. 
On  this  point  they  reasoned  that  "  the  business  of 
marble   cutting  at  the  prison  in  Sing  Sing  is  not    Marble 
let  out  by  the  day  or  otherwise  to  contractors,  but    Quarrying 
the  agent  executes  orders  for  the  marble  work  of    ^^  a  Remedy, 
buildings  at  such  prices  as  may  be  agreed  upon  in 
each  particular  case.     It  was  at  first  found  very  difficult  by  the  agent 
to  get  that  marble  into  use.     It  was  rejected  by  bmlders  on  account 
of  being  supposed  to  be  of  a  quality  not  satisfactory  to  public  taste. 
The  agent,  with  the  view  of  introducing  it,  made  some  contracts  at 
first  at  extremely  low  prices.     These  had  the  desired  effect.     It 
was  perceived  that  the  stone  was  valuable  for  building  purposes  and 
prices  for  work  have  gradually  been  increased,  and  the  State  is  now 
realizing  the  benefit  anticipated  by  the  location  of  the  prison  in  the 
vicinity  of  those  large  beds  of  marble.     The  quarries  are  so  extensive 
that  they  must  be  inexhaustible  for  ages  to  come.     If  the  convicts 
were  confined  to  the  operation  of  getting  the  marble  out  in  blocks 
and  deUvering  it  upon  the  wharf,  it  is  believed  that  its  use,  instead 
of  being  diminished,  would  be  greatly  promoted.     Builders  would 
then  become  purchasers,  and  the  greater  quantity  sold  would  make 
up  for  the  difference  of  price  between  the  wrought  and  unwrought 
marble.     From  the  views  above  taken  we  consider  that  this  is  but 


184  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

carrying  out  the  plan  we  have  suggested,  and  that  it  is  due  to  that 
particular  branch  of  mechanics.  There  is  hardly  a  doubt  but  that 
if  the  prison  kept  always  a  large  supply  of  quarried  marble  on  hand, 
rough  dressed  in  blocks,  for  sale  at  reasonable  prices,  it  would,  from 
its  cheapness  and  from  its  easy  water  transportation,  meet  with  ready 
sales,  and  its  use  for  churches  and  public  buildings,  wherever  it  could 
be  floated,  would  soon  become  general." 


II. 

Labor's  First  Congressman. 

In  the  autumn  of  1834  so  popular  was  Ely  Moore  with  the  mechan- 
ics in  every  branch  of  industry  that  they  prevailed  upon  him  to 
become  a  candidate  for  Member  of  Congress  from 
Elected  to  the  New  York  City.  At  that  time  he  was  busily 
Twenty-fottrth  engaged  with  the  prison  investigation.  He  was 
Congress.  nominated  by  the  Tammany  organization  of  the 

Democratic  party  and  was  loyally  supported 
through  the  campaign  and  at  the  polls  by  the  organized  workers. 
New  York  County  constituted  the  Third  Congressional  District  of 
the  State  in  those  days  and  had  four  representatives  in  the  House. 
The  contest  was  between  the  Republican-Democratic  party,  repre- 
senting the  masses,  as  claimed,  and  the  Federal  or  Banking  Tory 
party,  said  to  uphold  the  views  of  the  classes.  The  Man  newspaper 
was  ardent  in  its  support  of  Ely  Moore.  In  fact  that  daily  journal 
had  lauded  the  orator  on  a  prior  occasion.  A  large  mass  meeting 
of  workingmen  was  held  in  the  previous  April  to  protest  against  the 
establishment  of  State  and  local  banks,  "  which  will  be  the  means 
of  throwing  into  circulation  a  flood  of  money  that  can  only  sub- 
serve the  purposes  of  a  neighborhood  currency."  These  mechanics 
were  opposed  to  the  rechartering  of  the  United  States  Bank.  They 
objected  to  the  issuance  of  paper  money  and  favored  "  the  con- 
stitutional currency  of  gold  and  silver."  "  Mr.  Ely  Moore  having 
arrived  at  the  meeting,"  said  The  Man  of  April  4,  1834,  in  describing 
the  gathering,  "  an  ardent  call  for  him  was  continued,  until  he  arose 
and  was  welcomed  with  the  most  enthusiastic  cheering  by  the  dense 
throng.  After  this  expression  of  feeling  subsided  Mr.  Moore  deHvered 
a  patriotic  address  in  favor  of  the  objects  of  the  meeting,  distinguished 
alike  for  strength  of  argument,  appropriate  application  and  beauty 
of  diction ;  the  breathless  silence  of  the  vast  multitude  now  and  then 
broken  by  an  outburst  of  feeling,  is  the  best  evidence  of  its  com- 


A    CELEBRATED   PRINTER-ORATOR.  185 

manding  eloquence,  while  the  truth  of  the  reasoning  was  testified 
in  the  spontaneous  and  animated  affirmatives  of  the  assemblage." 
The  canvass  was  conducted  with  much  spirit  and  asperity.  As 
there  was  only  one  polling  place  in  each  ward  the  election  lasted  for 
three  days  —  November  4th,  5th  and  6th.  Tammany's  entire 
ticket  was  successful,  and  Ely  Moore,  the  first  Labor  advocate  to 
be  elected  by  the  people  to  represent  them  in  the  legislative  halls 
of  the  United  States,  received  18,552  votes,  while  on  the  opposition 
ticket  the  greatest  number  of  ballots  recorded  was  16,822. 

But  to  revert  to  the  prison  labor  agitation.  The  report  of  the 
Commission  was  unsatisfactory  to  some  of  the  labor  organizations 
and  particvdarly  to  The  Man,  which  on  February  9, 
1835,  was  most  vehement  in  its  attack  upon  the  Prison 
Congressman-elect,  being  "  almost  petrified  with  Labor  Report 
astonishment  to  find  the  name  of  Ely  Moore  as  one  Discussed, 
of  the  signers.  He  is  the  last  man  in  the  world  that 
we  should  have  suspected  of  recommending  that  the  labor  of  all  the 
malefactors  in  the  State  should  be  put  in  competition  exclusively  with 
that  of  honest  mechanics."  It  denounced  him  in  unmeasured  terms 
and  continued  to  inveigh  against  him  for  several  days.  After  a 
warm  discussion  the  Typographical  Association  appointed  a  com- 
mittee on  March  21st  "  to  draft  resolutions  expressive  of  the  opinion 
of  the  association  in  relation  to  the  State  prison  system  as  now  prac- 
ticed in  the  State,  and  also  of  the  report,  or  so  much  thereof  as  has 
been  published,  of  the  late  Commissioners,  and  that  said  committee 
report  at  the  next  regular  meeting."  It  was  not  until  May  i6th 
that  the  committee  was  heard  from.  Then  it  "  made  a  lengthy 
report,  which  on  motion  was  laid  upon  the  table."  A  record  of  its 
findings  is  not  extant,  but  its  conclusions  were  probably  against  the 
attitude  of  Mr.  Moore,  as  at  the  same  meeting  a  resolution  requesting 
his  resignation  as  delegate  to  the  General  Trades  Union  was  tabled 
after  an  animated  debate,  evidencing  the  fact  that  the  majority  of 
the  union  printers  were  to  some  extent  in  sympathy  with  his  recom- 
mendations as  Prison  Commissioner.  The  question  remained  dor- 
mant thereafter  in  the  association.  But  the  report  created  a  ripple 
of  excitement  in  the  conventions  of  the  General  Trades  Union.  On 
March  30th  it  received  a  communication  from  the  curriers,  instruct- 
ing their  delegates  to  procure  the  resignation  of  Ely  Moore  as  pres- 
ident, it  being  the  opinion  of  the  society  of  that  trade  "  that  he  has 
deserted  the  cause  of  the  mechanics  and  worldngmen."  The  propo- 
sition was  laid  upon  the  table.  Then  the  union  of  stone  cutters 
submitted  a  series  of  resolutions  objecting  to  the  Commissioners' 


l86  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

conclusions  and  demanding  the  resignation  of  the  printers'  delegate 
from  the  presidency  of  the  central  body.  A  motion  to  that  effect 
was  lost.  Previously  (on  March  25th)  a  committee  of  inquiry  had 
reported  that  it  was  decidedly  opposed  to  the  Commissioners'  "  views 
of  the  subject  and  their  plans  for  relieving  the  mechanics  from  the 
present  intolerable  burden."  According  to  the  minutes,  "  the  report 
and  resolutions,  taken  together,  were  not  such  as  would  meet  the 
sanction  of  the  convention ;  they  were  therefore  referred  back  to  the 
committee,  for  them  to  report  again  at  our  next  meeting."  The 
committee  was  not  ready  to  report  on  April  29th,  and  on  May  27th 
it  was  discharged;  no  further  action  on  the  subject  being  taken  by 
the  central  association. 

Upon  vacating  the  presidency  of  the  National  Trades  Union  on 

August  26,  1835,  that  organization  expressed  confidence  in  its  retiring 

chairman's  integrity,  resolving  "  that  the  thanks 

Retains  the         of  the  convention  be  presented  to  Mr.  Ely  Moore 

Confidence  of      for  the  very  able  and  impartial  manner  with  which 

Workingmen.      \^q  has  filled  the  ofhce  of  president,  and  that  he  has 

our  best  wishes  for  his  health  and  prosperity  on  his 

retirement  from  that  chair  which  he  has  so  satisfactorily  occupied." 

Eventually  the  war  against  the  prison  m^onopoly  was  settled  to 

the  satisfaction  of  the  majority  of  workingmen  by  the  suspension 

of  some  of  the  branches  of  industry  and  the  substitution  of  others 

that  did  not  affect  the  trades  of  free  mechanics. 

Ely  Moore's  reputation  remained  unsullied  and  his  popularity 
undimmed.  With  his  colleagues  on  the  Prison  Commission  he  had 
exposed  the  abuses  that  had  developed  under  the  contract  system 
and  recommended  changes  that  it  was  thought  would  overcome  the 
evil.  The  suggestion  that  "  it  has  always  been  considered  highly 
desirable  for  every  State  to  have  within  itself  the  power  of  supplying 
its  own  wants,  and  if  the  State  prisons  and  the  labor  of  convicts 
could  be  made  the  means  of  producing  or  even  promoting  an  end  so 
desirable  it  would  be  a  matter  of  much  felicitation,"  was  put  into 
practical  operation  by  the  New  York  Constitutional  Convention  of 
1894,  which  embodied  in  the  organic  law  a  provision  that  the  work 
of  convicts  should  not  "  be  farmed  out,  contracted,  given  or  sold 
to  any  person,  firm,  association  or  corporation,"  but  "  that  the 
products  of  their  labor  may  be  disposed  of  to  the  State  or  any  politi- 
cal division  thereof,  or  for  or  to  any  public  institution  owned  or  man- 
aged and  controlled  by  the  State,  or  any  political  division  thereof.'"* 

2  Adopted  by  the  people  on  November  6,  1894,  and  became  effective  on  January  i,  1897.  The 
proposition  was  favored  by  the  organized  trades,  and  has  solved  the  prison-labor  problem  so  far 
as  this  State  is  concerned. 


A   CELEBRATED  PRINTER-ORATOR.  187 

In  1836  the  printer-orator  was  again  placed  in  nomination  by  the 
workingmen  and  was  also  the  candidate  of  Tammany.     With  a 
largely  diminished  total  vote  in  the  city  that  year 
he  received  16,673  ^^^  "^^s  re-elected,  although  the      Member  of 
general  ticket  of  the  Democratic  organization  was      Twenty-fifth 
unsuccessful.     Wheeler,  his  Whig  opponent,  polled      Congress. 
15,920  votes.     Renominated  by  the  Democrats  in 
1838,  Ely  Moore  was  defeated  for  the  Twenty-sixth   Congress  by 
James    Monroe,  Whig,  their   respective    votes    being    18,834   and 
20,454. 

Congressman  Moore  delivered  several  addresses  in  the  House  of 
Representatives.     That  he  did  not  believe  in  retarding  the  public 
business   with   unnecessary  and  irrelevant  speech- 
making  was  made  clear  when  once  in  Committee  Speaks  Against 
of  the  Whole  on  the  bill  imposing  additional  duties  National 
as  depositories  on  public  oflEicers  he  declared  that  Banking  System. 
"  it  is  with  a  degree  of  reluctance  that  I  solicit  the 
indulgence  of  the  committee  at  this  late  period  of  the  session.     It  is 
well  known  that  since  I  have  had  the  honor  of  a  seat  in  this  House 
I  have  troubled  it  but  seldom  with  remarks  of  my  own.     Indeed, 
I  have  long  considered  it  neither  proper  nor  respectful  in  any  member 
of  any  legislative  body  to  engross  the  time  to  be  devoted  to  public 
business  in  speech-making,  unless  the  speaker  have  it  in  his  power 
to  impart  some  important  information  or  shed  new  light  on  the  sub- 
ject of  debate.     And  here,  sir,  I  feel  bound  to  confess  that  were  I 
now  to  be  governed  strictly  by  this  rule  I  would  have  refrained  from 
participating  in  this  discussion."     Speaking  in  opposition  to  the 
projected  national  banking  system  on  October  13,  1837,  he  said  in 
part: 

Do  we  find  the  patriotic,  the  clear-headed  and  honest-hearted  yeomanry  and 
mechanics  of  the  country  clamoring  for  a  national  bank?  No,  sir.  No  —  the 
productive  and  laboring  classes  appreciate  their  political  welfare  too  highly  to 
desire  such  an  institution.  The  great  majority  of  bank  advocates  are  to  be  found 
among  the  non-producers  —  the  traffickers  and  speculators  of  the  country  — 
"  children  of  lofty  hopes  and  low  desires,"  most  of  whom  are  peculiarly  affected 
by  the  present  pressure  of  the  times.  And  would  it  be  the  part  of  wisdom  to 
give  heed  to  counsel  emanating  from  such  sources?  Can  it  be  reasonably  expected 
that  men  relying  solely  upon  bank  facilities  —  men  suddenly  disappointed  in 
their  high  expectations  of  immediate  wealth  and  consequent  influence,  would 
be  the  most  competent  to  direct  the  action  of  the  Government  and  control  the 
destinies  of  the  nation  at  such  a  conjuncture?  No,  sir,  —  their  habits  of  life  — 
of  thinking  —  their  peculiar  situation  —  the  circumstances  which  influence  their 
judgments  and  impel  them  to  action  —  all  conspire  to  disqualify  them  for  the 
task.     We  know,  sir,  that  it  is  more  natural  for  men  in  affliction  —  whether 


l88  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

physical  or  political  —  to  have  recourse  to  palliatives  —  to  immediate  and  tem- 
porary expedients  than  to  deliberate  on  the  means  necessary  to  secure  permanent 
relief. 

Sir,  by  what  other  criterion  than  that  of  public  sentiment,  clearly  expressed 
and  fairly  ascertained,  shall  we  judge  of  a  public  measure?  Shall  we  adopt  the 
views  and  opinions  of  the  few,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  many?  Shall  we  not 
allow  the  great  majority  to  determine  what  is,  as  well  as  what  is  not,  for  their 
welfare?  And  have  not  the  majority  solemnly  decreed,  in  a  voice  that  is  still 
ringing  in  our  ears,  that  a  national  bank  is  not  a  national  benefit,  but  a 
national  evil;  that  it  is  not  a  public  blessing,  but  a  public  curse?  If  we 
regard  pubHc  sentiment,  therefore,  as  a  proper  test  of  this  measure,  we  must 
necessarily  decide  against  it.  We  are  bound  to  believe  that  it  would  not  be  pro- 
ductive of  pubUc  good,  as  represented  by  the  petitioners  —  but  of  public  mischief, 
as  declared  by  a  majority  of  the  people.  It  will  not  be  disputed  but  that  any 
class  of  citizens  have  a  right  to  ask  at  the  hands  of  the  Government  the  adoption 
of  such  measures,  or  the  enactment  of  such  laws  as  may  in  their  opinion  subserve 
their  interests:  provided  always  that  such  measures  or  laws  do  not  conflict  with 
other  interests  of  the  State,  or  revolt  the  "  stomach  of  the  public  sense."  A 
national  bank  does  both;  and  has  consequently  no  claims  to  the  favorable  regard 
of  Congress. 

The  American  Anti-Slavery  Society  was  organized  in  1833,  and 

up  to  November,  1839,  it  was  opposed  to  the  formation  of  a  distinct 

anti-slavery    political  party,   deeming  it  wiser  to 

Opposes  difEuse    its    principles    through     all    parties.^     Its 

Abolition         movement  had  expanded  considerably  by  1839,  on 

Petitions.         February  4th  of  which  year  Representative  Moore 

arose  in  the  House  and  in  presenting  a  remonstrance 

from  citizens  of  the  District  of  Columbia  against  the  reception  of 

abolition  petitions  he  made  some  remarks  which  doubtless  if  they 

had  been  uttered  22  years  later  would  have  been  repelled  by  his 

constituency  —  particularly  that  portion  attached  to  organized  labor. 


'Abolitionists  met  in  Warsaw,  N.  Y.,  in  November,  1839,  and  organized  a  political  party,  with 
a  platform  consisting  of  a  single  plank,  which  read:  "  That  in  our  judgment  every  consideration 
of  duty  and  expediency  which  ought  to  control  the  action  of  Christian  freemen  requires  of  the 
Abolitionists  of  the  United  States  to  organize  a  distinct  political  party,  embracing  all  the  necessary 
means  of  nominating  candidates  for  office  and  sustaining  them  by  public  suffrage  " 

In  the  thirties  of  the  last  century  Abolitionism  was  very  unpopular  in  the  North.  On  November 
7,  1837,  a  pro-slavery  mob  in  Alton,  111.,  killed  the  Rev.  Elijah  P.  Love  joy,  editor  of  an  Aboli- 
tion paper,  broke  his  press,  threw  it  into  the  Mississippi  River,  and  fired  the  building  in  which 
the  printing  plant  was  housed.  When  Wendell  Phillips  made  his  debut  as  an  anti-slavery  advocate 
in  Faneuil  Hall,  Boston,  in  December,  1837,  he  championed  what  was  then  a  most  unpopular 
cause  even  in  New  England.  It  was  at  a  meeting  of  citizens  to  notice  in  a  suitable  manner  the 
murder  of  Mr.  Lovejoy,  "  a  native  of  New  England,  and  a  citizen  of  the  free  State  of  Illinois, 
who  fell  in  defense  of  the  freedom  of  the  press."  At  a  moment  when  the  purpose  of  the  gathering 
seemed  likely  to  be  defeated,  and  its  resolution  rejected,  by  the  opposition  of  Attorney-General 
James  Trecothic  Austin,  of  Massachusetts,  Mr.  Phillips,  who  was  among  the  audience,  immediately 
arose  and  in  an  outburst  of  indignant  eloquence  rebuked  the  State's  law  officer  for  the  sentiments 
he  had  expressed.     That  speech  secured  the  passage  of  the  resolve. 


A  CELEBRATED  PRINTER-ORATOR.  189 


Said  he: 


Mr.  Speaker: — I  present  to  the  House  a  remonstrance,  signed  by  some  several 
hundred  citizens  of  this  District,  against  the  reception  of  petitions  from  citizens 
of  the  States,  praying  for  the  aboUtion  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 
The  memorialists  represent  that  they  urged  Congress  as  the  local  Legislature 
of  this  District,  standing  in  the  same  relation  to  the  citizens  of  the  District  that 
a  State  Legislature  does  to  the  citizens  of  a  State;  and  that  they  claim  the  right 
to  advise  or  instruct  the  Congress,  as  their  local  Legislature,  on  all  subjects 
relating  exclusively  to  the  local  interests  and  municipal  institutions  of  the  Dis- 
trict. And  further  —  that  they  regard  the  interference  with  persons  residing 
within  the  limits  of  the  District,  by  petitions  or  otherwise,  as  intrusive  and 
unwarrantable;  and  claim  the  paternal  protection  of  Congress  against  such 
interference  with  their  rights  and  interests.  I  concur  with  the  views  of  the 
memorialists,  and  shall  proceed  to  vindicate  them  to  the  best  of  my  abihties. 

He  then  stated  that  at  least  one-third  of  the  time  of  Congress 
"  has  been  unnecessarily  wasted,  or  mischievously  employed — I  will 
not  undertake  to  say  which  —  in  debating  petitions,  resolutions,  etc., 
touching  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  We 
have  for  the  last  four  sessions  of  Congress  consumed  a  large  portion 
of  time  in  discussing  a  subject  over  which  the  Federal  Legislature, 
in  their  Federal  capacity,  have  no  jurisdiction."  He  charged  that 
the  Federalists  had  formed  a  coalition  with  the  Abolitionists,  and 
that  Abolitionism  had  assumed  a  political  character.  "  The  Federal 
aristocracy  of  the  country,"  he  maintained,  "  aimed  to  impoverish, 
depreciate  and  degrade  the  Democracy  —  especially  that  portion 
who,  in  obedience  to  the  mandate  of  Heaven,  '  eat  their  bread  in 
the  sweat  of  their  face.'  To  accomplish  their  purpose  the  Federalists 
have  availed  themselves  of  every  means  in  their  power."  These  he 
enumerated,  and  proceeded : 

And  now  in  order  to  render  the  condition  of  the  laboring  classes  of  the  North 
and  East  still  more  dependent  and  depressed,  the  Federal  party  have  joined  the 
Abolitionists  for  the  purpose  of  conferring  upon  the  black  laborer  nominal  freedom, 
and  upon  the  white  laborer  virtual  bondage!  Yes,  sir,  for  the  especial  purpose 
of  humbling  and  degrading  the  Democracy,  have  the  Federal  party  of  the  North 
and  East  joined  in  the  Abolition  crusade;  and  whenever  their  object  shall  be 
attained  and  the  Southern  negro  shall  be  brought  to  compete  with  the  Northern 
white  man  in  the  labor  market,  the  moral  and  political  character,  the  pride, 
power,  and  independence  of  the  latter  are  gone  forever,  and  Federalism  will 
have  realized  its  fondest  and  most  cherished  hopes.  But  let  me  tell  you,  sir, 
the  Democracy  of  the  North  and  East  are  not  unmindful  of  passing  events. 
Since  Abolitionism  assumed  a  political  character  they  have  watched  the  move- 
ments of  the  Federal-Abolition  party  with  deep  concernment.  They  are  con- 
scious of  the  approaching  danger  and  are  cxiolly  and  deliberately  preparing  to 
face  it.  Yes,  sir,  whenever  the  Democracy  observe  the  Federal  party  prosecuting 
a  poUtical  measure  with  zeal  and  vigor,  as  they  now  do  AboUtionism,  they  in- 


igo  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

voluntarily,  instinctively  gather  up  their  energies  to  meet  and  repel  approaching 
mischief;  and  I  warn  them  now,  they  cannot  prepare  too  soon,  nor  with  too 
much  vigor  and  forecast.  The  crisis  approaches.  The  fearful  conflict;  the 
mortal  struggle;  the  tiger-stripe  is  at  hand,  and  God  alone  can  tell  the  result. 

At  this  juncture  Mr.  Moore  was  called  to  order  by  Gen.  Waddy 
Thompson,  of  South  Carolina,  and  by  the  decision  of  the  chair  was 
prevented  from  concluding  his  speech,  but  before 
Fulfillment      taking  his  seat  he  gave  notice  that  he  would  publish 
of  a  Dire         all  that  he  had  intended  to  say,  precisely  in  the 
Prophecy.        same  form  and  manner  he  would  have  done  had  no 
interruption  taken  place.     Twenty-two  years  after- 
ward the  "  fearful  conflict,  the  mortal  struggle,"  that  he  had  proph- 
esied when  silenced  by  the  Speaker,  broke  upon  the  country  with 
irresistible  fury.     But  it  solved  for  all  time  a  problem  which  Wash- 
ington, Jefferson,  Madison,  Franklin,  Hamilton,  Jay,    Henry   and 
other  founders  of  the  Government,  who  regarded  slavery  as  a  great 
evil,  inconsistent  with  the  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence and  the  true  spirit  of  humanity,  had  confidently  expected 
would  be  settled  by  the  gradual  extinction  of  the  system  before  the 
advancing  power  of  civilization  and  liberty. 

Ely  Moore  was  a  strong  and  consistent  exponent  of  the  doctrine 
of    State    rights.      In    a    learned   disquisition   on 
Favors  the        Civil  Government  before  the  New  York  Typograph- 
Doctrine  of       ical  Society  on  February  25,  1847,  he  spoke  lengthily 
State  Rights,     upon  the  subject  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  common- 
wealths that  comprehend  the  American  Union,  clos- 
ing his  address  with  this  eloquent  appeal  to  his  craftsmen : 

I  call  upon  you,  then,  my  fellow-citizens  —  and  especially  upon  you,  gentle- 
men of  the  Typographical  Society  —  as  you  love  your  country  and  would  bear 
aloft  her  fortunes  and  her  fame,  to  cherish  the  principles  upon  which  her  free 
institutions  rest.  Address  yourselves  with  zeal  and  alacrity  to  the  duties  — 
the  important  and  imperative  duties  —  which,  as  Americans  and  as  patriots, 
devolve  upon  you.  Strengthen  and  preserve  the  Federal  bond  by  cultivating  a 
spirit  of  unity  —  of  mutual  regard  and  mutual  forbearance,  on  the  one  hand; 
and  by  sternly  reprobating,  on  the  other,  any  and  every  attempt  to  mar  its 
harmony,  or  alienate  the  confidence  and  sympathies  of  its  members.  Regard,  at 
the  same  time,  with  especial  detestation,  the  traitor  and  parricide  who  would 
dare  trench  upon  the  rights  and  powers  reserved  to  the  States,  or  invade  their 
acknowledged  sovereignty;  for  in  this  sovereignty  consists  the  true  life  of  the 
Republic.  It  is  —  if  I  may  be  allowed  the  figure  —  the  vital  ligature  which 
binds  its  different  members  together.  Remove  or  dissever  it  and  the  life-blood 
gushes  from  every  vein  and  artery  of  the  system  —  cementing  and  consolidating 
the  Federal  power;  but  effectually  undermining  the  rights  of  the  States  and 
the  liberties  of  the  people. 


A    CELEBRATED  PRINTER-ORATOR.  IQI 

I  call  upon  you,  then,  my  brother  printers  —  as  prominent  among  those 
who  constitute,  and  are  hereafter  to  constitute  the  life-guard  of  liberty  and  of 
letters  —  to  defend  with  energy  and  constancy  the  integrity  of  the  Federal 
Union.  Yes,  I  implore  you,  whose  peculiar  province  and  duty  it  is  to  marshal 
the  way  to  freedom,  in  knowledge,  and  in  civilization,  to  come  up  —  in  these 
years  of  trial  and  of  temptation  —  to  the  help  and  rescue  of  your  country.  And 
from  whom  can  the  aid  required  more  properly  be  demanded?  The  most 
efficient  auxiliary,  evidently,  would  be  the  enlightened  and  liberal  statesman; 
and  where  are  such  statesmen  more  likely  to  be  found  than  in  the  printing  office? 
that  practical  nursery  of  knowledge  —  especially  political  knowledge.  Have 
they  not  already  furnished  us  with  statesmen  and  philosophers  whose  fame  is 
world-wide,  and  the  record  of  whose  achievements  constitutes  the  proudest 
page  in  our  country's  history? 

Hon.  Ely  Moore's  second  term  in  Congress  ended  on  March  3, 
1839,  but  other  honors  speedily  followed  his  retirement  from  the 
National  Legislature.     Early  in  his  career  he  was 
president  of  the  New  York  Board  of  Trade  and        other 
Surveyor  of  the  Port  of  New  York.     In  1845  Pres-        Honors 
ident  Polk  selected  him  for  United  States  Marshal        Conferred, 
of  the  Southern  District  of  New  York.     He  removed 
to  the  West  in  1853,  having  in  that  year  received  the  agency  for  the 
Miami  and  other  tribes  of  Indians  in  Kansas.     In  1855  President 
Pierce  appointed  him  Register  of  the  Land  Office  at  Lecompton, 
Kans.,  in  which  town  he  passed  away  on  January  27,  i860,  mourned 
by  two  sons  and  three  daughters,  besides  a  host  of  endearing  friends 


CHAPTER  XIV. 
DECADENCE  OF  A  MILITANT  TRADE  UNION. 

INERTNESS  and  neglect  on  the  part  of  members  were  noticeable 
after  the  strike  of  1840,  and  the  Typographical  Association  began 
to  show  signs  of  disintegration.     There  were  also  other  causes 
that  contributed  to  this  deterioration.     In  addition  to  the  loss  of 
three  large  offices,  the  union  was  powerless  to  contend  against  the 
ruinous  system  of  two-thirders  that  had  menaced  the 
Ruinous  trade  almost  from  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 

System  of  century.     This  matter  of  half-way  journeymen  had, 

Two-thirders.      ^g  already  noted,  received  the  serious  attention  of 
the  National  Typographical  convention   in    1836, 
and  in  fact   the  New  York  union    had    before  that  —  on   July 
18,     1835,  —  given     cognizance     to     the    apprenticeship    matter, 
when  "  Mr.  Flanagan,  after    some    remarks,  gave  notice  that  he 
would  introduce    some    measures    relative    to    two-thirders   and 
apprentices."      It  had  at  an  earlier  date  —  June  13,  1835, — -sjmi- 
pathized  with  the  Columbia  Typographical  Society  of  Washington, 
in  its  conflict  with  Gen.  Duff  Green,  National  Public  Printer,  who, 
it  was  charged,  had  excluded  a  great  number  of  journeymen  from 
employment  on  Government  printing  through  the 
Strike  of  agency  of  boys,  "  50  of  whom  he  employed  about 

Washington  the  period  of  his  second  Congressional  term  as 
Journeymen,  public  printer,"  and  "  the  boys  themselves,  seeing 
the  use  that  was  thus  attempted  to  be  made  of 
them,  held  a  meeting  on  the  subject,  and  one  and  all  abandoned 
his  employment."  This  printer  to  the  Senate  and  House  of 
Representatives,  soon  after  his  appointment  in  1828,  tried  to 
reduce  the  wages  of  journeymen  from  $io  to  $8  per  week,  but  the 
attempt  was  successfully  resisted  by  the  society.  Then  he  cut 
down  the  hourly  overtime  rate  from  20  cents  to  i6|  cents.  The 
higher  figure  had  been  established  and  uniformly  paid  by  his 
predecessors;  but  the  union  did  not  have  any  regulation  on  the 
subject,  as  it  was  considered  the  fixed  price  for  extra  work  at 
night  throughout  the  city,  and  much  service  of  this  character  was 
performed  during  the  sessions  of  Congress.     Journeymen  acquiesced 

[192] 


DECADENCE   OF  A   MILITANT  TRADE   UNION.  I93 

in  the  decrease,  they  said,  "  solely  because,  although  the  rate  was 
below  the  customary  price,  it  infringed  no  regulation  of  the  society." 
It  was  also  asserted  that  General  Green  "  is  about  commencing  the 
erection  of  a  manual  labor  school  in  this  city  under  the  name  of 
the  Washington  Institute,  in  which  he  proposes  to 
bring  up  200  boys,  continuously,  to  the  printing         Manual 
business,  and  to  educate  them  accordingly,  by  their         Labor 
own  labor.     The  great  tendency  of  this  scheme  will         School. 
consequently  be  the  prostration  of  the  journeyman, 
and  to  deprive  him  of  the  just  fruits  of  his  labor,  and  by  creating  a 
monopoly  to  turn  to  his  own  advantage  the  profits  of  the  printing, 
publishing  and  binding  of  this  District,  thus  destroying  those  now 
engaged  in  business,  and  throwing  all  those  branches  of  the  profes- 
sion under  the  sole  direction  of  one  man  —  a  thing  much  to  be 
deprecated  at  all  times."     Finally,  on  March   14,    1835,   General 
Green's  workmen  "  abandoned  their  stations  in  consequence  of  the 
introduction  of  several  persons  as  printers  in  that  establishment  at 
two-thirds  of  the  established  prices  of  that  place,  who  had  also  been 
working  under  wages  in  Philadelphia."     The  New  York  association 
deeply  deplored  "  the  causes  of  the  protracted  difficulties  of  Wash- 
ington,  and   especially  regret  and  condemn  the   recent  recontres 
which  have  taken  place  among  them,  as  destructive  alike  of  the 
harmony  of  society  and  the  character  and  interests  of  any  com- 
munity of  men."     It  commended  "  with  feelings  of  strong  appro- 
bation   the    course    pursued    by    the    journeymen 
printers  of  Washington  in  their  noble  and  Spartan-    Denunciation 
like  opposition  to  the  repeated  encroachments  of    ^         p  ... 
Duff  Green  upon  the  rights  and  interests  of  the  pro-    printer, 
fession,"  and  that  his  "  selfish  and  perpetual  hos- 
tility to  the  rights  of  journeymen  printers  renders  his  connection 
with  the  printing  business  a  source  of  deep  and  luiiversal  regret. 
As  the  standing  nile  of  the  profession  declares,  all  those  '  rats  ' 
who  shall  knowingly  violate  any  of  the  established  and  generally 
received  regulations  of  the  craft,  that  the  hands  engaged  in  Mr. 
Green's  office  are  eminently  entitled  to  the  stigma  and  reproach  of 
*  rats,'  "  and  "  that  the  names  of  the  '  rats  '  engaged  in  the  office  of 
Duff  Green  be  entered  on  the  records  of  the  association." 

In  1840  the  association  still  felt  the  discouraging  effects  of  the 
1837  panic.  Journeymen  in  good  standing  on  its  books  were  hope- 
ful of  continuing  the  existence  of  the  union  through  the  hard  times, 
and  at  a  meeting  on  February  15,  1840,  they  adopted  a  measure 
that  it  was  thought  might  enable  it  to  remain  an  active  force  in 
7 


194  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

the  labor  movement,  resolving  "that  all  moneys  now  due  by  mem- 
bers of  this  association  be,  and  the  same  are  hereby  liquidated." 
On  March  21st  a  committee  was  selected  "  to  ascer- 
Typographical     tain  the  names  and  residences  of  men  now  out  of 
Association         employment,  and  that  a  copy  of  such  names  be 
Collapses.  furnished  to  the  offices  conforming  to  the  scale  of 

prices,  in  order  that  they  may  be  enabled  to  give  the 
preference  to  association  men. ' '  At  the  same  meeting,  which  was  about 
the  time  the  dispute  in  the  three  leading  printing  establishments 
was  precipitated,  the  union  admitted  24  new  members,*  but  even 
with  these  additions  to  its  ranks  the  enthusiasm  soon  waned,  owing 
principally  to  the  failure  of  the  strike,  lack  of  employment  produced 
by  the  business  depression,  and  the  practice  of  employers  engaging 
at  low  wages  youths  who  had  only  partially  acquired  the  trade. 

The  Typographical  Association  ultimately  crumbled  to  pieces, 
its  last  recorded  meeting  having  been  held  on  July  18,  1840,  the 
minutes  of  which  session  briefly  announced  that  "  the  secretary 
read  a  statement  of  the  affairs  of  the  association,  and  the  Board  of 
Directors  were  specially  instructed  to  examine  the  matters  therein 
contained." 


*  Three  of  these  members  afterward  became  prominent  in  the  councils  of  Typographical  Union 
No.  6.  They  were  Jeremiah  Gray,  president  in  1853,  William  L.  Stubbs,  president  in  1856,  and 
William  Newman. 


CHAPTER  XV. 
FRANKLIN  TYPOGRAPHICAL  ASSOCIATION. 

THE  depression  that  succeeded  the  financial  crash  of  1837  did 
not  subside  until  1843.  Then  prices  began  to  rise.  Wages 
of  printers  had  suffered  a  material  reduction  immediately- 
after  the  dissolution  of  the  Typographical  Association,  and  with  the 
advent  of  1844  only  one  book  office  and  nine  newspapers  in  the 
Metropolis  were  paying  what  were  then  considered  full  rates.  Early 
in  the  latter  year  a  movement  was  inaugurated  to  advance  com- 
pensation, and  the  Franklin  Typographical  Association  of  the  City 
of  New  York  was  founded  to  accomplish  that  result.  It  was  the 
sixth  attempt  that  the  compositors  and  pressmen  had  made  at  organi- 
zation since  the  Revolution,  and  its  nascent  stage  was  marked  with 
the  same  degree  of  fervency  that  had  characterized  the  inception  of 
its  predecessors.  John  W.  Moulton  was  elected  president,  Joseph  T. 
Crowell  recording  secretary,  and  Franklin  J.  Ottarson  correspond- 
ing secretary.  One-tenth  of  the  whole  body  of  printers  at  that  time 
were  employed  on  newspapers,  seven-tenths  on  bookwork  and  period- 
icals, and  two-tenths  on  job  and  card  work. 

Almost  the  first  act  of  the  new  union  was  to  adopt  a  scale  of  prices, 
establishing  $11   as  the  minimum  weekly  rate  for  time  work,   28 
cents  and  32  cents  per  1,000  ems  for  piece  compo- 
sition on  evening  and  morning  newspapers,  respec-         Scale  of 
tively,  and  on  bookwork  25  cents  per  1,000  ems  for         Prices 
reprint  and  27   cents  for  manuscript.     This  scale         Adopted. 
was  agreed  upon  in  April,  1844,  and  was  scheduled 
to  take  effect  on  the  15th  of  that  month.     On  April  13th  the  mem- 
bers assembled  in  special  session  at  Temperance  Hall,  at  White  and 
Centre  streets,  and  applauded  the  reading  by  the  chairman  of  the 
following  communication  from  Addison  Hill,  who  was  connected 
with  the  New  York  State  arsenal  at  Franklin  and  Elm  streets: 

The  era  of  good  feeling  which  I  am  informed  is  about  to  be  consummated  by  a 
union  of  the  employing  and  employed  sons  of  the  "  Old  Doctor,"*  in  their  present 

1  The  term  "  Sons  of  the  Old  Doctor  "  probably  has  reference  to  the  "  Sons  of  Faust,"  which 
appellation  is  frequently  applied  to  printers.  Johann  Faust,  who  was  the  associate  of  Gutenberg 
and  Schofier  in  the  first  development  of  the  art  of  printing,  was,  according  to  tradition,  impeached 
as  a  sorcerer,  and  saved  his  life  by  revealing  his  typographical  secret.  For  that  reason  his  identity 
has  been  sometimes  erroneously  confused  with  that  of  Doctor  Johann  Faust,  a  noted  character  of 
German  national  poetry  and  reputed  to  have  been  a  celebrated  necromancer,  who  conjured  with 
the  Evil  One. 

[195] 


196  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

worthy  efforts  to  establish  a  universal  and  mutual  scale  of  prices,  merits,  in  my 
opinion,  some  public  demonstration  of  congratulation;  and  although  I  have  not 
for  the  few  past  years  been  in  the  business,  having  secured  other  occupation, 
yet  I  feel  as  much  interest  in  the  prosperity  and  success  of  the  craft  as  ever. 
I  would  therefore,  in  view  of  all  the  circumstances,  volunteer  to  fire  a  grand 
salute,  as  soon  as  the  union  is  effected  (if  the  same  be  approved  by  the  associa- 
tion over  which  you  preside),  at  such  time  as  may  be  selected  hereafter.  I 
think  it  would  be  the  means  of  rousing  up  the  slumbering  craft  throughout  the 
Union  to  a  proper  estimate  of  its  own  importance,  as  the  moral  effect  of  each 
gun  would  be  felt  from  the  Aristook  to  the  Sabine. 

The  letter  was  accepted,  the  thanks  of  the  association  were  voted 
to  Mr.  Hill,  and  it  was  unanimously  ordered  "  that  a  committee  of 
three  be  appointed  to  make  arrangements  for  the 
Employers       firing  of  100  guns  on  Monday,  April  15th,  at  12 
Concede  o'clock  noon."     At  the  meeting  it  was  stated  that 

Demands.  ^  large  majority  of  the  employers  had  already  agreed 
to  pay  the  scale.  Preparations  were,  however, 
made  for  a  strike  in  establishments  that  might  decline  to  accede 
to  the  demand,  the  Board  of  Managers  resolving  "  that  all  persons 
who  may  be  thrown  out  of  employment  in  consequence  of  demanding 
the  advance  designated  in  the  scale  be  requested  to  report  them- 
selves to  the  Board  of  Managers  at  Stoneall's  Hotel,  Fulton  street, 
on  Monday,  April  15th,  between  the  hours  of  10  o'clock  a.  m.  and  10 
o'clock  p.  M.  to  receive  such  information  and  assistance  as  is  in  their 
power  to  give."  The  board  gave  notice  that  it  would  be  present 
at  the  strike  headquarters  named  during  the  hours  mentioned  for 
the  purposes  stated  in  the  resolution. 

The  Tribune  of  April  15th  commented  editorially  on  what  it  was 

pleased  to  term  an  "  important  move,"  stating  "  that  a  new  scale  of 

prices  has  been  fixed  upon  by  the  craft  and  adopted 

Victory  generally  by  the  employers  throughout  the  city, 

ccaime  without    the    shghtest    interruption    to    the   good 

by  Discharge  °  ,  ^       , 

of  Artillery.  feeling  which  exists  between  them.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  feeling  has  been  augmented  and 
rendered  more  durable  by  the  recent  steps  taken  in  concert 
by  the  employers  and  employed.  This  *  era  of  good  feeling  '  is  to 
be  celebrated  this  morning  by  a  discharge  of  artillery  in  the  park 
in  front  of  the  Tribune  office."  The  victory  of  the  association  was 
duly  acclaimed  by  the  firing  of  cannon  in  City  Hall  Park,  and  on 
April  1 6th  the  Herald  noticed  the  event  in  an  editorial  under  the 
caption  of  "  Printers'  Prices  and  Big  Guns,"  remarking:  "A  body 
of  printers  met  in  the  park  yesterday  and  fired  off  100  guns,  by  way 
of  rejoicing  that  they  had  obtained  an  advance  of  wages  from  all 
employers  of  New  York  except  two  —  the  highly  respectable  fat 


FRANKLIN  TYPOGRAPHICAL  ASSOCIATION.  197 

*  rats  '  of  the  Journal  of  Commerce  and  the  Daily  Express.  The 
best  and  most  industrious  portion  of  the  printers  generally  take  these 
things  in  silence.     It  is  much  the  better  way." 

The  Board  of  Managers  advertised  the  fact  on  May  8th  that  the 
association  had  "  opened  a  reading  and  register  room  at  No.  109 
Nassau  street,  second  floor,  for  the  use  of  journey- 
men printers."      This  was  a  House  of  Call,  where       House 
unemployed  members  registered  their  names  and        of  Call 
awaited    calls    of    employers    for    printers.     Idle        Opened. 
journeymen  who  did  not  belong  to  the  union  were 
also  "  requested  to  call  and  register  their  names  at  the  association 
rooms  for  the  purpose  of  being  nominated  by  the  Board  of  Managers." 

That  the  union's  triumph  in  April  was  not  universal  developed 
on  May  i8th  in  an  advertisement  that  was  inserted  in  the  newspapers 
by  "an  association  of  journeymen  printers  "  that 
had  established  a  co-operative  printing  office  and        Triumph 
was  seeking  patronage  from  "  publishers,  booksellers.        Was  Not 
trade     associations,     mechanics,     merchants     and        Universal. 
others."     It  was  explained  to  the  public  that  "  the 
journeymen  printers  recently  formed  and  established  an  association 
for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  a  just  and  permanent  rate  of  com- 
pensation for  their  labor  —  which  rate  is  now  being  paid  by  a  large 
number  of  employing  printers  in  the  city.     But  there  are  among 
them,  we  are  sorry  to  say,  others  who  refuse  paying  our  scale  of 
prices,   and  seem  disposed  to  oppose  peremptorily  all  measures 
emanating  from  us  as  a  body,  and  who  have  ever  heretofore  borne 
the  appellation  of  '  master  rats,'  from  the  fact  of  under-contracting 
or  under-bidding  their  associates  in  trade.     We  have,  many  of  us, 
been  instrumental  in  forming  that  association  and  establishing  our 
present  rates  of  labor,  and  however  sorely  pressed  we  may  have  been, 
have  still  remaining  with  us  too  much  of  the  proud  and  independent 
spirit  of  men  to  violate  the  sacred  principles  of  its  government  by 
seeking  disreputable  employment  for  our  livelihood.     In  view  of 
these  facts  we  have  to  state  that  with  much  exertion  and  persever- 
ance we  have  procured  all  the  essentials  necessary  to  a  general  print- 
ing establishment  —  capable  of  accommodating  at 
least  50  compositors  —  furnished  with  new  and  ele-  Horace  Greeley 
gant  materials  of  every  description  and  conducted  Advises  Printers 
by  an  association  of  journeymen  printers  compris-  *°  J^^^  Union, 
ing  the  best  workmen  that  the  city  can  produce." 
Horace  Greeley,  founder  of  the   Tribune,  was  gratified  with  this 
venture  at  co-operation,  observing  in  an  editorial  in  that  paper  on 


igS  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

the  day  the  advertisement  appeared  "that  the  ioumejonen  printers 
of  our  city  who  are  out  of  regular  situations  have  got  up  an 
independent  printing  office  for  themselves  and  such  as  may  be  in 
similar  luck  hereafter.  They  advertise  to  do  printing  as  cheap  as 
others,  and  a  little  better  and  quicker.  Success  to  them  anyhow, 
though  we  wish  they  would  all  join  the  '  Franklin.'  It  is  a  good 
commencement  of  a  new  business." 

Other  troubles  were  in  store  for  the  new  association.     Its  auspicious 

beginning  was  soon  marred  by  the  revelation  that  some  employers 

had  concluded  to  cut  the  rates  of  wages  that  they 

Master  Printers    had  promised  to  pay  their  union  journeymen,  and 

Decide  to  on  Monday,  July  2 2d,  a  meeting  of  the  workmen 

Reduce  Wages,     affected  was  held  under  the  auspices  of  the  Board 

of  Managers,  to  protest  against  the  proposed  action 

of  master  printers.     J.  L.  Jewett  was  appointed  chairman  and  F.  J. 

Ottarson   secretary,   and   the   following   preamble   and   resolutions 

were  unanimously  adopted  as  the  sentiment  of  the  gathering : 

Whereas,  Several  employing  printers  have  determined  to  reduce  the  prices 
paid  for  labor,  and  the  journeymen  in  their  offices  have  refused  to  submit  to  such 
reduction  and  have  convened  in  this  meeting  to  express  their  opinions;  therefore, 

Resolved,  That  the  great  body  of  honorable  printers  having  acknowledged  the 
scale  of  prices  adopted  by  the  Franklin  Typographical  Association  to  be  in  all 
respects  just  and  proper  and  that  scale  must  be  sustained, 

Resolved,  That  we  will  sustain  that  scale  of  prices,  and  that  we  will  submit  to 
no  infringement  whatever. 

Resolved,  That  a  Vigilance  Committee  be  appointed,  consisting  of  one  journey- 
man in  each  office,  to  guard  against  any  attempt  to  reduce  prices. 

Resolved,  That  the  conduct  of  those  employers  who  now  desire  to  reduce  wages 
Is  unjust,  dishonorable  and  deserving  the  severest  reprehension  from  every 
friend  of  honor  and  justice. 

Resolved,  That  we  recommend  and  earnestly  desire  a  general  meeting  of  the 
journeymen  printers  of  this  city,  together  with  the  Franklin  Typographical 
Association,  on  Saturday  evening,  July  27th,  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  their 
honor  and  interest. 

The  Vigilance  Committee  was  selected  and  the  following  address, 
prepared  by  the  corresponding  secretary,  Franklin  J.  Ottarson, 
was  ordered  to  be  issued : 

The  corresponding  secretary  of  the  Franklin  Typographical  Association  having 

been  duly  appointed  by  the  Board  of  Managers  to  confer  with  certain  printers 

concerning  prices,  respectfully  submits  the  following  report: 

Union  Protests        Saturday  morning,  July  20th,  I  called  on  John  F.  Trow,  the 

Against  Cut  corporation  printer,  and  stated  to  him  that  I  had  been  ap- 

in  Compensation,     pointed  by  the  association  to  inquire  of  him  if  there  was  any 

truth  in  the  rumor  that  he  was  about  to  reduce  prices  in  his 

book  office.     He  answered  me  very  haughtily,  "  Suppose  there  is  ?  "     I  said  that 

I  did  not  come  to  explain  why  he  should  not  reduce  prices,  but  merely  to  ask 


FRANKLIN  TYPOGRAPHICAL  ASSOCIATION.  IQQ 

what  truth  there  was  in  the  rumor.    Again  he  replied,  "  Suppose  there  is  ?  " 
I  asked  him  if  that  was  his  only  answer.     He  replied  that  he  acknowledged  no 
right  in  the  association  to  ask  him  questions;  that  the  association  had  been  the 
cause  of  difficulty  in  his  office,  and  that  he  was  determined  to  "  set  his  face 
against  "  this  or  any  other  association  that  should  assume 
the  right  of  dictation  as  to  what  men  should  receive  for  their         His  Face  Set 
labor.     He  should  "  set  his  face  against  the  association."     He         Against  the 
held  that  he  had  the  right  to  pay  what  he  pleased  for  work,         Association, 
and  that  no  one  had  a  right  to  say  a  word  in  the  matter;  and 
he  was  "  determined  to  set  his  face  against  the  association." 

After  this  ebullition  of  superfluous  breath,  the  gentlemanly  corporation  printer 
set  his  back  against  me  and  I  walked  off. 

Printers  of  New  York!    have  you  no  interest  in  this  matter?    A  portion  of 
your  number  by  great  exertion  formed  an  association  —  upon  a  liberal  and  benev- 
olent plan  —  have  adopted  a  scale  of  prices  to  which  these 
very  men  acceded,   and  which  every  honorable  employer       Right  to  Ask  a 
considers  fair  and  just.     This  scale  of  prices  will  put  more       Fair  Return 
money  in  your  pocket  in  a  month  than  the  association  will        °'    *  °'' 
take  from  you  in  a  whole  year.     If  you  who  are  not  members 
of  our  association  would  come  up  and  join  —  if  you  would  help  yourselves  fight 
your  own  battles  —  we  might  give  such  answer  as  would  effectually  convince 
Mr.  John  F.  Trow,  and  others  of  his  belief,  that  free  and  independent  men,  men 
who  earn  an  honest  livelihood  by  the  sweat  of  their  brow,  have  a  right  to 
dictate  to  fellow-men  —  aye  though  their  names  be  not  blazoned  six  several  times 
in  gorgeousness  of  gold  leaf  and  black  paint  upon  the  walls  of  a  four-story  building. 
But  if  the  mass  of  journeymen  printers  will  remain  idle  in  this  business — if  they 
will  shun  all  opportunity  for  benefiting  themselves  —  then  they  must  submit  to 
be  insolently  told  that  they  have  no  right  to  ask  for  a  fair  return  for  their  labor, 
that  they  must  take  what  their  masters  choose  to  offer,  and  be  silent;  they  must 
be  content  to  cringe  before  the  soulless  tyrant  who  by  any  means  may  happen  to 
possess  control  over  a  case  of  type  and  a  rickety  press ;  they  must  be  content  to 
live  or  die,  to  feast  or  starve,  as  the  greed  and  avarice  of  the  employer  may  dictate. 

Fellow- journeymen!  have  you  not  as  fair  a  right  to  sunlight  and  shade,  to  air 
and  existence  as  any  other  breathing  mortal?     If  so,  then  protect  that  right, 
for  it  is  in  danger.     The  men  who  would  deprive  you  of  a 
portion  of  your  hard-earned  wages  were  willing  for  their        Deprived  of 
own  interests  to  pay  the  scale  at  the  time  of  its  adoption.  Hard-Earned 

Business  was  brisk  then,  work  was  plenty,  and  men  were  Wages, 
in  demand.  Now  work  is  scarce,  and  for  that  reason  these 
fellows  would  cut  down  your  wages!  as  if  the  laborer  was  responsible  for  the 
decrease  of  business,  and  his  wife  and  children  must  be  punished  and  starved  so 
that  the  employer's  account  of  profits  and  gain  may  foot  up  as  they  did  when 
business  was  good.  Oh,  charitable,  enlightened,  benevolent  logic  that  would 
reduce  the  compensation  for  work  because  work  is  scarce! 

In  view  of  these  circumstances,  we  call  upon  the  journeymen  printers  of  New 
York  to  come  up,  not  to  help  us  individually,  nor  for  the  purpose  of  parade  or 
display,  but  come  up  for  the  benefit  of  yourselves,  for  your  own  protection,  for 
the  protection  of  your  wives  and  children  —  for  the  protection  of  their  honor  — 
for  the  protection  of  the  honor  and  the  dignity  of  Labor,  and  the  character  of 
freemen;  all  of  which  are  endangered  by  the  illiberal,  selfish  and  unjust  actions 
of  a  certain  number  of  purse-proud  mortals. 


200  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Regular  monthly  meetings  of  the  association  were  held  for  awhile 
thereafter,  but  as  the  proceedings  of  these  sessions  are  not  available 
it  is  impossible  to  chronicle  the  events  that  occurred 
Sixth  Union      in  the  closing  days  of  its  career.     Interest  in  the 
of  Printers        union  began  to  decline  when  some  of  the  master 
Dissolves.  printers  succeeded  in  reducing  wages,  and  that  the 

membership  from  that  moment  fell  oflE  perceptibly 
was  indicated  by  a  public  notice  that  the  recording  secretary  by 
order  of  the  association  issued  on  October  5  th  and  four  other  days 
during  that  month,  stating  "  that  a  correct  list  of  members  in  good 
standing  will  be  printed  on  October  21st,"  and  that  "  the  names  of 
those  who  are  three  months  in  arrears  for  dues  will  not  be  included 
in  the  list."  While  the  October  session  convened  in  the  usual  meet- 
ing place  at  St.  John's  Hall,  in  Frankfort  street,  the  regular  November 
gathering  met  in  the  association  rooms  at  No.  109  Nassau  street  — 
much  smaller  quarters  —  showing  that  the  membership  had  dwindled 
to  such  insignificant  proportions  that  the  latter  place  was  sufficiently 
large  to  accommodate  the  inconsiderable  attendance. 

So  far  as  can  be  ascertained  the  final  meeting  of  the  Franklin 
Typographical  Association  was  held  at  its  Nassau  street  head- 
quarters on  Saturday  evening,  December  21,  1844,  and  then  the 
sixth  trade  union  of  New  York  journeymen  printers  in  70  years 
dissolved. 


v^-cv^''-^  v;-iP^'^  .yjt.-'-v- 


v^v  >-'<-  v\. 


xv^^^^^^,-^. „.„ ,^ 


CHARTER. 


■^^, 


i^/ 


■'iV;.f:- 

■r 


^1\ 


'I 
J; 


B 


„l    ,A-„A       \,       .uu  '!■        „....,,,     1\k     I- .>J.\«\uv,     .1^    >W       JbtlfllUl 

„  .:.  ..,  ,w    i:.,uw.<>A.  y„y.A  >a. 

,,,  ,   v\„   i\;itioii.il  ei.HiiiiiiA;.i)u;il  iilnioii 

;  \\„  )Vitioiul(ri)()09i;ipl)ital  clnioii 

.,      ,        ,.,.    lU.-.i.,     ,A»,«    K.    ..VU.4A. 


9 

t 

1 
1 


if;  flJlJUrtVAOlnLlI   (UlUilli 


nil  .*iilft  d.m  Virtiu 


I 

i 


Charter  Issued  by  National  Typographical  Union  to  New  York  Typographical 

Union  No.  6. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

NEW  YORK  PRINTERS'  UNION. 

OUT  of  a  strike  of  printers  in  another  city  evolved  the  New 
York  Printers'  Union.  It  came  about  in  this  manner: 
Organized  on  December  14, 1848,  the  Boston  Printers'  Union 
adopted  measures  in  1849  to  advance  the  economic  interests  of  its 
members,  many  of  whom  went  on  strike  in  the  autumn  of  that  year 
for  a  higher  rate  of  wages.  Conditions  in  the  print- 
ing trade  at  the  Hub  were  then  at  a  low  ebb.     Ben    financial 

Perley   Poore/   of   the   Boston  Bee,   attended   the    „    .      „  • 
-'  Boston  Umon 

banquet  of  the  New  York  Typographical  Society  printers, 
on  January  17,  1850,  and  in  the  course  of  his  response 
to  a  toast  on  that  occasion  referred  to  the  typographical  troubles  at 
his  home  city.  "  It  is  not  true,"  said  he,  in  describing  the  affair, 
"  that  the  journeymen  struck  on  a  sudden.  For  a  whole  year  they 
had  endured  the  hardships  of  low  wages  —  journeymen  on  weekly 
papers  making  but  $6,  and  on  daily  papers,  for  night  and  day  work, 
but  $9  per  week.  The  conduct  of  the  printers  during  the  late  struggle 
was  most  honorable.  I  thank  the  New  York  printers  for  their 
sympathy  with  their  Boston  brethren."  It  was  in  the  evening  of 
Saturday,  November  24,  1849,  that  a  meeting  of  the  New  York 
journeymen  printers  was  held  at  James  C.  Stoneall's  Hotel,  No. 
131  Fulton  street,  "  to  respond  to  an  appeal  of  their  fellow-craftsmen 
of  Boston  in  relation  to  the  recent  strike  in  the  latter  city,"  so  read 
the  notification  for  that  gathering,  which  call  bore  the  signatures  of 
Thomas  N.  Rooker,  Frederick  A.  Hepburn,  Washington  A.  Dodge, 


*  Major  Ben  Perley  Poore  was  born  in  1820  near  Newburyport,  Mass.  After  learning  the  trade 
of  printer  he  removed  to  Athens,  Ga.,  and  when  21  years  of  age  assumed  the  editorship  of  a  news- 
paper in  that  town.  He  went  abroad  in  1842  as  secretary  to  Hon.  Henry  Washington  Hilliard, 
United  States  Charge  d'Affaires  to  Belgium,  remaining  in  Europe  for  five  years.  Returning  to 
Boston  he  became  associated  with  the  Bee  and  the  Sunday  Sentinel.  In  1854  he  went  to  Washing- 
ton, where  he  was  a  newspaper  correspondent  for  many  years.  His  letters  in  the  Boston  Journal 
over  the  signature  of  "  Perley  "  gained  for  him  a  national  reputation  by  their  trustworthy  char- 
acter. He  also  produced  numerous  literary  works.  When  the  Civil  War  broke  out  he  organized 
a  battalion  of  riflemen  at  Newbury  that  formed  a  nucleus  of  a  company  in  the  Eighth  Massachu- 
setts Volunteers,  of  which  organization  he  was  major.  In  1862  he  was  appointed  clerk  of  the 
United  States  Senate  Committee  on  Printing.  Major  Poore  never  forgot  his  early  connection 
with  the  typographical  fraternity,  and  on  May  12,  1887,  just  before  he  was  stricken  with  a 
fatal  illness,  he  went  to  the  Government  Printing  Office  in  Washington  and  set  up  1,000  ems 
of  type  as  his  contribution  to  the   Childs-Drexel   Printers'  Home  Fund. 

[201] 


202  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Monroe  F.  Gale,  William  L.  Stubbs,  Thomas  J.  Reed,  Charles  Mc- 
Devitt,  William  T.  Kelly,  John  Watson,  John  L.  Brown,  William  H. 
Brown,  WiUiam  Barton,  Jr.,  William  Bennett  and  Henry  V.  Baker.^ 
Robert  Cunnington  ^  was  chosen  secretary  of  the  meeting,  at  which 
plans  were  consiimmated  for  soliciting  contributions  to  sustain  the 
union  printers  in  Boston  who  had  struck  "for  a  higher  rate  of  wages." 
An  adjournment  was  taken  until  December  ist,  when  it  was  reported 
that  $203.75  had  been  collected.  Then  it  was  decided  to  meet  again 
on  December  8th  "  to  close  up  the  business  in  aid  of  the  printers  of 
Boston." 

I. 

Motives  That  Impelled  Organization. 

These  temporary  assemblages  to  give  succor  to  their  fellow- 
craftsmen  suggested  to  the  New  York  typographers  the  idea  of  found- 
ing a  permanent  association  for  their  own  protec- 

The  First  tion.     They  had  many  grievances  that  they  were 

Preliminary       confident  could  be  adjusted  through  united  action. 

Meeting.  Cost  of  living  had  increased.     Wages  were  small  and 

not  uniform,  the  Tribune  standing  alone  among  the 
morning  newspapers  in  the  payment  of  32  cents  per  1,000  ems, 
the  highest  rate  in  the  city,  the  other  forenoon  dailies  paying  30 
cents, ^  while  on  afternoon  and  weekly  journals  compositors  received 
from  25  cents  to  29  cents.  All  sorts  of  prices  prevailed  in  the  book 
and  job  branch  of  the  trade  and  various  rates  were  accepted  by 
pressmen.  Two-thirders  glutted  the  labor  market.  Compositors  who 
were  employed  by  the  piece  at  night  on  newspapers  complained 
bitterly  about  the  irregularity  of  their  working  hours.  Dearth  of 
copy  caused  considerable  loss  of  time,  for  which  they  were  not  com- 
pensated. Composition  of  local  and  domestic  matters  was  usually 
completed  before  midnight.  Intelligence  from  abroad  did  not  begin 
to  come  by  cable  until  nearly  ten  years  later.  Foreign  news,  which 
was  always  held  to  be  vitally  important  by  the  editorial  profession, 
as  well  as  records  of  events  from  California  and  other  remote  American 


*  These  men  subsequently  united  with  the  New  York  Printers*  Union. 

•A  few  months  later  the  New  York  Herald  advanced  the  price  of  composition  to  32  cents  per 
1,000  ems.  Under  date  of  April  11,  1850,  that  journal  primed  an  article  on  the  labor  question, 
in  which  it  was  stated  "  that  the  Herald  is  the  only  paper  in  this  city,  with  one  exception,  that 
pays  the  highest  prices  to  the  compositors.  Prior  to  the  agitation  of  these  labor  movements  Mr. 
Bennett  advocated  remunerative  prices  for  labor;  and  when  the  movement  commenced  he  set 
an  example  to  the  proprietors  of  every  paper  in  New  York  and  to  the  bosses  in  other  departments 
of  trade  by  voluntarily  raising  his  prices  to  the  highest  point." 


NEW   YORK  PRINTERS     UNION.  203 

coast  points,  was  in  those  days  obtained  by  mail  conveyed  in  slow- 
going  ocean  vessels.  Often  these  ships  docked  at  their  wharves  late 
in  the  evening  and  the  letters  and  parcels  that  they  brought  for  the 
morning  newspapers  were  not  ready  for  distribution  until  after  the 
printers  had  departed  for  their  homes.  Upon  the  delivery  of  this 
material  messengers  were  immediately  dispatched  to  the  residences 
ot  the  compositorial  force,  and  the  workmen,  who  had  then  retired, 
were  frequently  aroused  from  their  slumbers  and  ordered  to  report 
forthwith  at  their  respective  offices  to  compose  the  latest  news  from 
the  Old  World  and  places  that  could  be  communicated  with  only 
through  marine  sources.  These  were  largely  the  motives  that  im- 
pelled organization.  In  the  meanwhile  a  little  company  of  journey- 
men convened  in  the  home  of  Charles  Walter  Colburn,  a  Tribune 
compositor,  at  No.  48  Rutgers  street,  to  discuss  the  question  of 
forming  a  union,  and  at  that  first  preliminary  session  the  project 
was  put  under  way,  so  that  on  December  8th,  when  the  adjourned 
meeting  to  close  up  the  business  in  aid  of  the  Boston  printers  was 
held  at  Stoneall's  Hotel,  a  resolution  was  passed  inviting  members 
of  the  craft  to  meet  in  the  hall  connected  with  that  hostelry  on 
"  Saturday  evening,  December  22,  1849,  at  half  past  7  o'clock,  for 
the  purpose  of  adopting  measures  relative  to  the  organization  of  a 
typographical  association."  At  the  meeting  of  December  8th  Edgar 
H.  Rogers  was  chosen  chairman  and  George  Y.  Johnston  secretary, 
and  these  men  continued  to  serve  in  those  temporary  offices  until 
after  the  union  had  passed  its  formative  stage.  Report  of  a  plan 
of  organization  was  submitted  on  December  2 2d  by  the  committee 
that  had  been  previously  appointed  to  consider  the  subject,  and  the 
meeting  adjourned  until  Saturday  evening,  January  12,  1850,  at 
which  time  28  journeymen  assembled  at  Stoneall's,  adopted  the  first 
constitution  of  the  New  York  Printers'  Union,  and  decided  that  the 
organization  should  date  from  January  i,  1850. 

II. 

Initial  Constitution. 

The  original  preamble  to  the  constitution  put  in  force  by  the  union 
of  printers  in  1850  continues  to  preface  the  fundamental  law  of 
Typographical  Union  No.  6.  It  reads:  "  We,  the  printers  of  New 
York  City,  in  order  to  concentrate  our  efforts  for  the  attainment  of 
the  rights  of  Labor,  and  the  preservation  thereof  to  those  who  work 
at  the  art  of  printing,  and  believing  that  a  union  for  such  purposes 


204  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

must  be  beneficial  to  all  printers,  deem  it  compatible  with  individual 
rights  to  establish  laws  for  the  government  of  our  craft.  We  there- 
fore promulgate  the  following  constitution."  This  first  basic  law 
fixed  the  initiation  fee  at  $i  and  the  yearly  dues  at  $6.50,  payable 
monthly  or  quarterly  at  the  option  of  members.  The  minimum  age 
limit  for  admission  to  membership  was  2 1  years,  and  both  journey- 
men d.nd  employers  were  permitted  to  join.  Provision  was  made 
for  the  payment  of  sick  and  death  benefits,  and  pecuniary  assistance 
was  guaranteed  to  needy  widows  and  orphans  of  deceased  members. 
Empowered  at  any  future  time  to  adopt  a  scale  of  wages,  the  union 
was  prevented  from  initiating  "  any  printer  who  may  be  working 
for  less  than  such  scale. "     A  condensation  of  the  constitution  follows : 

The  objects  of  the  union  shall  be  the  maintenance  of  a  fair  rate  of  wages,  the 
assistance  and  encouragement  of  good  workmen,  the  support  of  members  in 
sickness  and  distress,  the  relief  of  deserving  printers  who  may  visit  our  city  in 
search  of  employment,  the  establishment  of  a  library  for  the  use  and  instruction 
of  members,  and  to  use  every  means  in  our  power  which  may  tend  to  the  elevation 
of  printers  in  the  scale  of  social  life. 

1.  The  officers  of  this  union  shall  consist  of  a  president,  vice-president,  a 
recording  secretary,  a  financial  secretary,  a  corresponding  secretary,  a  treasurer, 
a  Financial  Committee  of  three  to  serve  one  year,  a  Visiting  Committee  of  seven 
to  serve  three  months,  a  Relief  Committee  of  five  to  serve  six  months,  and  a 
board  of  five  trustees  to  be  elected  annually. 

2.  The  regular  meetings  of  the  union  are  to  be  held  on  the  first  and  third 
Saturdays  of  each  month,  and  special  meetings  may  at  any  time  be  called,  at 
the  request  of  six  members,  signified  in  writing  to  the  president. 

3.  Eleven  members  shall  constitute  a  quorum  for  the  transacting  of  business. 

4.  The  initiation  fee  is  $1 ,  and  application  for  admission  may  be  made  through 
any  member,  the  applicant  first  depositing  in  the  hands  of  the  financial  secretary 
the  sum  of  $1. 

5.  At  the  next  meeting  after  his  proposition  the  union  shall  take  his  request 
into  consideration  and  it  shall  thereupon  be  balloted  for  by  ball  ballots,  and  if 
the  applicant  shall  receive  three-quarters  of  all  the  ballots,  he  shall  be  entitled 
to  a  certificate  of  membership. 

6.  Any  printer  who  has  attained  the  age  of  21  years,  who  is  in  sound  health, 
and  of  good  moral  standing  in  society,  may  become  a  member  by  complying 
with  the  requirements  of  the  constitution. 

7.  Members  may  pay  their  dues  monthly  if  they  prefer  it,  and  should  the 
liabilities  of  the  union  in  consequence  of  benefits  to  sick  and  superannuated 
members  exceed  the  receipts  thereof,  then  three-quarters  of  the  members  present 
at  a  regular  meeting,  or  at  a  special  meeting  (in  which  not  less  than  20 
members  shall  form  a  quorum),  shall  have  power  to  lay  an  assessment  not  to 
exceed  the  sum  of  $2  in  any  one  year  upon  every  member  of  the  union  in  addition 
to  all  other  constitutional  dues. 

8.  In  addition  to  the  initiation  fee  of  $i,  the  sum  of  $6.50  per  annum  will  be 
required  from  each  member  as  dues,  payable  quarterly  on  the  first  Saturday 
of  April,  July,  October  and  January. 


-4      jif/a*  admitted  a  Memher  of  the   NeuiJ^Yern    printers'    2rtuion,[ 


^i^l. 


(Obverse  side.) 

Reproduction  of  First  Working  Card  Issued  by  Horace  Greeley  as  President 
of  New  York  Printers'  Union. 


V^<*n-    -^JJAY        ;i      $       :    CTS.            FINaNC!AI.    SECRETARY. 
'  '  '^  -v'' 


■1. 


'U^^^m-  '-^  '^'^'^ 


''^^ 


(Reverse  side.) 

Reproduction  of  First  Working  Card  Issued  by  Horace  Greeley  as  President 
of  New  York  Printers'  Union. 


NEW   YORK  PRINTERS     UNION.  20$ 

9.  Members  who  are  rendered  unable  to  work  by  sickness  shall  receive  the 
sum  of  $4  per  week,  and  in  case  of  death  of  a  member's  wife,  $20.  In  case  of  the 
death  of  a  member  an  assessment  of  25  cents  upon  each  member  will  be  made 
for  defraying  the  funeral  expenses.  The  surplus,  if  any,  to  go  into  the  general 
fund. 

10.  No  member  shall  be  entitled  to  receive  any  benefits  until  he  shall  have 
been  a  member  one  year. 

11.  Whenever  a  new  member  is  proposed  a  committee  of  investigation  of  the 
members  shall  be  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  qualifications  of  the  candidate 
and  report  in  writing  at  the  next  regular  meeting. 

12.  The  widows  and  orphans  of  the  members  who  are  qualified  at  the  time 
of  their  decease  shall,  upon  the  recommendation  of  a  committee  appointed  to 
investigate  the  circumstances,  be  allowed  such  assistance  as  the  union  may  from 
time  to  time  direct. 

13.  This  union  may  at  any  future  time  adopt  a  scale  of  prices  for  the  governance 
of  the  trade  and  any  printer  who  may  be  working  for  less  than  such  scale  shall 
not  be  considered  a  proper  person  to  be  a   member  of  this  union. 


III. 

Horace  Greeley  Chosen  President. 

Having  adopted  its  constitution  the  union  adjourned  until  Satur- 
day evening,  January  19,  1850,  when  it  met  at  Stoneall's  public 
house,  admitted  36  new  members,  and  completed  its  organization 
by  electing  the  following  officers  for  the  yearly  term : 

President  —  Horace  Greeley. 
Vice-President  —  Edgar  H.  Rogers. 
Recording  Secretary  —  William  H.  Prindle. 
Financial  Secretary  —  Robert  Cunnington. 
Corresponding  Secretary  —  George  Y.  Johnston. 
Treasurer  —  Thomas  N.  Rooker. 

It  was  fitting  that   the  printers  should  select  Horace  Greeley, 
founder  of  the  New  York  Tribune,  as  the  first  president  of  their  union. 
He  himself  had  been  a  struggling  joumejonan,  and 
when  he  rose  to  distinction  as  a  journalist  and         First 
publicist  he  advocated  the  rights  of  Labor  with  his        Working 
trenchant  pen  and  from  the  lecture  platform,  hold-        ^^^• 
ing  that  the  "  basis  of  all  moral  and  social  reform 
lay  in  a  practical  recognition  of  the  right  of  every  human  being  to 
demand  of  the  community  an  opportunity  to  labor  and  to  receive 
decent  subsistence  as  the  just  reward  of  such  labor;"  furthermore 
maintaining  that  "  the  first  if  not  the  most  important  movement 
to  be  made  in  advance  of  our  present  social  position  is  the  organi- 
zation of  Labor."     In  1849  he  importimed  the  compositors  to  asso- 


2  06  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

ciate,  as  five  years  previously  he  had  urged  all  journeymen  to  affiliate 
with  the  trade  organization  that  was  then  in  existence.  As  a  pro- 
prietor he  paid  the  highest  wages,  and  even  while  futilely  endeavoring 
to  make  a  success  of  the  New  Yorker  he  had  been  commended  for 
his  friendliness  by  the  New  York  Typographical  Association,  which 
on  December  17,  1836,  added  his  paper  "  to  the  list  of  price-paying 
offices."  A  true  representative  of  the  spirit  of  progress  and  reform, 
the  great  editor's  ruling  desire  was  to  make  the  world  better,  and  as 
an  example  of  his  consistency  he  assumed  the  presidency  of  the  new 
union,  devoting  his  best  thought  and  energy  to  propagate  its  prin- 
ciples and  promote  the  welfare  of  its  members,  who  under  the  inspira- 
tion of  his  genius  and  careful  guidance  soon  reaped  the  benefits 
of  coalescence.*  Charles  W.  Colburn  was  the  first  member  to  sign 
the  constitution,  and  when  the  working  cards  were  issued  he  received 
No.  I,  with  the  signatures  of  President  Greeley  and  Recording 
Secretary  Prindle  affixed  to  it. 

IV. 

Becomes  T5T)ographical  Union  No.  6. 

The  New  York  Printers'  Union  was  represented  at  the  National 
Convention  of  Journeymen  Printers  of  the  United  States  that  met 
in  the  Metropolis  in  December,  1850,  and  also  had 
Lots  Drawn       delegates  at  the  second  annual  session,  which  was 
_,  held  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  in  September,  1851.     But 

Numbers.  i^  ^^^  ^^^  until  May,  1852,  when  at  the  third  con- 
vention, which  assembled  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  where 
the  New  York  association  had  three  representatives,  that  a  perma- 
nent organization  was  effected  under  the  title  of  the  National  Typo- 
graphical Union.  Fourteen  associations  were  represented  in  that 
conclave,  and  at  the  afternoon  session  of  May  6th,  there  being  some 
solicitude  as  to  the  subordinate  union  that  should  be  honored  with 
the  first  charter,  it  was  unanimously  agreed  to  draw  lots  for  numbers, 
the  sixth  figure  falling  to  New  York,  which  thereupon  became  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  6.^     "Near  the  close  of  the  session,"  writes  an 

*  Charles  McDevitt  at  the  banquet  of  the  New  York  Typographical  Society  on  January  17, 
1850,  proposed  this  toast,  which  was  drunk  by  employers  and  employed  in  attendance:  "  The 
New  York  Typographical  Society  and  the  New  York  Printers'  Union:  The  object  of  the  one  is 
to  elevate  the  moral  and  intellectual  character  of  the  trade,  that  of  the  other  to  obtain  the 
guid  pro  quo  for  their  labor.  Like  the  twin  sisters.  Faith  and  Hope,  they  are  always  attended  by 
Charity." 

5  Charter  No.  i  was  allotted  to  Indianapolis,  Ind.  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  received  No.  2;  Cincinnati, 
O.,  3;  Albany,  N.  Y..  4;  Columbus,  O.,  5;  New  York,  N.  Y.,  6;  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  7;  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  8; 
Buffalo,  N,  Y.,  9;  Louisville,  Ky.,  10;  Memphis,  Tenn.,  11;  Baltimore,  Md.,  12;  Boston,  Mass.,  13; 
Harrisburg.  Pa.,  14. 


NEW   YORK   printers'    UNION.  207 

authority,'  "  considerable  anxiety  was  manifested  as  to  which  union 
should  have  No.  i  in  giving  out  charters.  The  union  having  the 
oldest  continued  existence  was  thought  to  be  entitled  to  precedence ; 
but  the  difficulty  was  to  decide  which  was  the  oldest,  as  seniority  was 
claimed  by  two  or  three.  To  settle  the  matter  it  was  proposed  to 
*  jeff  ■  for  numbers,  and  amended  to  '  draw,  as  the  most  expeditious.' 
The  drawing  then  took  place." 


•  Miss  Augusta  Lewis    corresponding  secretary  of  the  International  Typographical  Union,  in 
Menamin's  Printers'  Circular  for  May,  187 1,  page  109. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 
MOVEMENTS  FOR  HIGHER  WAGES. 

UNDUE  haste  in  seeking  uniform  wage  rates  and  attempting  to 
correct  wrongs  that  for  years  had  been  insidiously  creeping 
into  the  printing  industry  was  not  a  part  of  the  programme 
of  the  new  union.  On  the  contrary,  conservatism  dominated  its  coun- 
cils. It  waited  until  the  first  quarterly  meeting,  which  was  held  at 
Fountain  Hall,  No.  149  Bowery,  on  Saturday  evening,  April  6,  1850, 
before  considering  the  many  vital  questions  that  affected  all  journey- 
men in  the  city.  Then  it  pursued  the  safe  and  sane  method  of  first 
instituting  a  careful  inquiry  into  the  state  of  the  trade  in  all  its 
departments,  with  a  view  to  reforming  such  abuses  as  had  encroached 
upon  the  rights  of  both  the  workers  and  their  employers. 

I. 

Inquiry  Before  Action. 

To  make  this  investigation  a  committee  of  seven  able  members 
was  selected.  These  men  were  charged  with  the  duty  of  collecting 
every  item  of  interest  concerning  time  lost  in  waiting  for  copy, 
letter  and  proofs;  amount  of  proof  corrected  in  proportion  to  com- 
position; number  of  proofs  and  revises  required,  and  whether  pulled 
by  the  office  or  the  compositors;  favoritism  in  giving  out  copy; 
number  of  journeymen  employed,  prices  paid  for  different  kinds  of 
work,  average  earnings  of  each  person,  and  hours  of  labor;  number 
of  boys,  their  wages  and  working  hours;  time  and  manner  of  wage 
payments;  general  conditions  of  offices  as  to  order  and  comfort; 
circumstances  of  presswork,  job  work  and  stereotyping  —  in  fact 
everything  that  might  be  of  service  in  arriving  at  a  clear  and  just 
understanding  of  the  situation  of  printing  in  the  city.  For 
more  than  a  month  the  committee  studied  all 
Investigators  phases  of  the  subject  that  had  been  entrusted 
Report  on  to  it,  and  on  May   i8th  submitted  its  report,  a 

State  of  Trade,    carefully  prepared,  well-written  document,  graph- 
ically setting  forth  its  findings.     It  was  ascertained 
by  the  committee  that  in  some  newspaper  offices  compositors  were 
engaged  sixteen  hours  daily  at  insufficient  rates  of  pay;  that  there 

[208] 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  209 

was  an  unfair  distribution  of  copy  and  favoritism;  that  the  worst 
features  were  in  small  workshops,  wherein  prevailed  the  lowest 
prices,  especially  for  piece  composition  on  bookwork,  the  average 
weekly  earnings  being  but  $6 ;  that  the  absence  of  an  apprenticeship 
system  and  the  indiscriminate  employment  of  great  numbers  of 
boys  had  produced  a  superabundance  of  labor,  causing  the  constant 
unemployment  of  numerous  journeymen.  A  uniform  scale  of  prices, 
regulation  of  apprenticeships,  and  the  establishment  of  chapels  were 
suggested  as  immediate  correctives,  while  it  was  believed  by  the  com- 
mittee that  the  ultimate  remedy  was  industrial  co-operation.  This 
illuminating  paper,  which  sheds  so  much  light  upon  conditions  as 
they  actually  were  in  the  printing  trade  at  the  beginning  of  1850, 
is  so  valuable  and  instructive  that  it  is  presented  here  in  complete 
form: 

Fellow  Members: —  The  committee  appointed  by  the  union  to  inquire  into 
and  report  on  the  state  of  trade  in  this  city  respect  fully  submit  the  following: 

The  committee  would  here  observe  that  if  the  object  of  this  union  was  to 
represent  the  state  of  the  trade  in  its  worst  aspect  it  could  hardly  have  selected 
a  more  unsuitable  time,  inasmuch  as  the  trade  is  at  present  in  a  state  of  pros- 
perity, rare  even  at  this  time  of  the  year  and  unexampled  at  any  other.  Yet 
even  now,  when  the  prospects  of  journeymen  are  brighter  than  they  usually  are, 
and  when  all  are  willing  to  forget  past  trial  and  suffering  in  the  present,  and 
few  care  to  look  far  into  the  future,  your  committee  have  facts  and  figures  to 
report  which  justify  this  union  in  instituting  this  inquiry  and  demands  some 
immediate  measures  at  their  hands  to  remedy  the  evils  which  these  facts  and 
figures  prove  to  exist. 

Your  committee  have  secured  returns  from  82  printing  offices  in  this  city; 
these  returns  embrace  all  the  daily  papers,  most  of  the  weekly  journals,  together 
with  the  principal  bookwork  and  jobbing  offices,  and  some  few  of  the  smaller 
ones;  but  we  have  reason  to  believe  the  total  number  of  printing  offices  in  this 
city  is  not  less  than  150. 

The  committee  believe  that  the  worst  features  of  the  trade  are  to  be  found  in 
the  smaller  offices,  holes  and  corners  where  boys  do  the  work  which  men  are 
wanting,  and  at  half  or  less  than  half  men's  wages.     There 
are  a  considerable  number  of  these  places  scattered  about  the      Worst  Features 
city  and,  although  the  amount  of  work  done  in  each  is  small,     in  Small 
the  aggregate  is  considerable  and  the  effect  is  alike  injurious     Workshops, 
to  honorable  employers  and  to  workmen.     From  this  class 
of  offices  we  could  get  no  returns  which  were   reliable,  and   we   preferred   to 
omit  them  altogether  rather  than  use  such  as  might  prove  fallacious. 

Thus  then  we  think  that  we  have  a  right  to  say  that  this  report  presents  only 
the  best  aspect  of  the  trade  and  that  we  are  warranted  in  saying  that  if  such 
are  the  best  features  of  the  printing  business,  it  is  quite  time  that  all  who  feel 
an  interest  in  it  should  be  up  and  doing  to  remove  the  evils  under  which  it  at 
present  labors. 

In  the  82  offices  from  which  we  have  received  returns  there  are  employed 
about  850  journeymen  and  300  boys;  and  the  nearest  estimate  we  can  form  of 


2IO  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

the  entire  number  of  persons  employed  in  the  printing  business  in  this  city  is  over 
2,000,  who  may  be  classified  thus:  Foremen,  150;  compositors,  1,000;  pressmen, 
200;  boys  at  case,  600;  boys  at  press,  100;  girls  at  press,  100;  total,  say,  2,150. 
In  this  report  we  shall  confine  our  observations  chiefly  to  the  journeymen 
and  boys. 

Your  committee  will  now  proceed  to  point  out  some  of  the  chief  evils  which 
affect  the  trade,  and  first  of  the  rate  of  pay:     We  find  that  there  is  only  one 
office  which  pays  32  cents  per  1,000  •  and  six  which  pay  30 
Low  Wage  cents,  from   which  they  gradually  decline  downward  to  17 

Rates  and  cents.     This  last  is  not  a  common  price,  but  we  think  we  are 

Earnings.  Qjjjy  doing  an  act  of  simple  justice  in  referring  to  one  consid- 

erable office  which  employs  journeymen  at  this  price  (or  less 
if  their  necessities  are  sharp  enough  to  compel  thereto),  and  gives  them  the 
most  solid  matter  even  at  that.  But,  although  17  cents  is  not  a  common  price, 
23  cents  per  1,000  is,  and  we  would  ask  if  that  is  a  fair  compensation  for  the 
toil,  both  mental  and  bodily,  which  a  printer  must  undergo?  Allowing  for  time 
lost  in  waiting  for  letter,  copy  and  proofs,  in  correcting  extra  proofs  and  other 
unavoidable  delays,  compositors  do  not  average  over  5,000  ems  per  day,  which 
will  bring  (not  quite)  $7  per  week;  and  when  the  price  of  food,  the  expense  of 
fuel,  clothing  and  other  necessaries  and  the  enormous  rate  of  house  rent  is  consid- 
ered, who  will  say  that  even  the  most  prudent  can  save  any  portion  of  his  scanty 
earnings  for  the  time  of  sickness  or  debility  or  to  provide  for  his  family  when 
he  shall  be  removed  from  among  them?  It  may  here  be  objected  that  all  are 
not  paid  so  low,  some  get  good  wages,  etc.  We  admit  it;  but  if  we  understand 
the  objects  of  this  union  aright,  and  more  particularly  in  its  direct  action  in 
ordering  this  report,  it  is  that  all  who  are  capable  of  doing  a  fair  day's  work 
should  have  a  fair  day's  wages  for  doing  it. 

To  prevent  any  misconception  on  this  subject  your  committee  will  now  show 
what  is  the  average  earnings  of  our  craft. 

Our  statistics  tell  us  that  in  five  of  the  best  paying  offices  in  the  city,  that 

is  to  say,  in  those  offices  where  men  are  able  to  earn  the  most  money,  the  men 

average  at  the  rate  of  $12.50  per  week.     But  our  statistics 

Long  also  tell  that  those  offices  are  daily  paper  offices,  where  from 

Working  the  nature  of  the  work  they  are  obliged  to  offer  extra  pay  to 

Hours.  tempt  the  very  best  hands  in  the  trade  to  labor  an  average 

of  sixteen  hours  per  day,  and  to  expose  themselves  to  certain 

premature  old  age  and  probable  early  death.     If  proof  of  this  were  wanting 

your  committee  could  point  to  a  certain  office  (which  is  not  a  whit  more  unhealthy 

or  badly  managed  than  others)  where  they  reckon  to  lose  (that  is,  to  kill)  one  man 

every  eighteen  months,  or  two  years.     But  those  whom  we  are  addressing  must 

have  had  more  or  less  experience  in  these  matters,  and  they  will  not  for  a  moment 

dispute  it;  to  those  who  have  not  we  will  only  say  we  sincerely  hope  they  may 

never  have  such  experience.      We  come  now  to  the  second  class.     Those  are 

the  best  workmen  on  the  evening  and  weekly  papers  and  in  the  best  bookwork 

and  jobbing  offices.     The  compositors  get    from    25    to    29    cents   per    1,000 

and  the  pressmen  from  $8  to  $10  per  week,  or  an  average  of  $9  per  week  when 

they  are  at  work,  for  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  printer  is  as  subject  to 

the  fluctuations  of  trade  as  any  other  tradesman,  and  even  when  in  work,  if  he 

'     Since  this  report  was  submitted  to  the  union  the  proprietors  of  another  office  (daily)  have 
voluntarily  advanced  their  price  to  32  cents  per  1,000." — Supplemental  statement  by  committee. 


MOVEMENTS   FOR   HIGHER   WAGES.  211 

has  not  to  wait  for  fine  weather,  he  has  to  wait  for  copy,  for  letter,  for  proofs, 
for  sorts,  and  for  many  other  things,  each  of  which,  taken  separately,  is  trifling, 
but  the  total  of  which  makes  itself  seen  and  felt  in  the  week's  earnings.  Let 
us  now  consider  the  condition  of  the  third  class  —  those  whom  circumstances 
compel  to  work  in  the  meaner  kinds  of  book  and  job  offices  and  whose  compensa- 
tion varies  from  17  to  25  cents.  These  men  get  the  lean,  solid  "  dig,"  and  truly 
it  would  be  better  for  them  to  dig  dirt !  In  the  fresh,  pure  air,  with  the  sun  shining 
brightly  above  and  the  cheerful  sounds  and  pleasant  scenes  of  nature  all  around 
them,  they  could  not  but  be  happier  than  they  are,  buried  in  the  office  from 
"  earliest  dawn  to  dewy  eve,"  even  if  they  did  earn  a  little  less  and  had  less  to 
spend  in  excitement.  But  what  do  these  men  earn?  Our  statistics  show  that 
when  in  work  their  average  earnings  do  not  exceed  $6  per  week!  which  is  Uterally 
less  than  laborers'  wages.  It  must  also  be  remembered  that  this  class  (which 
is  by  far  the  most  numerous)  are  more  frequently  out  of  work  than  any  other; 
owing  to  circumstances  to  which  we  shall  presently  allude  they  are  to  be  had  at 
any  time,  and  in  any  quantity;  thus  great  numbers  of  them  are  only  "  taken  on 
for  the  job,"  and  when  the  job  is  completed  they  are  discharged,  to  be  out  of 
work  perhaps  longer  than  they  were  in.  It  will  be  at  once  perceived  that  this 
precarious  description  of  employ  reduces  their  earnings  to  a  miserable  pittance 
indeed;  it  deprives  them  of  all  the  comforts  and  many  of  the  necessaries  of  life, 
and  renders  life  itself  a  mere  existence,  hardly  worth  the  struggle  necessary 
to  maintain  it. 

We  believe  it  was  chiefly  to  raise  this  lowest  class  of  our  fellow-workmen  that 
this  union  was  formed;  and  it  was  to  expose  the  evils  under  which  they  labor, 
and  by  bringing  the  light  of  public  opinion  to  bear  upon  them,  to  cause  them 
to  melt  away  before  a  more  liberal  policy  that  this  report  was  ordered  and  pre- 
pared, and  we  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  if  this  class  of  the  working  printers 
will  exert  themselves  in  this  matter  as  they  should  do,  great  and  permanent 
benefits  will  inevitably  ensue. 

Your  committee  would  here  state  that  from  the  best  returns  which  they  have 
been  able  to  procure  there  is  an  average  of  300  men  out  of  work  all  the  year  round. 

Another  evil  which  presses  heavily  on  the  workmen  is  bad  and  irregular  pay. 
In  this  respect  New  York  is  better  than  it  has  been,  but  there  is  still  plenty  of  room 
for  improvement;  and  we  feel  convinced  that  we  have  only 
to  point  out  this  evil  and  (in  some  cases)  it  will  be  remedied.  Bad  and 

In  the  returns  in  the  hands  of  your  committee  the  offices  Irregular 

marked  as  "  bad  pay,"  that  is,  offices  in  which  the  workmen  ^^^' 

are  doubtful  if  they  will  ever  get  their  pay,  are  but  few;  but 
those  marked  "  irregular  "  are  quite  too  numerous.  By  "  irregular  "  we  dis- 
tinguish those  offices  which  have  the  means  of  paying  in  full  every  week,  but 
preferring  their  own  interests  to  those  of  their  employees  "  pay  once  a  fortnight," 
and  then  pay  only  in  part,  and  always  in  country  bills.  A  word  or  two  on  the 
"  good  pay,"  that  is,  those  offices  which  pay  in  full  every  Saturday  and  in  gold, 
silver  and  good  bills,  which  are  taken  in  the  way  of  trade  whether  city  bills  or 
not.  Most  of  the  daily  papers,  many  of  the  weeklies  and  some  few  of  the  book 
and  job  offices  come  under  this  head  and  they  are  now  sufficiently  numerous  to 
make  the  "  irregular  "  paying  offices  appear  the  more  odious,  and  the  men  who 
work  in  them  the  more  discontented  thereat.  The  workingman  generally  knows 
by  sad  experience  that  if  he  does  not  receive  his  money  when  it  is  due  he  must 
go  for  what  he  wants  on  credit ;  he  either  gets  worse  articles  or  he  pays  more  for 


212  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

them  than  if  he  purchased  them  for  cash.  This  makes  him  discontented,  he 
considers  himself  wronged,  and  defrauded  of  his  "  hard-earned  penny  fee," 
and  it  is  ten  to  one  if  his  employer  does  not  in  the  long  run  lose  more  by  his 
workman's  concealed  dissatisfaction  than  he  has  gained  by  the  wrongful  use  of 
his  money. 

There  is  another  practice  which  prevails  in  some  offices  and  to  which,  as  it 

causes  much  dissatisfaction,  we  think  we  should  not  be  doing  our  duty  if  we  did 

not  direct  your  attention;  we  allude  to  the  unfair  distribution 

Unfair  of  copy.     This  committee  does  not  allege   this  as  a  general 

Distribution         thing;  quite  the  reverse,  but  we  have  returns  before  us  which 

of  Copy.  show  that  the  practice  is  carried  on  in  some  offices  to  an 

extent  to  which  we  can  only  apply  the  word  disgraceful. 

Without  going  very  far  we  could  point  out  an  office  in  which  all  the  poetry  and 

work  of  a  like  character  is  given  to  the  two-thirders,  the  leaded  matter  to  the 

hands  on  time,  while  the  solid  invariably  falls  to  the  piece  hands.    In  other  cases  it 

assumes  the  shape  of  favoritism  and  certain  men  who  are  noted  for  their  amenity 

of  manners  and  plasticity  of  sentiments  to  the  foreman  always  get  the  fat,  while 

others,  men  who  think  civility  is  preferable  to  servility,  have  to  take  the  refuse. 

These  and  a  variety  of  minor  grievances  react  on  the  employers  in  a  way  which 

they  do  not  always  feel  the  effects  immediately;  they  are  too  apt  to  overlook; 

although  they  are  sure  to  find  it  out  (to  their  cost)  in  the  long  run.     We  allude 

to  the  fact  that  every  now  and  then  one  of  their  best  and  steadiest  workmen, 

worn  out  and  disgusted  by  continual  toil  and  the  scanty  remuneration  he  receives, 

makes  a  great  effort,  and  getting  together  materials  he  goes  to  work  for  himself. 

Here,  then,  is  another  rival,  another  competitor  for  public  patronage,  and  it  is 

a  long  odds  but  he  repays  the  wrongs  which  he  had  received  from  his  former 

employer,  by  underbidding  him.     Many  of  these  small  employers,  after  using 

any  and  every  means  to  keep  themselves  afloat  (and  injuring  the  trade  as  much 

as  they  are  able)  go  down;  and  either  return  to  the  ranks  or  leave  the  city  to 

try  elsewhere;  but  there  are  more  who  keep  up  and  for  many  years  hang  about 

the  skirts  of  the  trade,  picking  up  stray  jobs  here  and  there,  taking  them  for  any 

price  they  can  get,  and  occasionally  entering  into  competition  with  the  large 

employers,  sometimes  succeed  in  reducing  his  prices  without  in  any  way  benefiting 

themselves. 

All  these  evils  might  have  been  avoided  by  the  employers  pursuing  a  more 
liberal  policy  towards  the  employees.  There  are  few  workingmen  who  would 
risk  the  toil  and  cares  of  an  employer  and  the  probable  failure,  and  the  loss  which 
that  failure  necessarily  involves  if  they  were  satisfied  with  their  present  situation. 
If  employers  would  look  this  matter  fairly  in  the  face  and  endeavor  to  make 
those  men  who  suit  them  satisfied  with  their  present  situations  there  would 
be  less  printing  offices,  but  more  paying  ones. 

Having  thus  pointed  out  some  of  the  most  prominent  evils  which  afflict  our 
trade  it  may  not  be  deemed  inexpedient  to  point  out  some  of  the  chief  causes 
of  them,  so  that  knowing  the  causes  we  may  be  better  able 
Chief  to  apply  an  efficient  remedy. 

Causes  of  That  the  supply  of  any  article  always  regulates  the  price 

^*  of  that  article  is  an  axiom  seldom  disputed;  and  that  this 

axiom  applies  to  labor  as  much  as  to  anything  or  marketable 

commodity  few  will  be  disposed  to  deny.     Thus  then  there  can  be  no  dispute 

that  the  present  low  rate  of  wages  is  the  natural  consequences  of  the  super- 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  213 

abundance  of  labor  in  the  market,  and  your  committee  are  of  opinion  that  this 
superabundance  of  labor  is  chiefly  caused  by  the  present  wholesale  system  of 
putting  boys  to  the  business,  for  we  cannot  call  it  apprenticing  them,  an  inden- 
tured apprentice  being  almost  (if  not  quite)  unknown  in  New  York  City. 

Let  us  briefly  state  how  boys  are  usually  brought  into  the  business  and  how 
the  thing  works:     An  employer  has  taken  a  work  at  a  very  low  rate  (to  prevent 
someone  else  getting  it  at  a  fair  rate)  and  to  make  it  pay 
he  must  take  on  two  or  three  extra  boys.      Very  well  —         Menace  of 
some  of  the  boys  about  the  place  are  asked,  "  How  would         Superfluous 
you  like  to  work  at  the  case  and  have  all  you  can  earn?"         Boy  Labor. 
California  on  a  small  scale  rises  on  their  enraptured  vision, 
and  another  hour  sees  them  mounted  on  a  type  box,  with  a  "  stick  "  in  hand, 
busily  engaged  in  putting  a  case  in  pi.     The  first  six  hours  it  is  fine  fun  for  them; 
the  next  six  days  it  is  a  perfect  nuisance  to  them  and  they  are  a  perfect  nuisance 
to  all  around  them;  within  the  first  six  months  they  become  remarkably  clever 
and  after  that  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  employer  would  profit  or  lose  by  their 
running  away. 

The  novelty  of  the  thing  is  now  over,  it  is  all  labor  and  they  soon  get  discon- 
tented with  the  pittance  they  receive,  and  hearing  that  others  get  more  than 
they  do,  they  run  away,  there  being  nothing  to  prevent  them, 
and  great  facilities  for  travel.  They  soon  get  work  at  one-  Learn  Trade 
half  or  two-thirds  of  their  earnings  (these  sorts  of  lads  are  When  They 
sure  of  work  from  those  selfish  employers  who  care  not  what  ^®  Journeymen, 
means  they  use  to  accomplish  their  end) ,  and  after  working 
a  few  years  for  a  fraction  of  their  earnings  they  are  thrown  out  of  employ  to  make 
room  for  fresh  victims  of  the  cupidity  of  the  employer.  This  system  is  continually 
going  on;  boys  going  from  one  office  and  from  one  part  of  the  country  to  another, 
are  objects  of  no  soUcitude  to  any  one.  The  employer  says,  "  If  they  stay  with 
me,  good  —  I  shall  get  so  much  good  out  of  them;  if  they  go  away  I  must  get 
so  many  more  in  place  of  them."  The  workman's  only  interest  is  against  them; 
it  is  not  likely  that  he  will  take  any  pains  to  make  them  good  workmen  lest 
they  should  cut  his  own  throat  hereafter;  so  the  literally  unfortunate  boy  learns 
little  or  nothing  during  the  time  he  is  (supposed  to  be)  an  apprentice  and  unless 
he  happens  to  have  intellect  enough  to  learn  the  printing  business  in  a  hat  factory 
he  bids  fair  to  be  turned  into  the  trade  as  a  bad  workman,  and  thus  in  another 
mode  inflict  a  fresh  and  more  permanent  injury  on  the  trade,  as  we  shall  see  here- 
after. No  practical  printer  will  dispute  the  fact  that  there  are  a  great  number 
of  young  men,  "  just  out  of  their  time,"  who  know  nothing  beyond  mere  com- 
position and  have  in  fact  to  learn  their  trade  when  they  are  journeymen.  Your 
committee  have  information  of  boys  having  been  put  on  work  when  they  first 
went  to  the  business  and  never  worked  on  any  other  till  they  were  out.  They 
never  made  up  a  page,  or  imposed  a  form  —  hardly  corrected  their  own  matter. 
When  those  young  men  became  (by  the  lapse  of  time)  journeymen  what  were 
they  fit  for?  Just  what  they  are  —  the  means  of  cutting  down  the  wages  of 
better  workmen  than  themselves  by  giving  mean  employers  the  excuse,  "  Oh!  we 
can't  afford  to  give  more  to  such  inferior  workmen,"  and  "  Oh!  we  can't  give 
more  to  one  than  another;  it  would  cause  such  constant  grumbling  and  dissatis- 
faction in  the  office." 

Besides  these  evils,  which  may  be  considered  as  indirect,  the  greater  number 
,of  boys  taken  into  the  trade  acts  directly  in  keeping  men  out  and  in  bringing 


214  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

far  more  men  into  the  business  than  is  necessary  for  the  work  there  is  to  do- 
Let  us  give  an  illustration  of  each  of  these  modes  of  direct  injury.  One  illustra- 
tion shall  serve  for  both.  There  is  a  large  office  in  this  city  which  has  been  estab- 
lished many  years,  and  has  turned  out  an  immense  quantity  of  cheap  and  some 
very  good  work.  The  employers  have  made  large  fortunes  by  the  assistance 
of  the  industry  and  intellect  of  workingmen.  They  are  religious  men;  they  are 
accounted  honorable  men  and  the  friends  of  the  working  classes ;  and  we  sincerely 
believe  they  are  so,  where  their  interests  and  the  interests  of  the  working  classes  do 
not  clash.  Nay,  more.  We  sincerely  believe  that  the  principals  of  this  establish- 
ment are  more  the  friends  of  the  workingman  than  some  of  their  underlings, 
and  that  they  are  willing  to  do  more  for  them  than  those  who  have  just  left  the 
ranks,  we  are  willing  to  admit.  But  what  is  the  state  of  this  office?  Our  sta- 
tistics show  that  there  are  20  boys  to  23  men  employed  in  their  composing  room. 
Now,  if  we  give  20  years  as  the  average  life  of  a  printer  after  the  expiration 
of  his  apprenticeship,  and  five  years  as  the  average  term  which  boys  serve,  we 
shall  find  that  by  the  time  the  23  men  are  removed  from  "  the  struggle  of  life  " 
there  are  80  to  replace  them,  and  although  the  printing  business  has  increased 
greatly  of  late  years,  yet  we  have  a  right  to  expect  that  it  will  ever  increase 
in  that  ratio.  If  we  reckon  that  three  of  these  lads  do  about  two  men's  work, 
then  we  must  also  remember  that  these  20  boys  keep  fourteen  men  out  of  work 
all  the  time  and  thus  as  a  double  injury  to  the  journeyman:  first  by  keeping  him 
out  of  work  at  present  and  second  by  lessening  his  chance  of  work  for  the  future. 
Your  committee  cannot  help  thinking  that  if  this  matter  were  fairly  laid 
before  this  and  other  similar  establishments  the  employers  might  be  induced 
to  make  a  considerable  change  in  this  matter,  more  especially  if  we  could  show 
(  as  we  propose  presently  to  do)  that  boys  are  not  so  profitable  to  their  employers 
as  many  of  them  imagine.  Nor  need  employers  fear  that  any  restrictions  which 
they  might  make  in  their  offices  would  even  have  the  effect  of  causing  a  scarcity 
of  hands  or  a  difficulty  in  procuring  a  sufficiency  of  men  to  do  the  work  in  any 
emergency  which  might  arise.  There  are  always  enough  boys  brought  into  the 
trade  by  country  offices,  and  the  holes  and  corners  to  which  we  before  alluded, 
to  amply  supply  the  cities  and  a  trifle  over.  Before  quitting  this  most  important 
part  of  our  subject  we  would  say  a  few  words  as  to  the  profits  derived  from  boys' 
labor.  Your  committee  do  sincerely  believe  that  if  employers  who  are  conscien- 
tious men  could  really  know  the  time  that  is  lost  by  men  on  time  in  instructing 
them  (where  they  are  instructed)  in  correcting  their  errors,  in  preventing  and 
repairing  their  mischief  or  neglect  and  in  making  good  their  deficiencies;  the 
injury  done  to,  and  frequently  wanton  waste  of  materials;  the  room  they  occupy, 
and  the  very  inconsiderable  amount  of  work  done  by  them,  when  on  time,  they 
would  not  inflict  such  a  positive  and  serious  injury  on  their  workmen  for  such 
a  very  trifling  benefit  to  themselves.  There  is  another  point  of  view,  in  which  the 
boy  system  appears  a  positive  loss  to  the  large  employer.  It  is  this:  By  their 
taking  such  a  number  of  boys  they  sanction  and  uphold  a  system  which  injures 
them  (in  proportion)  as  much  as  it  does  the  journeymen;  for  let  them  take  as 
many  boys  as  they  will,  the  small  employers  will  take  more  (proportionately)  and 
let  them  pay  as  little  as  they  may,  the  small  employers  will  pay  less.  Our  statis- 
tics show  us  that  one  of  these  small  employers  (small  in  every  respect)  pays  his 
boys  $1  per  week;  while  another  rewards  their  overwork  (hours  stolen  from  the 
season  of  their  natural  rest)  with  the  munificent  sum  of  6j  cents  per  1,000. 
Such  offices  as  those  we  previously  alluded  to  can  never  compete  with  such  holes 


MOVEMENTS   FOR  HIGHER   WAGES.  215 

and  corners  as  these  latter.  They  would  be  ashamed  to  offer  such  prices  and 
ashamed  to  employ  those  who  would  take  them.  Then  why  not  unite  with  us 
to  put  down  this  infamous  system,  a  system  alike  injurious  to  all  who  wish  to 
act  honestly  and  receive  a  fair  compensation  for  either  the  capital  employed  or 
the  labor  bestowed?  It  is  to  the  interest  of  every  printer  to  keep  his  profession 
a  little  above  the  starvation  mark,  and  this  can  only  be  done  by  using  every 
means  within  his  power  to  put  down  the  present  system  of  reckless  and  desperate 
competition. 

Another  cause  of  the  present  low  rate  of  pay  is  the  great  number  of   bad 
and  floating  workmen  with  which  our  city  abounds.     We  have  already  pointed 
out  how  some  of  these  are  brought  into  the  trade  and  how 
they  operate  to  reduce  prices;  but  New  York  has  not  all         incompetent 
this  evil  to  answer  for;  a  great  number  of  bad  and  floating         Floating 
workmen  come  to  this  city  from  all  parts  of  the  Union  and  the         Workmen, 
world,  and  these  latter  form  the  very  worst  kind  of  workmen, 
for  as  they  generally  come  nearly  destitute  of  resources  and  quite  destitute  of 
friends,  and  as  unfortunately  they  must  eat  and  sleep  somewhere,  they  fall  easy 
victims  to  those  who  are  always  on  the  lookout  for  such  and  take  anything  that 
is  offered  them.     These  extremely  low  prices  then  become  "  the  established 
scale  of  prices  "  in  that  office,  and  if  any  good  and  respectable  workman  be 
forced  by  adverse  circumstances  to  work  therein  he  must  also  succumb  or  be 
out  of  work  when  he  can  least  afford  it. 

But  perhaps  the  chief  cause  of  the  present  low  rate  of  remuneration  and 
all  the  other  evils  which  affect  our  trade  is  the   unaccountable  apathy  and 
indifference    of   the   workmen    themselves.     To    describe    it 
minutely  would  be  a  work   of  supererogation;  all  must  be       Unaccountable 
aware  of  it  —  most  must  feel  it  in  themselves;  and  we  might       Apathy  of 
pass  it  altogether  if  it  were  not  for  the  hope  that  some  might       Printers, 
be  aroused  sufficiently  to  awake  to  the  necessity  of  speaking 
out   now  or  ever  after  holding   their   peace.     In   this   hope   your  committee 
would  respectfully  but  earnestly  ask  every  journeyman  printer: 

First  —  If  the  statements  in  this  report  are  not  strictly  true? 

Second  —  If  the  present  state  of  things  is  desirable  or  as  it  should  be? 

Third  —  If  he  expects  that  it  will  get  better  of  itself  or  that  employers  will 
make  it  better  for  our  especial  benefit? 

Fourth  —  If  he  has  any  right  to  expect  that  his  fellow-workmen  are  to  do  all 
the  work  that  he  may  reap  the  benefit  without  even  putting  forth  his  hand  to 
help  or  assist? 

Fifth  —  Or,  rather,  if  he  is  not  determined  that  from  this  moment  he  will 
devote  all  his  best  energies  to  the  regeneration  of  his  once  honored  and  always 
honorable  (because  in  the  highest  degree  useful)  craft  and  strive  to  work  out 
its  salvation  without  fear  or  trembling,  but  with  the  fixed  resolution  to  leave 
the  trade  at  least  a  little  better  than  he  found  it? 

If  the  journeymen  printers  will  do  this  generally  each  one  for  himself  and 
quite  irrespective  of  "  What  are  the  others  going  to  do?  "  our  work  will  be  easy 
and  our  triumph  complete.  Remember  that  the  assistance  we  ask  is  so  small 
on  your  part  and  so  replete  with  benefits  to  yourselves  that  it  is  directly  to  your 
interest  to  render  it.  We  recommend  no  strike;  on  the  contrary  we  deprecate 
all  violent  measures.  Our  weapons  must  be  moral  suasion  and  combined  with 
vigorous  action  by  ourselves  and  for  ourselves. 

If  they  wish  good  to  themselves  let  them  come  up  with  us  and  help  us. 


2l6  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Your  committee  having  thus  pointed  out  the  more  prominent  grievances  of 

the  trade  and  what  they  conceive  to  be  the  chief  causes  of  them  will  now  endeavor 

to  indicate  such  remedies  as  appear  best  calculated  to  eradi- 

Immediate  cate  them.     We  will  first  speak  of  the  immediate  or  present 

Remedies  remedies,  and  afterward  of  what  we  believe  to  be  the  only 

Recommended,      ultimate  and  real  remedy  for  the  evils  which  must  always 

exist    to    a    greater   or    lesser    extent    in    the    relations   of 

employer  and   employee: 

First  —  A  uniform  scale  of  prices:     The  advantage  of  the  general  adoption 
of  such  a  scale  would  be:     To  the  journeyman  it  would  secure  a  uniformity  of 
payments  which  would  render  his  earnings  a  matter  of  cer- 
Uniform  tainty  instead  of  doubt.     Under  such  a  scale  his  remunera- 

Wage  tion  would  depend  on  his  own  exertions  instead  of  the  office 

Scale.  jj^  which  he  might  happen  to  work,  and  it  would  prevent  that 

heart-burning  and  discontent  which  he  cannot  help  but  feel 
when  compelled  to  labor  for  less  than  he  has  been  accustomed  to  receive.  To  the 
honorable  employer  such  a  scale  would  be  of  still  more  value,  as  its  tendency 
would  be  to  destroy  the  present  system  of  competition  which  not  only  cuts  down 
journeymen's  wages  but  also  employers'  profits.  If  all  were  compelled  to  pay 
one  uniform  price  for  the  same  kind  of  labor  all  would  be  on  an  equal  footing 
in  their  attempts  to  get  work,  and  their  respective  success  and  profit  would  depend 
on  their  own  energy,  skill  and  business  capabilities  rather  than  on  their  capa- 
bility of  screwing  down  men  to  the  lowest  possible  price  and  filling  their  offices 
with  boys. 

Second  —  By  reducing  the  number  of  apprentices:     This  should  be  done  by 
the  mutual  agreement  of  the  employers  and  men.     The  employers  might  get 
rid  of  their  worst  boys  and  employ  good  and  efficient  men 
Unvarying  (who  would  earn  their  money)  instead.     Those  boys  who  were 

Apprenticeship       kept  should  be  bound  by  an  indenture  or  legal  instrument 
System.  which  would  compel  them  to  serve  a  certain  number  of  years 

at  the  business.  They  should  be  placed  at  the  commence- 
ment of  their  time  under  some  experienced  workman  who  shall  have  some  interest 
in  the  proficiency  of  the  apprentice  and  who  would  then  do  his  best  to  make 
him  a  good  and  capable  workman,  fit  to  go  into  any  office.  Your  committee 
believe  that  such  an  arrangement  as  the  above  would  be  advantageous  to  the 
employer  by  giving  him  a  few  good,  steady  apprentices  on  whom  he  could  depend 
while  in  his  office  and  of  whom  he  would  not  be  ashamed  when  they  were  out 
of  it;  to  the  men  by  reducing  the  number  of  boys  and  making  those  who  are  to 
be  their  fellow-workmen  more  fit  to  be  so,  and  to  the  apprentices  themselves  it 
would  be  of  incalculable  benefit,  for  instead  of  having  to  wander  from  office  to 
office  picking  up  here  a  little  and  there  a  little  of  that  knowledge  and  information 
which  is  now  always  given  grudgingly,  and  as  though  it  were  a  direct  robbery 
of  the  men,  they  would  then  be  regularly  bound  to  some  respectable  employer, 
who  would  be  bound  to  teach  them  (or  cause  them  to  be  taught)  their  trade. 
They  would  be  placed  under  the  care  and  instruction  of  some  experienced  work- 
man, who  would  feel  an  interest  and  take  a  pride  in  their  welfare  and  proficiency. 
They  would  be  recognized  by  all  who  knew  them  as  having  a  right  to  work  at 
the  business;  and  when  they  had  completed  their  term  of  apprenticeship  they 
would  have  their  indenture  to  serve  as  a  certificate  of  their  right  to  work  at  the 
business  wherever  they  might  go. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES. 


217 


Third  —  The  establishment  of  chapels  in  the  offices:  The  chapel  is  the  best 
and  least  objectionable  mode  of  regulating  the  internal  affairs  of  the  office  and 
settling  disagreements  between  employers  and  men  which 
can  possibly  be  devised.  The  chapel  is  a  meeting  of  all  the  Formation  of 
journeymen  (and  the  apprentices  in  the  last  year  of  their  Chapels 
time),  who  elect  one  of  their  members  as  "  father,"  who  Suggested, 
presides  over  the  meetings,  and  (except  on  extraordinary 
occasions)  acts  as  their  spokesman.  The  chapel  may  meet  at  certain  fixed  times 
or  may  be  called  together  in  the  office  at  any  time  or  in  any  emergency  by  the 
father  (or  by  two  or  three  journeymen  signifying  their  wish  or  the  necessity  for 
a  chapel)  to  consider  and  settle  any  business  that  may  arise  which  concerns  the 
men  generally.  Employers  who  might  object  to  the  general  body  of  printers 
legislating  for  "  their  offices  "  cannot  reasonably  object  to  their  own  workmen 
(who  are  immediately  concerned)  meeting  together  and  having  a  voice  in  matters 
in  which  they  have  so  great  an  interest.  To  the  men,  too,  it  is  of  the  greatest 
importance,  for  it  is  well  known  that  many  things  may  be  corrected  and  satis- 
factorily adjusted  when  it  is  known  to  be  the  wish  of  all,  which  would  be  utterly 
neglected  if  mentioned  by  one  or  two.  As  an  illustration  of  this  your  committee 
are  of  opinion  that  "  irregular  pay  "  might  very  soon  become  "  good  pay  "  in 
most  offices,  if  the  men  would  unitedly  lay  the  matter  before  the  employer.  Un- 
fair distribution  of  copy  and  favoritism  might  also  be  adjusted  in  the  same  way 
and  a  number  of  other  grievances  which  prevail  in  certain  offices  might  thus  be 
corrected  by  the  men  working  in  those  offices  without  going  out  of  them.  The 
chapel  should  also  frame  a  set  of  rules  for  the  government  of  the  men  in  the 
office,  for  the  prevention  of  unfair  conduct  toward  each  other,  and  ordain  a 
schedule  of  fines  to  be  levied  for  the  infraction  of  the  rules;  such  fines  to  be  appro- 
priated as  the  chapel  might  direct.  Such  laws  being  made  and  enforced  by  the 
men  themselves  and  being  for  their  own  benefit  and  comfort,  would  be  more 
strictly  observed  than  any  could  be  which  were  made  by  the  employer.  The 
chapel  is  a  very  old  institution.  It  is  in  universal  use  in  all  large  towns  and  cities 
in  Great  Britain,  where  it  is  of  the  greatest  service  in  settling  the  internal  affairs 
of  the  office,  and  its  authority  is  seldom  questioned  or  defied.  Chapels  were  in 
general  use  in  New  Orleans  a  few  years  since,  where  they  also  exercised  a  most 
beneficial  influence  on  the  trade,  but  owing  to  a  variety  of  causes  they  have 
dwindled  away  considerably  of  late,  and  prices  have  dwindled  with  them. 

Fourth  —  The  efforts  of  this  union  with  the  employers:     Your  committee  are 
decidedly  of  opinion  that  many  of  the  grievances  which  the  trade  at  present 
labors  under  might  be  removed  or  mitigated  by  a  respectful 
and  reasonable  remonstrance  of  the  employees  made  through         Employers 
a  committee  of  this  union.     Your  committee  in  the  course         Favor  Better 
of  its  labors  has  found  a  disposition  to  adopt  any  measures         Conditions, 
calculated  to  benefit  the  trade  quite  as  general  among  the 
employers  as  among  the  men.     Several  have  already  expressed  a  readiness  to 
pay  any  scale  of  prices  which  the  trade  may  adopt,  provided  its  adoption  be  gen- 
eral ;  and  we  are  of  opinion  that  if  a  fair  and  reasonable  scale  of  prices  is  adopted 
by  this  union  there  are  very  few  among  the  fair  and  honorable  employers  who 
will  refuse  to  be  governed  by  it. 

Fifth  —  The  efforts  of  the  men:  This,  which  should  be  the  first,  we  have 
placed  last  for  the  simple  reason  that  we  feel  the  greatest  difficulty  in  knowing 
what  to  say  on  this  subject.     To  your  committee  it  appears  strange;  nay,  per- 


2l8  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

fectly  unnatural,  to  urge  men  to  attend  to  their  own  interests;  and  it  is  only 

by  observing  the  short-sighted  view  which  workingmcn  generally  take  of  their 

own  interests  that  we  can  account  for  the  fact  that  men  will 

Activity  of  go  early  and  stop  late;  that  they  will  toil  and  work  them- 

Workers  sclves  to  death  for  others'  interests,  and  yet  will  not  bestow 

Urged.  g^jj  hour  oj-  two  once  a  fortnight  for  their  own;  they  will  be 

continually  grumbling  at  what  they  term  wrongs,  and  yet 

will  never  make  a  single  effort  to  remove  them. 

If  your  committee  thought  it  necessary  or  that  it  would  be  conducive  to  the 
interests  of  the  trade,  they  would  have  introduced  a  whole  string  of  clap-trap 
and  stereotyped  maxims  with  which  leaders  are  wont  to  amuse  the  people,  such 
as  "  Who  would  be  free  themselves  must  strike  the  blow,"  "  Union  is  strength," 
etc.,  but  they  do  not;  and  they  will  simply  observe  to  their  fellow- workmen  that 
if  they  want  a  thing  done  they  must  at  least  help  to  do  it.  If  they  want  their 
wagon  out  of  the  rut  it  is  in  at  present  they  must  put  their  shoulders  to  the  wheel, 
for  we  are  quite  certain  that  it  is  only  those  who  help  themselves  who  either  are 
or  deserve  to  be  helped.  Such  are  the  means  which  your  committee  recommend 
for  the  present  temporary  relief  of  our  craft. 

The  ultimate  and  only  radical  cure  we  believe  to  be  the  establishment  of  joint 
stock  printing  offices,  or,  in  other  words,  printing  offices  owned  and  worked  by 
practical  workingmen — offices  in  which  all  the  men  who  work 
Industrial  i^i   them   shall  have  an  immediate  and  pecuniary  interest; 

Co-operation  the  offices,  in  short,  where  every  man  shall  feel  that  he  is  working 
Ultimate  Cure.  for  himself  and  not  for  another.  That  such  offices  can  be 
established  by  the  combined  efforts  of  workingmen,  the  work- 
men of  France  in  a  considerable  number  of  instances,  and  the  workmen  of  Ger- 
many, England  and  latterly  of  America  have  proved;  and  that  they  can  be  effi- 
ciently and  profitably  conducted  might  be  positively  asserted  (even  if  we  had  no 
experience  to  guide  us)  from  some  simple  and  undeniable  facts  —  facts  on  which 
we  would  recommend  all  to  ponder;  namely,  that  all  large  establishments  have 
to  trust  to  workingmen  for  the  proper  working  of  all  departments;  that  nearly 
all  large  establishments  were  originally  small  ones  and  that  the  most  successful 
and  best  conducted  offices  in  this  city  are  conducted  by  those  who  were  originally 
workingmen!  If  these  propositions  can  be  denied  our  whole  design  falls  to  the 
ground,  our  whole  labor  is  vain  and  workingmen  must  be  contented  to  be  the 
slaves  of  capitalists  forever;  but  if  it  be  true  that  workingmen  can  successfully 
conduct  business  for  others,  then  we  assert  that  they  can  conduct  it  as  success- 
fully and  even  more  profitably  for  themselves. 

The  question  now  arises,  will  they  do  it?     It  is  for  themselves  to  answer. 

It  is  for  us  now  briefly  to  recapitulate  the  main  points  of 
Recapitulation.       this  report  and  close.     Thus,  then,  your  committee  report 
that  notwithstanding  the  state  of  the  trade  is  much  better 
now  than  it  usually  is  there  is  a  great  and  just  cause  of  complaint  of  — 
The  exceedingly  low  rate  of  pay. 
Irregular  and  bad  pay. 
Unfair  distribution  of  copy  and  favoritism. 
The  great  number  of  boys. 
Bad  and  floating  workmen. 
The  apathy  and  indifference  of  the  workmen. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER   WAGES.  JIQ 

They  recommend  as  present  remedies: 
A  uniform  scale  of  prices. 
The  reduction  of  the  number  of  boys. 
The  establishment  of  chapels. 
The  efforts  of  the  union  with  the  employers. 
The  efforts  of  the  men. 

For  an  ultimate  remedy: 

The  establishment  of  joint-stock  printing  offices  by  the  workingmen. 

And  now,  regretting  that  this  report  could  not  have  been  more  complete  in 
its  statistics  and  more  worthy  of  your  acceptance  in  all  its  features,  it  is  respect- 
fully submitted  to  you. 

Henry  J.  Crate, 
Edward  Cuttle, 
C.  Walter  Colburn, 
H.  A.  Guild, 
W.  L.  Stubbs, 
Richard  Crooker, 
William  Kildare. 
May  13,  1850. 

II. 

Printers'  Mass  Meeting  Considers  the  Report. 

Desirous  of  acquainting  the  whole  trade  of  the  conditions  as  they 
really  were  the  union,  at  the  session  that  the  foregoing  report  was 
received,  decided  to  call  a  mass  meeting  of  printers,  both  union  and 
non-union,  besides  employers,  and  submit  to  their  judgment  the 
findings  of  the  committee.  That  general  assemblage  was  held  at 
Tammany  Hall  on  Saturday  evening,  May  25th,  and  there  were 
present  some  600  persons,  mostly  journeymen.  Edgar  H.  Rogers 
called  the  meeting  to  order  and  James  White  was  made  chairman. 
The  history  and  objects  of  the  New  York  Printers'  Union  were  then 
reviewed  by  Mr.  Rogers,  who  stated  the  manner  in  which  the  data 
for  the  report  on  the  state  of  trade  had  been  obtained. 

Presently  there  were  loud  cries  for  "  Greeley!  "  and  amidst  vocifer- 
ous cheers  Horace  Greeley  ascended  the  platform  and  delivered  a 
brief  but  pointed  speech.     He  said  he  was  glad  to 
embrace  the  opportunity   to  address  the  printers    Horace  Greeley 
of  New  York;  that  what  he  should  say  would  be  of    Addresses  the 
a  sober  nature,  and  he  wished  to  be  listened  to  with    General  Trade, 
patient  attention.     "  I  am  one  who  believes  that 
good  wages  are  of  the  first  importance  to  all  trades,"  declared  the 
president.     "  I  also  believe  that  the  printers  of  the  city  generally 


220  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

are  very  inadequately  compensated.  While  the  journeyman  ship 
carpenter  gets  $15  per  week  the  journeyman  printer,  whose  labor 
tasks  not  only  the  physical  but  the  mental  energies,  realizes  less  than 
$10  per  week.  What  is  the  reason  for  this  difference,  and  how  shall 
it  be  remedied?  When  I  first  began  work  in  this  city  I  saw  men 
around  me  on  stereotype  work  getting  less  than  $7  per  week  — 
scarcely  more  than  the  wages  of  a  day  laborer  on  the  streets.  Then 
the  printer  must  spend  five  years  of  his  youth  in  acquiring  his  art; 
and  to  be  a  decent  printer  he  must  be  well  informed  in  the  literature 
and  news  of  the  day.  Surely  these  requirements  should  command 
a  higher  remuneration  than  the  day  laborer  is  offered  for  the  mere 
use  of  his  hands.  What  are  the  causes  of  the  depression  which 
exists  in  our  trade?  One  is  the  great  number  of  apprentices  turned 
out  by  the  country  offices.  The  apprentices  of  the  city  are  not  numer- 
ous and  have  Httle  effect.  For  my  part,  I  will  not  take  apprentices, 
and  have  refused  the  solicitations  of  relatives  and  friends,  telling 
them  that  the  city  is  not  the  place  to  learn  the  printing  business. 
The  country  is  the  great  nursery  of  apprentices.  Every  little  village 
will  have  a  newspaper  of  its  own,  for  the  6c\at  of  the  thing,  or  to 
show  their  smartness;  so  they  seduce  some  printer  to  get  a  handful 
of  materials  and  start  upon  a  list  of  three  or  four  hundred  non-paying 
subscribers  and  a  dozen  advertisers,  who  patronize. 
Too  Many  but  never  pay;  so  in  order  to  live  he  is  obliged  to 
Country  take  a  lot  of  boys.     Through  these  means  some 

Apprentices,     -^^o  or  three  hundred  boys,   I  fear,  are  annually 
driven  to  the  city,  because  the  country   printers 
cannot  afford  to  keep  them  at  journeymen's  wages.     Of  course  we 
cannot  employ  them  all,  and  they  immediately  enter  into  competi- 
tion with  the  workmen  already  here.     By  this  means  we  have  always 
a  great  many  more  workmen  than  can  be  employed  even  at  low 
prices.     I  am  an  employer,   and  am  in   favor  of 
Ease  of  paying  good  wages;  I  believe  it  is  for  my  interest 

Competition       to  pay    the  highest  prices,  if  not  above   those  of 
a  Curse.  other  cities.     The  ciirse  of  our  trade  is  the  ease  of 

competition,  and  the  facility  with  which  newspapers 
may  be  set  up.  I  believe  it  would  be  for  the  advantage  of  established 
journals  and  the  larger  book  printers  to  advance  the  rate  of  wages 
2  5  per  cent.  What  is  the  difference  to  the  employers  what  the  rate 
of  wages  is  if  it  be  uniform?  The  extra  money  which  they  would 
pay  out  at  maximum  prices  would  return  to  them  in  the  form  of 
diminished  competition.  The  interest  of  prosperity  is  always  on 
the  side  of  good  prices.     I  call  myself  a  prosperous  workman,  and  I 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  221 

do  not  complain  at  paying  full  prices  for  labor.     Besides,  something 
is  due  to  the  proper  dignity  and  respectability  which  can  only  be 
maintained  by  giving  to  the  journeyman  the  highest 
reasonable  rate  of  compensation.     But  how  shall      just  and 
we  come  at  it?     If  we  cannot  estabhsh  just  and      Endurable 
endurable  rates  in  such  a  time  as  this  we  cannot     Wage  Rates, 
do  it  at  all.     We  are,   in  the  main,   prosperous; 
the  country  is  prosperous;  business  is  good;  money  is  plenty;  labor 
is  in  demand;  many  of  our  journeymen  friends,  say  300  to  500, 
have  left  us  for  California,  thus  taking  off  competition  for  work; 
publishers  of  books  and  papers  are  doing  well;  there  is  a  better 
demand  now  for  our  labor  and  its  products  than  at  any  period  within 
the  last  20  years;  advertisements  appear  daily  for  journeymen,  and 
a  few  days  since  I  was  treated  to  the  novelty  of  a  visit  from  an 
employer  who  wanted  two  journeymen  and  didn't  know  where  to  get 
them.     If  this  opportunity  should  pass  and  the  revulsions  which  are 
sure  to  follow  such  unexampled  prosperity  come  upon  us,  and  find 
that  we  have  done  nothing  toward  improving  our 
condition,  then  we  must  give  up  hope  for  the  present      Something 
generation.     I  joined  the  union  in  the  hope  that      p        , 
something  good  would  come  of  it.     I  expect  good      Association, 
from  it.     But  I  recommend   no  strike — no  hasty 
attempts  at  coercive  measures.     I  would  suggest  a  committee  of  the 
coolest  heads  among  the  joiu^neymen  to  confer  with  employers  and 
agree  upon  a  scale  of  prices ;  consider  all  things  and  form  it  with  a 
strict  regard  to  justice,  make  it  fair  and  equal,  and  then  resolve  that 
it  shall  be  paid.      As  things  now  are  a  man  does  not  know  when 
he  goes  to  work  in  an  office  what  he  is  to  get.     Such  is  not  the 
case  in  London  or  Paris ;  in  no  other  city  is  there  such  anarchy  and 
confusion." 

President  Greeley  proceeded  to  show  the  effect  of  the  prevailing 
ruinous  competition  upon  publishers  who  were  willing  to  pay  fair 
wages,  contending  that  this  state  of  anarchy  offered  a  perpetual 
premium  for  low  wages.  "  It  is  important  that  journeymen  should 
have  some  rule  which  should  be  indisputable,"  suggested  the  speaker. 
"  I  hope  a  strike  will  not  be  necessary,  and  I  believe  a  fair  scale  can 
be  made  that  two-thirds  of  the  employers  will  agree  to  pay  —  the 
other  third  will  then  be  obliged  to  pay  it."  He  referred  to  the 
singular  apathy  of  printers  in  regard  to  matters  that  most  concerned 
them,  and  urged  immediate  action  before  the  falling  off  of  business 
and  the  coming  of  winter  should  make  it  necessary  for  men  to  retain 
their  places  at  any  pay.     "  I  hope  a  careful  committee,  representing 


222  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

all  branches  of  the  business,  will  be  ordered,"  he  urged  at  the  con- 
clusion of  his  remarks,  which  were  persistently  applauded,  "  and 
go  to  work  at  once.  There  is  no  reason  why  by  the  Fourth  of  July 
there  should  not  be  a  just  and  potent  scale  of  prices,  which  should 
be  the  standard  in  all  cases,  and  valid  for  the  collection  of  a  debt  of 
labor  in  a  court  of  law." 

The  report  on  the  state  of  trade  was  then  read 
T    A  °p  ^^^  approved  as  the  sentiment  of  the  meeting ;  after 

Approved  which  action  the  following  resolutions  were  unani- 

mously adopted : 

Resolved,  That  "  a  fair  day's  pay  for  a  fair  day's  work  "  is  the  clear  dictate  of 
natural  justice,  general  interest  and  sincere  philanthropy;  and  we  appeal  to 
employers,  journeymen,  publishers  and  our  fellow-citizens  generally  for  sympathy 
and  aid  in  our  effort  to  establish  a  just  and  uniform  scale  of  prices  for  printing 
in  every  department. 

Resolved,  That  experience  has  abundantly  proved  that  the  surrender  of  our 
business  to  the  unregulated,  unlimited  operation  of  the  vaunted  "  law  of  supply 
and  demand  " —  that  is,  to  the  law  that  "  might  makes  right  " —  is  in  effect  to 
empower  the  least  honorable  and  most  avaricious  employers  to  establish  prices 
for  our  labor  to  which  the  generous  and  upright  are  constrained  at  least  to  con- 
form, under  penalty  of  seeing  their  business  taken  from  them  by  underworkers 
and  the  wholesale  employers  of  runaway  apprentices  and  boys  unacquainted 
with  the  rudiments  of  our  trade. 

Resolved,  That  we  hereby  resolve  to  unite  in  one  more  earnest  and  thorough 
effort  to  establish  a  uniform  scale  of  prices  for  journeymen's  work  in  every  branch 
of  our  trade,  and  we  entreat  the  co-operation  of  employers  as  well  as  journeymen 
in  procuring,  perfecting  and  sustaining  such  scale. 

Resolved,  That  we  tender  our  thanks  to  the  Printers'  Union  for  their  graphic 
and  faithful  report  on  the  state  of  the  trade,  and  rejoice  that  the  facts  therein 
presented  have  been  so  clearly  presented  to  the  public,  never  doubting  that  the 
exposure  of  flagrant  abuses  is  a  great  step  toward  their  thorough  correction. 

Discussion  was  then  had  upon  the  condition  of  the  trade  and  the 
best  remedy  to  apply  for  the  benefit  of  those  engaged  at  the  printing 
business.     Various  motions  and  amendments  were 
Union  Requested  made,  with  no  decided  action.     Some  desired  the 
to  Prepare  a         meeting  to  act  independently,  while  others  thought 
Scale  of  Prices,    the  union  should  carry  out  the  work.     A  show  of 
hands  of  those  who  were  minded  to  join  the  asso- 
ciation was  called  for.     At  least  loo  thus  signified  their  intention, 
and  during  the  evening  more  than  50  names  were  proposed  for 
membership.     After  a  free  interchange  of  opinions,  indulged  in  by 
Messrs.  Charles  McDevitt,  C.  W.  Colbum,  E.  H.  Rogers,  WilHam  H. 
Prindle,  T.  N.  Rooker,  Samuel  Sloan  and  others,  Peter  C.  Baker, 
former  president  of  the  New  York  Typographical  Society,  offered 


MOVEMENTS    FOR   HIGHER   WAGES.  223 

the  following  resolution,  which  was  passed  without  a  dissenting 
vote,  and  the  meeting  adjourned : 

Resolved,  That  the  New  York  Printers'  Union  be  requested  to  prepare  a  scale 
of  prices  and  report  the  same  at  a  future  time,  as  early  as  convenient,  to  a  mass 
meeting  of  the  printers  of  this  city. 

"  It  is  evident,  from  the  large  attendance  and  the  unusual  interest 
manifested,"  commented  the  Tribune  of  May  27th  in  an  article 
respecting  the  meeting,  "  that  this  is  the  favorable  moment  for  a 
move  toward  relief  from  the  present  uncertain  condition  of  work 
and  remuneration.  We  trust  that  every  printer  will  recollect  that 
it  is  by  a  union  of  all,  or  at  least  of  a  great  majority  of  the  journey- 
men, that  this  object  can  be  achieved.  Let  them  be  as  one  man,  united 
and  determined  to  stay  united,  and  all  fair  and  honorable  conces- 
sions will  come,  without  strikes  or  vain  parades  or  noisy  vaporing. 
Remember,  in  union  —  and  in  union  alone  —  there  is  strength." 


III. 

First  Scale  Committee  Appointed. 

Members  of  the  union  took  ample  time  to  analyze  and  digest  the 
committee's  report  before  giving  consideration  to  its  recommenda- 
tions, as  well  as  the  resolutions  of  the  printers'  mass  meeting.  They 
met  in  ftdl  force  on  the  night  of  June  3d,  when  a  spirited  debate 
ensued  upon  the  question  of  appointing  a  committee  of  thirteen  to 
draft  a  scale  of  prices.  The  resolution  was  carried,  but  as  95  propo- 
sitions for  membership  were  received  at  that  meeting  it  was  decided 
to  defer  for  a  fortnight  the  selection  of  the  Scale  Committee  in  order 
to  give  this  large  reinforcement  an  opportunity  to  participate  in 
its  formation.  Again  the  union  journeymen  assembled  in  large 
numbers  on  the  night  of  June  15th,  in  the  morning  of  which  date 
the  Tribune  announced  that  "  all  who  are  members  of  the  New  York 
Printers'  Union  are  expected  to  be  at  the  meeting  to-night.  The 
committee  to  draft  the  scale  of  prices  is  to  be  appointed,  and  on  the 
action  of  this  committee  the  gravest  interests  of  the  trade  will 
depend.  It  is  therefore  especially  important  that  the  most  potential, 
well-informed,  experienced  and  prudent  men  should  be  selected. 
We  hope  to  see  every  member  of  the  union  in  attendance  and  that 
this  important  committee  will  be  the  very  best  that  the  deliberative 
judgment  of  the  whole  membership  can  choose.  Those  who  do  not 
attend  on  this  occasion  will  have  not  even  the  poor  privilege  of 


224  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

grumbling,  if  anything  goes  wrong.  Now,  show  yourselves,  for  an 
hour  or  two  at  least,  interested  in  your  own  welfare.  Look  out  for 
your  own  pockets.  You  have  '  trusted  luck  '  and  slept  in  '  masterly 
inactivity  '  long  enough —  it  is  time  to  work!"  The  committee  of 
thirteen  to  prepare  the  wage  scale  was  chosen  from  among  the  repre- 
sentatives of  all  branches  of  the  trade  —  consisting  of  five  from  book 
and  stereotype  offices,  three  from  daily  newspapers,  two  from  press- 
rooms, two  from  job  offices,  and  one  from  a  weekly  paper.  The  mem- 
bers of  the  committee  immediately  began  their  task,  which  was 
completed  early  in  September,  when  it  was  decided  by  the  union  to 
accept  the  tentative  schedule  and  submit  it  to  the  employers  for 
their  consideration  before  making  a  formal  demand  for  its  general 
adoption. 

President  Greeley  remained  conspicuously  active  in  the  movement 
for  uniform  wages.     In  the  Tribune  of  September  3d  he  gave  expres- 
sion to  his  thought  on  the  question.     "  We  trust 
Horace  Greeley    the  scale  will  be  generally  acquiesced  in,"  he  wrote, 
Agitates  for  "  but  that,  whether  content  with  it  or  not,  a  meeting 

Uniform  Wages,  of  employing  printers  will  be  called  to  consider  it, 
and  generally  attended.  There  ought  obviously  to 
be  some  uniform  standard  or  scale  to  be  appealed  to  in  case  of  differ- 
ence as  to  the  proper  compensation  for  any  work  done.  Anarchy, 
uncertainty  and  chaos  on  this  subject  are  all  against  the  fair,  regular, 
live-and-let-live  employer,  who  wants  good  work  done  by  good 
workmen  and  is  willing  to  pay  for  it;  and  benefit  only  the  niggard 
who  calculates  to  enrich  himself  by  grinding  the  face  of  the  poor 
and  robbing  Labor  of  its  honest  due.  All  we  ask  is  a  reasonable 
and  explicit  scale  of  prices,  agreed  to  by  employers  and  journeymen, 
and  binding  until  both  parties  consent  to  a  change.  Such  a  one 
may  now  be  had  if  the  honorable  and  fair-dealing  employers  will 
confer  with  the  joiu-neymen  in  establishing  it.  We  entreat  them 
to  consider  the  matter  and  act." 

Thirteen  printing  firms  issued  a  call  for  a  meeting  of  employers  for 
September  5th,  the  notification  stating  that  "  in  view  of  the  present 
state  of  business  we  believe  that  much  benefit  would  result  from  a 
free  and  full  interchange  of  sentiment  upon  the  various  matters 
and  interests  connected  with  the  prosperity  of  the  profession." 
Erastus  Brooks,  of  the  Express,  was  chairman  of  the  meeting,  which 
was  held  at  the  Printers'  Library,  No.  300  Broadway,  and  the  scale 
proposed  by  the  union  was  after  some  discussion  referred  to  a  com- 
mittee of  nine,  with  directions  to  report  on  September  25th. 
Representatives  of  33  establishments  convened  in  the  City  Hotel 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER   WAGES.  225 

on  that  date,  received  and  deliberated  upon  the  report  of  their  com- 
mittee, and  when  the  matter  came  to  a  vote  the  scale  of  prices  was 
rejected  —  there  being  fourteen  yeas  and  nineteen 
nays.      "We  had    hoped   for  a  different  result,"    Majority  of 
commented  the  Tribune  of  the  following  day,  "or      ™P  °y®^^ 
at  least  for  some  sort  of   compromise  proposition,    Proposed  Scale, 
and  we  cannot  but  regret  this  peremptory  rejec- 
tion.     We  still  think  that  if  the  employers  could  vote  according 
to  the  extent  of  their  business  the  scale  would  in  the  main  be  acceded 
to.     We  know   that  several  of  the  largest,   most  influential  and 
enterprising  firms  in  the  trade  are  willing  to  accede  to  the  request 
of  the  journe5rmen.     We  are  informed  that  the  principal  reason  for 
the  rejection  was  that  publishers  had  stated  that  they  would  not 
advance  contract  prices  in  proportion.     A  prudent  and  firm  course 
on  the  part  of  those  most  interested  may  yet  bring  about  a  satis- 
factory  adjustment.      The   matter  will  come  before  the  Printers' 
Union  on  Saturday  night,  when  every  member  should  be  in  his 
place." 

Well  wishes  for  their  Metropolitan  brethren  and  regrets  at  the 
attitude  of  a  majority  of  their  employers  were  expressed  by  the 
Albany  Printers'  Union  on  September  28th,  and  the 
resolutions  it  adopted,  signed  by  Giles  F.  Winne,    Albany  Printers* 
president,  and  A.  F.  Chatfield,  recording  secretary.    Union  Extends 
were   transmitted   to   the   New   York   association.    Well  "Wishes. 
These  Albanians  had  "  learned  with  regret  that  a 
part  of  the  New  York  employers  had  rejected  the  scale  of  prices 
submitted  to  them  by  the  New  York  Printers'  Union,  and  that  we 
recommend  to  that  union  to  be  of  good  cheer,  and  to  maintain  with 
firmness  and  undiminished  interest,  while  they  keep  in  view  and  hope 
for  that  '  good  time  coming,'  which  is  the  inherent  right  of  the 
workingman;  that  we  will  concur  in  whatever  alternative  our  New 
York  brethren  may  adopt,  and  show  to  them  our  appreciation  of 
their  rights,  by  a  strict  adherence  to  all  that  is  considered  honorable, 
just  and  fair  by  the  craft." 

IV. 

Adoption  of  First  Scale  of  Prices. 

Cautiously  did  the  union  proceed.     A  second  Scale  Committee  was 
appointed,  charged  with  the  duty  of  modifying,  if  feasible,  the  de- 
mands in  the  original  draft.     For  almost  two  months  every  section 
8 


2  26  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

of  the  projected  wage  schedule  was  considered  with  care.  Finally, 
on  October  26, 1850,  the  scale  was  adopted  as  a  whole  and  ordered  to  be 
proclaimed  on  February  i,  185 1,  thus  giving  employers  what 
was  regarded  to  be  sufficient  time  in  which  to  make  preparations 
for  its  pajnuent.  It  provided  that  compositors  employed  by  the 
piece  on  morning  newspapers  should  receive  32  cetits  per  1,000  ems, 
and  36  cents  when  engaged  exclusively  at  night,  while  for  time  work 
the  rate  was  fixed  at  "  not  less  than  $14  per  week  of  six  days,  twelve 
hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work.  When  employed  on  night  situa- 
tions two  hours  shall  be  devoted  in  the  afternoon  to  distribution  and 
seven  hours  at  night  (from  7  p.  m.  to  2  a.  m.),  and  they  shall  be  paid 
$11  per  week."  For  work  in  the  daytime  on  morning  papers  the 
piece  rate  was  28  cents  per  1,000  ems  and  the  time  scale  $10  weekly, 
which  were  also  the  prices  on  evening,  weekly,  semi-weekly  and  tri- 
weekly papers,  daily  working  time  being  ten  hours.  In  morning 
newspaper  establishments  provision  was  made  that  "  when  required 
to  remain  in  the  office  unemployed  during  the  stipulated  hours  for 
composition  the  compositor  shall  receive  not  less  than  25  cents  per 
hour  for  such  standing  time,  it  being  understood  of  course  that  he 
shall  perform  any  other  reasonable  work  that  the  employer  may 
appoint  during  such  standing  time."  It  was  also  provided  that 
"  when  compositors  are  called  upon  before  the  regular  hoiir  for 
commencing  composition,  in  case  of  the  arrival  of  a  steamer,  etc., 
they  shall  be  paid  not  less  than  $1  each  for  such  call,  and  be  entitled 
to  the  matter  they  set."  Where  both  week  and  piece  workers  were 
employed  in  newspaper  offices  it  was  demanded  that  the  fat  and  lean 
copy  be  distributed  equally  among  them.  Piece  rates  on  bookwork 
in  the  English  language  were  for  reprint  and  manuscript  for  common 
matter  set  in  type  from  pica  to  agate,  inclusive,  27  cents  and  29 
cents  per  1,000  ems,  respectively,  with  additional  prices  for  smaller 
type,  as  well  as  for  works  in  foreign  languages.  A  job  compositor's 
wage  was  $10  per  week,  ten  hours  per  day,  and  if  engaged  by  the 
piece  "  28  cents  per  1,000  ems  for  either  manuscript  or  reprint, 
without  the  usual  extras  belonging  to  bookwork."  Power  and  hand 
pressmen  could  not  work  for  less  than  $10  and  $12  per  week  for  day 
and  night  work,  respectively,  each  day's  labor  to  consist  of  ten  hours. 
There  were  also  a  series  of  piece  rates  for  pressroom  workers.  Gen- 
eral regulations  accompanied  the  price  list,  providing,  among  other 
things,  that  two  weeks'  notice  be  given  a  journeyman  before  his 
discharge,  and  that  compositors  contemplating  leaving  their  em- 
ployment give  like  notice.  The  text  of  the  original  scale  appears 
below : 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  227 

SCALE  OF  PRICES  OF  THE  PRINTERS'  UNION  OF  THE  CITY  OF 

NEW  YORK. 
Bookwork. 

Article  i.  Works  done  in  the  English  language,  common  matter  (reprint)  from 
pica  to  agate,  inclusive,  27  cents  per  1,000  ems;  pearl,  32  cents;  diamond,  40 
cents. 

Article  2.  Works  done  in  the  English  language,  common  matter  (manuscript) 
from  pica  to  agate,  inclusive,  29  cents  per  1,000  ems;  pearl,  34  cents;  diamond, 
42  cents. 

Article  3.  Works  done  in  pica,  or  any  larger  type,  to  be  counted  as  pica. 

In  Articles  4-14  payments  for  extras  were  provided  for:  Works  in  Latin  or 
Spanish,  3  cents  extra  per  1,000  ems;  in  French  or  Italian,  5  cents  extra;  German, 
6  cents;  Welsh,  Indian,  African,  etc.,  7  cents.  English  dictionaries,  printed  with 
figured  accents  and  vowels,  arithmetical  works,  spelling  books  and  similar  works, 
5  cents  extra.  Algebraical  works  and  books  containing  a  profusion  of  medical, 
astronomical,  or  other  signs,  double  price.  Hebrew,  without  points,  15  cents 
per  1,000  ems  advance;  with  points,  double  price.  Works  in  Greek  alone  or 
in  Greek  combined  with  Latin  or  English,  price  and  a  half.  Grammars,  5  cents 
additional.  Works  on  natural  philosophy,  chemistry,  etc.,  where  wood  cuts 
were  inserted,  causing  overrunning  in  the  make-up,  an  equivalent  amounting 
to  18  cents  per  hour  was  charged,  or  such  advance  per  1,000  ems  as  employer 
and  employed  might  agree  upon. 

Article  15.  Side  and  center  notes  in  Bibles  and  Testaments,  to  be  counted  the 
full  length  of  the  page  (including  the  lead,  or  one  rule,  which  shall  count  at  least 
I  em),  according  to  the  type  in  which  they  are  set,  and  charged  a  price  and  a  half. 
Cut-in  notes,  in  the  above  works,  to  be  charged  4  cents  extra  each  note,  and  the 
whole  page  to  be  counted  as  text. 

Article  1 6.  Side  notes  in  law  and  historical  works  to  be  counted  the  full  length 
of  the  page,  according  to  the  type  in  which  they  are  set;  and  when  cut  into  the 
text,  4  cents  extra  each  note. 

Article  17.  Quotations,  mottoes,  contents  of  chapters,  and  bottom  notes  in 
smaller  type  than  the  body  shall  be  paid  for  according  to  the  size  of  the  type 
in  which  they  are  set. 

Article  18.  Works  or  portions  of  works  where  the  measure  is  under  16  ems  in 
width,  shall  be  paid  2  cents  advance  per  1,000  ems.  Index  matter  shall  be  paid 
4  cents  per  1,000  ems  advance. 

Article  19.  The  headline,  with  the  blank  after  it,  and  foot  line,  to  be  charged 
by  the  maker-up,  and  counted  not  less  than  three  lines. 

Article  20.  All  blank  pages,  chapter  heads,  etc.,  shall  be  charged  by  the  com- 
positor, according  to  the  size  of  the  type  in  which  the  work  they  belong  is  set. 

Article  21.  Time  occupied  by  alterations  from  copy,  by  casing  and  distributing 
letter  not  used  by  the  compositor,  etc.,  to  be  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  18  cents 
per  hour.  When  compositors  are  required  to  work  beyond  regular  hours  they 
shall  be  paid  at  the  rate  of  2 1  cents  per  hour,  or  5  cents  advance  per  i  ,000  ems. 

Article  22.  All  letter  cast  on  a  body  larger  than  the  face  (as  bourgeois  on  long 
primer)  to  be  counted  according  to  the  face;  all  letter  cast  on  a  body  smaller 
than  the  face  (as  minion  on  nonpareil)  to  be  counted  according  to  the  body. 
All  fonts,  the  alphabets  of  which  measure  less  than  125  ems,  to  be  counted  in 
width  according  to  the  next  smaller  size. 


228  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Article  23.  In  all  cases  where  a  companionship  may  deem  it  necessary  that 
matter  should  be  made  up  by  one  person,  the  compositors  may  appoint  from 
among  themselves,  or  authorize  the  employer  to  appoint  a  person  to  perform 
that  duty,  on  terms  to  be  agreed  upon  between  themselves  and  the  person  em- 
ployed to  make-up;  provided,  however,  that  no  more  than  2  cents  per  1,000  ems 
shall  be  allowed  for  making-up,  imposing,  taking  the  necessary  proofs,  and  keep- 
ing the  schedule. 

Article  24.  When  a  compositor  is  required  to  take  out  bad  letters  and  replace 
them,  in  consequence  of  faults  in  the  founder,  miscasts,  or  worn-out  fonts,  he 
shall  be  paid  at  the  rate  of  1 8  cents  per  hour. 

Article  25.  For  imposing  forms,  no  more  shall  be  allowed  than  3  cents  per 
page  for  quarto,  2  cents  for  octavo,  i  ^  for  duodecimo,  1 1  for  sexadecimo,  and  the 
like  sum  for  all  forms  of  a  larger  number  of  pages  —  the  compositor,  in  all  cases, 
to  lay  the  pages  in  regular  order,  or  be  responsible  for  their  being  so  done. 

Article  26.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  compositor  imposing  to  take  two  proofs 
of  each  form.  All  proofs  taken  afterward  shall  be  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  8  cents 
each  for  letter-press  forms  and  for  stereotype  forms  and  small  jobs  2  cents 
each.  Where  an  extra  proof  or  proofs  are  required  by  the  carelessness  of  the 
compositor  they  shall  be  taken  at  his  expense. 

Article  27.  Making  up  furniture  for  a  quarto  form,  18  cents;  an  octavo,  25 
cents;  and  3  cents  extra  for  all  other  impositions  progressively. 

Article  28.  Compositors  employed  by  the  week  shall  receive  not  less  than  $10, 
ten  hours  to  be  considered  a  day's  work. 

Article  29.  The  compositors  on  a  work  are  entitled  to  correct  the  author's 
proofs,  for  which  they  shall  be  paid  at  the  rate  of  18  cents  per  hour. 

Article  30.  Headlines  when  set  up  in  smaller  type  than  the  body  of  the  work, 
if  spaced,  and  the  figures  justified,  2  cents  extra  per  headline  to  be  paid. 

Article  31.  Works  with  sub-headlines,  giving  a  synopsis  of  the  contents  of 
each  page,  such  sub-headlines,  although  filled  up  by  the  proofreader  (unless  in 
reprints  going  page  for  page),  to  be  considered  as  author's  proofs  and  shall  be 
paid  for  accordingly. 

Article  32.  When  wood  cuts  are  inserted  in  the  matter,  or  worked  in  pages  along 
with  the  body  of  the  work,  such  cuts  belong  to  the  compositors;  but  where  the 
cuts  are  worked  entirely  separate,  the  same  as  copperplate  engravings  or  litho- 
graphic plates,  they  shall  not  be  claimed  by  the  compositors. 

Article  33.  Prefaces,  contents,  or  any  prefixed  matter,  when  set  up  in  the  same 
type,  are  charged  the  price  of  the  body  of  the  work;  but  when  in  smaller  type  than 
in  the  body  of  the  work,  are  cast  up  to  the  type  in  which  they  are  composed, 
and  take  the  extras  belonging  to  the  work. 

Article  34.  In  large  bookrooms  the  establishment  has  the  privilege  of  claiming 
full  titles  and  dedications,  but  in  no  case  shall  piece-paying  establishments  claim 
half  titles,  or  any  other  prefixed  matter,  nor  cull  the  fat  portions  of  any  work. 

Article  35.  Pedigrees  are  cast  up  at  double  the  price  of  common  matter;  but 
as  some  pedigrees  are  more  than  ordinarily  heavy,  and  therefore  require  greater 
attention  and  skill  to  arrange  and  cast  off  the  different  measures,  when  such 
is  the  case  an  extra  charge,  as  may  be  agreed  upon. 

Article  36.  All  alterations  from  copy  shall  be  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  18  cents 
per  hour. 

Article  37.  When  a  compositor  (working  by  the  piece)  receives  copy  of  con- 
tents, indexes,  or  any  other  copy  where  more  than  the  usual  quantity  of  capitals. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  229 

figures,  periods  and  italics  are  used,  the  establishment  shall  furnish  the  com- 
positor with  the  necessary  sorts. 

Article  38.  Italics,  Greek,  Hebrew  and  Saxon  fonts  to  be  laid  at  the  expense 
of  the  establishment. 

Article  39.  The  compositor  shall  in  all  cases  be  exempt  from  clearing  away, 
tying  up,  or  in  any  manner  taking  charge  of  matter  which  he  has  set:  provided, 
always,  that  this  article  shall  not  interfere  with  the  custom  existing  as  to  head- 
lines, titles,  taking  out  leads,  etc. 

Article  40.  When  works,  or  portions  of  works,  are  required  to  be  leaded,  and 
the  leads  are  not  furnished  by  the  office  at  the  time  of  composition,  such  matter 
to  be  afterwards  leaded,  but  at  the  expense  of  the  employer,  and  the  compositor 
to  charge  such  matter  the  same  as  if  he  himself  had  originally  put  in  the  leads. 

Article  41.  When  a  measure  exceeds  even  ems  in  width,  and  is  less  than  an 
en,  an  en  only  to  be  counted;  but  if  an  en,  or  over,  to  be  counted  an  em. 

Article  42.  Bad  manuscript,  works  of  an  intricate  nature,  etc.,  not  governed 
by  these  articles,  the  price  to  be  settled  between  employer  and  journeymen. 

Article  43.  When  compositors  are  required  to  remain  in  the  office  unemployed, 
awaiting  orders  from  the  employer,  etc.,  they  shall  be  paid  at  the  rate  of  18  cents 
per  hour. 

Morning   Newspaper   Work. 

Article  i.  Compositors  employed  by  the  piece  shall  receive  not  less  than  32 
cents  per  1,000  ems,  for  common  matter.  When  compositors  are  employed  at 
night  only,  by  the  piece,  they  shall  receive  36  cents  per  1,000  ems. 

Article  2.  Compositors  employed  by  the  week  (six  days)  shall  receive  not 
less  than  $14  per  week;  twelve  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work.  When  employed 
on  night  situations,  two  hours  shall  be  devoted  in  the  afternoon  to  distribution, 
and  seven  hours  at  night  (from  7  to  2  o'clock)  to  composition ;  and  they  shall  be 
paid  $11  per  week.  For  all  time  beyond  2  o'clock  at  night,  in  either  of  the  above 
situations,  25  cents  per  hour  shall  be  charged,  or  the  time  deducted  from  the 
following  day,  at  the  option  of  the  employer. 

Article  3.  Compositors  may  be  employed  during  the  day,  on  morning  papers, 
at  28  cents  per  1,000  ems,  or  $10  per  week. 

Article  4.  When  required  to  remain  in-  the  office  unemployed  during  the  stipu- 
lated hours  for  composition,  the  compositor  shall  receive  not  less  than  25  cents 
per  hour  for  such  standing  time;  it  being  understood,  of  course,  that  he  shall 
perform  any  other  reasonable  work  that  the  employer  may  appoint  during  such 
standing  time.  Time  occupied  in  casing  or  distributing  letter  not  to  be  used 
by  the  person  distributing  or  casing,  alterations  from  copy,  lifting  forms,  etc., 
to  be  paid  for  at  not  less  than  25  cents  per  hour. 

Article  5.  When  compositors  are  called  upon  before  the  regular  hour  for  com- 
mencing composition,  in  case  of  the  arrival  of  a  steamer,  etc.,  they  shall  be  paid 
not  less  than  $1  each  for  such  call,  and  be  entitled  to  the  matter  they  set.  This 
is  understood  to  apply  to  both  week  and  piece  work. 

Article  6.  Tabular  work,  etc.,  containing  three  or  four  columns,  either  of  figures 
or  words,  or  figures  and  words,  without  rules,  shall  be  charged  a  price  and  a 
half.  All  work,  as  above,  with  brass  or  other  rules,  or  where  there  are  five  or 
more  columns  of  figures,  or  figures  and  words,  with  or  without  rules,  shall  be 
paid  double  price. 

Article  7.  For  work  done  in  pearl,  or  smaller  type,  an  advance  of  4  cents  per 
1 ,000  ems  shall  be  charged.  For  work  done  in  French,  German,  and  other  foreign 
languages,  an  advance  of  5  cents  per  i  ,000  ems  shall  be  charged. 


230  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

Article  8,  When  a  measure  exceeds  even  ems  in  width,  and  is  less  than  a  3-em 
space,  no  extra  charge  is  to  be  made;  if  a  3-em  space,  an  en  to  be  counted;  if  an 
en,  an  en  to  be  counted;  if  over  an  en,  an  em  to  be  counted. 

Article  9.  Bastard  letter  to  be  cast  up  as  described  in  article  22  of  book  scale. 

Article  10,  Where  intricate  work,  etc.,  occurs,  which  the  newspaper  scale 
cannot  reach,  the  price  to  be  agreed  upon  between  employer  and  journeyman. 

Article  11.  In  offices  where  both  week  and  piece  hands  are  employed  the  fat 
and  lean  copy  to  be  distributed  equally  among  them. 

Evening  Newspaper  Work. 

Article  i.  Compositors  employed  by  the  piece  shall  receive  28  cents  per  1,000 
ems  for  common  matter. 

Article  2.  Compositors  employed  by  the  week  (six  days)  shall  receive  not  less 
than  $10  —  ten  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work. 

Article  3.  For  time  (as  laid  down  in  Article  4  of  morning  paper  scale),  a  charge 
of  18  cents  per  hour  shall  be  made. 

Articles  6,  7,  8,  9,  10  and  11  of  morning  paper  scale  shall  apply  to  evening 
papers. 

Weekly,  Semi- Weekly  and   Tri- Weekly    Papers. 

Article  l.  Compositors  employed  by  the  piece  shall  receive  not  less  than  28 
cents  per  i  ,000  ems  for  common  matter. 

Article  2.  Compositors  employed  by  the  week  (six  days)  shall  receive  not  less 
than  $10  —  ten  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work. 

Article  3.  Compositors  employed  by  the  piece  on  Sunday  papers  shall  receive 
not  less  than  28  cents  per  1,000  ems  for  common  matter.  When  employed 
by  the  week  (six  days)  they  shall  receive  not  less  than  $11 — ten  hours  to  con- 
stitute a  day's  work,  with  the  exception  of  Saturday,  when  it  is  expected  that  a 
week  hand  will  work  during  the  evening. 

Article  4.  For  time  (as  laid  down  in  Article  4  of  morning  paper  scale),  a  charge 
of  18  cents  per  hour  shall  be  made. 

Articles  6,  7,  8,  9,  10  and  11  of  morning  paper  scale  shall  apply  to  weekly, 
semi-weekly,  tri-weekly  and  Sunday  papers. 

Job  WorL 

Article  i.  All  job  work  of  a  fancy  or  display  character  shall  be  either  paid  for 
on  time  or  by  special  agreement,  according  to  its  relative  value  —  that  is  to  say, 
all  that  class  of  jobs  styled  posters,  show  cards,  handbills,  circulars,  billheads, 
cards,  labels,  and  others  of  a  similar  description.  All  pamphlets,  catalogues, 
sermons,  tracts,  by-laws,  and  other  works  of  a  like  nature,  when  making  not 
more  than  one  sheet,  to  be  considered  jobs;  and,  if  done  on  the  piece,  to  be  paid 
for  at  the  rate  of  28  cents  per  i  ,000  ems,  for  either  manuscript  or  reprint,  without 
the  usual  extras  belonging  to  bookwork;  but  when  making  over  one  sheet,  to  be 
charged  in  accordance  with  the  book  scale,  with  the  extras  belonging  thereto. 

Article  2.  All  men  employed  by  the  week  shall  be  paid  at  the  rate  of  $10; 
when  paid  by  the  hour  the  price  shall  correspond  to  the  amount  per  week  —  ten 
hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work.  When  required  to  work  beyond  regular  hours 
such  extra  time  shall  be  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  21  cents  per  hour;  and  if  by  the 
piece,  the  compositor  shall  receive  5  cents  advance  per  1,000  ems. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  23I 

PrcMwork. 

Article  i.  Power  pressmen. —  No  power  pressman  shall  work  for  a  less  sum 
than  $10  per  week,  for  day  work,  or  $12  per  week,  for  night  work.  The  day's 
work  in  all  cases  to  consist  of  ten  hours.  Overwork  shall  be  paid  for  at  the  rate 
of  21  cents  per  hour. 

Article  2.  The  pressman  shall  not  be  held  responsible  for  any  accident  that 
may  happen  to  a  press  at  which  he  is  not  actually  working,  provided  such  press 
was  all  right  when  it  was  started. 

Article  3.  No  pressman  shall  take  charge  of  more  than  two  presses,  unless 
temporarily,  as  in  the  case  of  the  sickness  of  a  fellow- workman,  or  other  emergency. 

Article  4.  Hand  pressmen. —  No  hand  pressman,  employed  by  the  week,  shall 
work  for  a  less  sum  than  $10  per  week  for  day  work,  or  less  than  $12  per  week 
for  night  work.  The  day's  work  in  all  cases  to  consist  of  ten  hours.  Overwork 
shall  be  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  21  cents  per  hour. 

Article  5.  Bookwork  on  the  piece. —  Ordinary  bookwork  to  be  paid  at  the  fol- 
lowing rates:  Medium,  18  by  22  inches,  25  cents  per  token;  royal,  20  by  25 
inches,  27  cents  per  token;  super-royal,  22  by  29  inches,  29  cents  per  token; 
medium  and  a  half,  24  by  29  inches,  31  cents  per  token;  imperial,  23  by  33  inches, 
33  cents  per  token.  Double  medium,  or  larger,  to  be  subject  to  special  agree- 
ment. For  all  jobs  of  bookwork  of  4  tokens,  or  less,  2  cents  extra  per  token 
shall  be  charged. 

Job  work  on  the  piece. —  No  job,  the  number  of  which  does  not  exceed  i  ,000, 
shall  be  done  for  less  than  25  cents  per  token  of  250  sheets;  nor  shall  any  descrip- 
tion of  work,  of  what  number  soever,  be  done  for  less  than  23  cents  per  token. 

Article  6.  Any  number  of  sheets  exceeding  twelve  over  the  regular  surplus 
shall  be  reckoned  as  a  token,  and  charged. 

Article  7.  Pulling  clean  proofs  shall  be  charged  on  time. 

Article  8.  Extra  bookwork  to  be  paid  as  may  be  agreed  upon.  By  extra 
bookwork  is  meant  such  bookwork  forms  as  have  cuts  in  them  —  where  the  pages 
are  surrounded  with  rules  —  where  there  are  more  than  24  pages  in  the  form  — 
or  any  other  thing  which  causes  extra  trouble  to  the  pressman. 

Article  9.  Show  bills  to  be  paid  50  cents  per  token.  If  two  or  more  colors 
are  required,  or  any  extra  care  be  required  in  the  making  ready  or  working,  they 
shall  be  charged  on  time,  or  by  special  agreement. 

Article  10.  Cards. —  Small  or  ordinary  business  cards  shall  be  paid  25  cents 
for  the  first  pack,  and  10  cents  for  each  subsequent  pack.  Extra  size  cards, 
as  show  cards,  etc.,  50  cents  for  the  first  pack,  and  25  cents  for  every  succeeding 
pack. 

Article  11.  Extra  work. —  All  kinds  of  extra  work,  as  headings,  show  cards  with 
cuts  in  them,  wood  engravings,  colored  work,  or  printing  in  gold,  silver,  bronze, 
etc.,  to  be  paid  for  either  on  time  or  by  special  agreement. 

Article  12.  Standing  time  to  be  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  18  cents  per  hour. 

Article  13.  When  the  press  is  not  furnished  with  a  self-inking  apparatus  the 
employer  shall  furnish  a  roller  boy  at  his  own  expense. 

Article  14.  When  the  inking  apparatus  is  not  worked  by  steam  the  pressman 
shall  be  entitled  to  charge  2  cents  per  token  extra. 

Article  15.  Lifting  forms. —  When  a  pressman  is  required  to  lift  his  form  he 
shall  be  entitled  to  charge  I  token  therefor. 

Article  16.  Putting  on  tympans.^  The  pressman  shall  be  entitled  to  50  cents 
for  putting  on  a  new  tympan,  either  outer  or  inner. 


232  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Article  17.  Pressmen  employed  in  cleaning,  putting  up  or  removing  presses, 
shall  be  paid  2 1  cents  per  hour. 

Article  18.  Pressmen  required  to  cast  rollers,  cut  paper,  or  do  any  other  work 
not  fairly  to  be  considered  presswork,  in  their  own  time,  shall  be  paid  18  cents 
per  hour  for  the  same. 

General  Regulations. 

This  scale  of  prices  shall  at  no  time  be  altered  or  amended,  unless  notice  of 
such  alteration  or  amendment  shall  have  been  given  at  least  one  month  pre- 
viously to  being  acted  upon;  nor  then,  except  by  a  two-thirds  vote  of  the  mem- 
bers present. 

Any  employer  discharging  a  man  shall  give  him  two  weeks'  notice  thereof, 
or  the  money  which  he  might  or  would  have  earned  in  that  time.  And  any 
workman  intending  to  leave  his  employer  shall  give  him  the  like  notice,  or  forfeit 
in  the  like  proportion.  This  rule  is  only  to  apply  to  regular  hands.  Any  man 
having  worked  three  months  in  an  office  shall  be  considered  a  regular  hand. 

This  scale  of  prices  shall  not  be  held  to  prevent  superior  workmen  from  getting 
a  higher  rate  of  pay.  But  it  shall  be  held  to  mean  that  no  fair  workman  shall 
work  for  less  than  the  prices  herein  specified. 


V. 

General  Trade  Meeting  Endorses  Union's  Action. 

Following  the  adoption  of  the  scale  of  prices  the  union,  consonant 

with  the  request  of  the  general  meeting  of  May  25th,  decided  to 

immediately  convoke  a  public  assemblage  of  printers 

Transactions      for  the  purpose  of  laying  before  the  trade  the  new 

from  the  price  list  and  the  transactions  of  the  association 

Beginning.         from  its  inception.     This  mass  meeting,  which  was 

an  enthusiastic  affair,  was  held  at  Tammany  Hall 

on  Saturday  evening,  November  2,   1850,  and  nearly  300  persons 

connected  with  the  printing  industry  were  in  attendance.     It  was 

called  to  order  by  Vice-President  Rogers.     Thomas  R.  Glen,  chairman 

of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements,  then  presented  the  following 

report  of  the  doings  of  the  union: 

Fellow-Craftsmen: —  This  being  a  pubhc  meeting  of  the  New  York  Printers' 
Union,  to  which  the  trade  generally  has  been  invited,  we  beg  leave  to  submit  to 
you  a  brief  history  of  the  proceedings  of  our  society  since  its  organization. 

The  Printers'  Union  of  the  City  of  New  York  dates  its  existence  from  the  first 
of  January,  1850,  and  was  organized  for  the  purpose  of  eradicating  at  least  a 
portion  of  the  many  evils  which  exist  in  our  profession,  and  which  have  all  but 
ruined  our  noble  art. 

We  come  not  to  boast  of  any  mighty  triumph  —  any  brilliant  success.  Yet 
we  do  assert  that  much  has  been  accomplished;  and  but  for  the  apathy  of  the 
trade  in  general  all  would  have  been  completed. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  233 

Still  strong  in  the  belief  that  union  is  strength,  it  will  be  our  chief  aim  to  increase 
our  numbers,  and  we  indulge  the  hope  that  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  a 
better  rate  of  prices  will  be  the  result  of  our  action. 

In  the  early  part  of  February  last  the  Printers'  Union  appointed  a  committee 
for  the  purpose  of  laying  before  our  brethren  in  this  city  a  statement  of  its  objects 
and  ends.  The  efforts  of  that  committee  were  crowned  with  abundant  success 
by  a  gradual  but  cheering  accession  to  our  numbers.  And  we  are  fully  convinced 
that  the  objects  of  the  union,  to  become  universally  embraced,  need  but  be  known. 

About  the  first  of  May  last  the  union,  desirous  of  possessing  itself  of  all  the 
information  obtainable  pertaining  to  the  state  of  trade  in  this  city,  appointed  a 
committee  for  that  purpose.  The  committee,  after  great  care  and  laborious 
research,  submitted  their  report  to  the  union.  So  truly  was  the  state  of  the  trade 
delineated  —  so  fully  were  the  facts  set  forth  in  that  report — that  the  union 
resolved  to  submit  it  to  a  mass  meeting  of  the  trade.  Accordingly,  on  the  twenty- 
fifth  of  May,  a  meeting  was  called.  Those  of  you  who  were  present  on  that 
occasion  will  agree  with  us  when  we  pronounce  that  meeting  as  numerous  and 
respectable  as  any  assemblage  of  printers  ever  called  together  in  this  city.  And 
how  was  the  report  alluded  to  received  by  the  meeting?  Without  a  dissenting 
voice  it  was  adopted  as  expressive  of  the  sentiments  and  feelings  of  that  body. 
Nor  was  the  influence  of  that  report  confined  to  our  city.  It  was  published  and 
republished  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  our  land  —  was  commented 
upon  and  held  up  as  a  mirror  which  reflected  a  combination  of  evils  at  once  dis- 
graceful to  the  craft,  and  too  oppressive  to  go  further  unmolested.  Not  only 
were  these  evils  seen  and  appreciated  by  the  journeymen,  but  by  the  employing 
printers  also,  and  many  of  these  manifested  their  desire  and  readiness  to  assist 
in  removing  the  evils;  and  their  efforts  in  this  behalf  have  not  been  altogether 
void  of  beneficent  results.  At  the  meeting  above  alluded  to  the  union  had  the 
pleasure  of  enrolling  about  100  new  members  on  its  list,  and  near  the  close  of  the 
meeting  a  gentleman  of  good  standing  in  the  trade,  but  not  a  member  of  the  union, 
submitted  the  following  resolution,  which  was  passed  without  opposition: 

Resolved,  That  the  Printers'  Union  be  requested  to  form  and  present  a  scale  of  prices  at  as 
early  a  day  as  practicable. 

In  compliance  with  this  resolution  the  union  at  its  next  meeting  appointed  a 
committee  of  thirteen,  in  which  every  department  of  the  trade  was  represented, 
in  order  that  a  just  and  equitable  scale  of  prices  might  be  named  for  the  various 
departments. 

The  committee,  after  due  consideration  and  examination,  submitted  the 
results  of  their  labors  to  the  union.  Their  report  was  received  and  after  a  pro- 
tracted and  thorough  consideration,  during  the  progress  of  which  a  few  slight 
modifications  were  made,  it  was  adopted.  Whereupon  the  union  ordered  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  the  documents  printed  to  supply  every  employing  printer  in  our 
city  with  a  copy.  A  committee  was  then  appointed  to  distribute  the  scale,  as 
proposed.  The  committee  having  performed  this  duty,  the  employing  printers 
called  a  meeting  for  the  purpose  of  considering  the  document  laid  before  them. 
Their  first  meeting,  we  are  informed,  and  have  reason  to  believe,  was  quite  fully 
attended;  and  a  committee  was  appointed  by  them  to  examine  the  scale  and 
report  at  their  next  meeting.  The  second  meeting  was  quite  meagre  and  no 
business  of  interest  was  transacted. 

At  their  third  meeting  over  30  employers  were  present.  The  committee 
reported  in  favor  of  the  scale,  with  some  slight  alterations.     It  was  then  proposed 


234  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

that  Article  I  be  put  to  a  vote,  which  was  decided  in  the  affirmative,  nineteen 
voting  for  and  fourteen  against  its  adoption.  It  was  then  suggested  that  a 
number  of  those  who  had  voted  were  job  printers,  and  as  the  first  article 
related  to  bookwork  the  vote  should  be  reconsidered  and  they  (the  jobbers) 
should  refrain  from  voting.  It  was  accordingly  reconsidered  and  the  article 
rejected.     So  ended  the  action  of  the  employing  printers. 

Immediately  upon  learning  these  facts  the  union  called  a  special  meeting  to 
consider  the  action  of  the  employers.  At  this  meeting  it  was  resolved  to  appoint 
a  committee  to  wait  upon  the  employers  and  receive  the  signatures  of  such  as 
would  pay  the  scale  and  the  names  of  those  who  would  not. 

Here  the  speaker  named  28  concerns  that  had  signed  an  agree- 
ment to  conform  to  the  scale  and  nine  others  who  had  expressed 
themselves  in  its  favor.     He  continued: 

There  are  many  other  employers  who  have  expressed  favorable  opinions  in 
regard  to  the  scale,  but  they  have  not  had  an  opportunity  to  affix  their  signatures, 
as  the  committee  did  not  call  at  all  offices,  and  in  some  cases  where  they  did  call 
the  responsible  person  was  out. 

There  were  many,  however,  who  objected  to  various  parts  of  the  scale.  The 
committee  made  a  note  of  the  objections  and  laid  them  before  the  union  —  upon 
which  another  committee  was  appointed  for  the  purpose  of  considering  the  prac- 
ticability of  making  the  different  modifications  suggested  by  various  employers. 
This  committee  subsequently  reported  "that,  having  duly  examined  the  matters 
submitted  to  their  consideration,  they  had  found  no  modification  to  make,  being 
fully  convinced  that  the  prices  named  in  the  scale  were  just,  fair  and  equitable, 
and  such  as  we  ought  to  stand  by  at  all  hazards  and  under  all  circumstances." 
The  opinion  of  that  committee  is  the  opinion  of  the  Printers'  Union,  and  we 
hope  yet,  and  soon,  to  see  the  day  when  it  will  be  the  opinion  of  all. 

In  conclusion  it  may  be  well,  gentlemen,  to  inform  you  that  a  committee  on 
the  part  of  the  union  has  now  under  consideration  the  practicability  of  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  joint  stock  printing  and  publishing  office;  and  while  we  do  not  wish 
to  anticipate  the  verdict  of  the  committee,  we  cannot  but  give  it  as  our  firm 
belief  that  the  best  way  to  secure  to  ourselves  permanent  benefits  will  be  through 
this  medium. 

Mr.  Glen  was  frequently  interrupted  by  cheers,  and  the  names  of 

certain  of  the  employers  that  he  mentioned  were  loudly  applauded. 

President  Horace  Greeley  was  the  chief  speaker  of 

Greeley  the   evening.     Arising   amid    hearty    applause,    he 

Chief  began  his  address  by  stating  that  he  thought  the 

Spokesman.       union  had  done  its  duty  well.     "  In  January,"  he 

said,  "  we  began  the  work  of  reforming  our  trade, 

but  we  are  in  the  beginning  of  winter  and  nothing  practical  has  been 

done.     Everything  is  irregular  and  all  sorts  of  prices  are  paid  by  all 

sorts  of  men.     There  are  almost  as  many  scales  as  there  are  offices. 

Some  employers  say  there  is  a  regular  paid  scale.     I  say  there  is  no 

such  scale.     I  wish  there  was  —  no  matter  how  high  the  price.     I 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  235 

complain  that  I  have  to  pay  more  than  those  who  refuse  the  old 
scale.  I  do  not  agree  that  the  journeymen  should  dictate  a  scale, 
but  they  should  get  the  employers  to  agree  to  some  scale.  I  do  not 
advocate  a  strike;  you  are  not  in  a  condition  to  do  so.  But  do  fix 
on  some  time  when  you  will  bring  this  controversy  to  a  decision  —  say 
the  first  of  February  or  March,  when  business  for  the  year  opens. 
I  admit  the  right  of  the  employers  to  participate  in  the  adjustment 
of  a  scale,  but  they  should  do  so  now,  and  not  shuffie  it  off  by  inaction. 
If  they  reject  portions  of  the  scale  let  them  propose  amendments 
and  submit  these  to  the  arbitrament  of  fair  men.  I  am  sorry  to 
see  here  a  smaller  gathering  than  there  was  in  May,  indicating  a 
decreased  interest.  If  we  go  on  at  this  rate  we  shall  be  in  this  condi- 
tion for  five  years  hence,  perhaps  forever.  But  the  close  of  the  docu- 
ment just  read  indicates  the  most  hopeful  remedy  —  a  joint  stock 
printing  establishment,  governed  by  working  printers.  I  am  willing 
to  take  some  stock,  and  so  would  many  others.  If  we  had  one  such 
office,  employing  200  men,  it  might  give  laws  to  the  trade.  In  time, 
I  trust,  other  offices  of  this  kind  will  spring  up,  when  they  are  found 
valuable.  I  entreat  you  to  fix  on  some  action,  and  time  of  action 
to-night.  Don't  let  things  go  at  all  sorts  of  prices  and  confusion. 
The  stranger  printer  now  knows  nothing  of  what  he  is  to  get  for  his 
work;  he  should  be  paid  by  the  scale  of  the  trade  and  not  by  the 
scale  of  the  office.  As  it  is  now,  a  man  may  monopolize  a  milHon 
of  ems  per  week  with  the  help  of  a  good  foreman  and  a  good  proof- 
reader. I  hope  you  will  not  enter  upon  another  season  without  some- 
thing more  substantial  than  talk.  Let  us  have  liberal  and  beneficent 
action."  The  sentiments  enunciated  by  President  Greeley  were 
roundly  cheered. 

Peter  McDonald,  who  next  spoke,  thought  that  time  alone  would 
remove  many  of  the  abuses  in  the  trade.     Until  the  journeymen 
themselves  turned  out  the  bad  men  in  the  industry 
it  would  be  vain  to  hope  for  a  removal  of  these  evils.       Views  of  a 
He  wished  to  impress  upon  the  members  of  the  union        Veteran 
the  importance  of  attending  its  meetings,  for  by       Printer, 
such  presence  only  could  the  trade  be  sustained; 
and  he  also  hoped  to  convince  every  man  present  who  had  not 
already  done  so  that  the  best  thing  he  could  do  would  be  to  join  the 
union.     "  The  first  great  thing  to  be  done  to  emancipate  ourselves," 
thought  the  speaker,  "is  to  establish  a  printing  house  of  our  own. 
That  is  the  only  remedy.     I  wish  to  call  attention  to  the  letter  of 
the  employing  printers  saying  that  they  had  rejected  the  scale.     I 
am  almost  glad  of  it.     It  will  lead  us  to  think.     Even  now  a  com- 
mittee of  the  union  has  under  consideration  the  plan  of  a  great 


236  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

establishment  for  co-operative  work.  If  the  journeymen  come 
to  a  firm  determination  to  estabHsh  an  office  of  their  own  I  think 
the  public  will  sustain  them  generously.  You  may  say  that  the 
union  has  done  nothing,  but  recollect  that  they  have  established  a 
powerful  society  and  have  a  large  fund  invested."  He  referred  to 
the  slowness  of  journeymen  printers  to  act  for  themselves  and  urged 
them  to  join  the  organization.  "  The  employers  say  the  union  cannot 
last,"  said  he;  "  that  this  meeting  will  be  the  last  of  it;  but  when 
they  learn  that  you  have  roused  up  and  established  a  great  office  of 
your  own  the  fire  will  spread  all  along  the  seaboard.  Little  Albany 
is  ready;  Philadelphia  has  begun,  and  all  the  South  is  waiting  to 
know  what  New  York  will  do.  I  am  always  ready  to  advocate  the 
rights  of  the  journeymen.  Let  me  be  victimized  as  much  as  I  might 
I  shall  never  be  sorry  that  I  became  a  member  of  the  union.  I  only 
regret  I  was  not  one  of  the  originators.  I  trust  that  this  night  will 
add  great  strength  to  the  New  York  Printers'  Union,  and  help  on  all 
good  works  that  will  elevate  the  trade  at  large."  Mr.  McDonald 
then  presented  the  scale  of  prices  adopted  by  the  union.  After 
reading  it  he  continued:  "  I  wish  each  one  to  ask  himself,  *  Can  I 
do  something  by  joining  tliis  union  ?  '  There  is  a  great  deal  of  wisdom 
and  talent  apt  to  come  into  it.  Then  we  can  plan  and  produce 
such  results  as  shall  be  for  the  welfare  of  the  present  and  of  the 
future.  The  journeymen  printers'  families  should  be  as  well  situated 
as  those  of  any  mechanical  class.  In  some  instances  they  are,  but 
there  are  too  many  exceptions.  I  have  traveled  much  and  have 
always  found  our  craft  noble,  generous  and  kind-hearted.  I  am 
growing  old  and  have  no  great  stake  in  this  matter,  but  I  wish  to 
do  something  for  the  future  —  for  those  who  are  to  come  after  us. 
This  can  be  done  by  coming  up  and  joining  and  fully  supporting  the 
Printers'  Union.  I  hope  that  this  question  will  be  the  means  of 
adding  hundreds  to  our  ranks." 

Thomas  N.  Rooker,  foreman  of  the  Tribune  and  treasurer  of  the 

union,  stated  that  he  had  just  heard  that  one  of  his  fellow- workmen 

had  been  discharged  for  merely  asking  for  a  wage 

Treasurer  Rooker  advance    to    which    he    thought    he    was    entitled. 

jj.    „  .  "  Such  things  ought  not  to  exist,"   declared  the 

Membership.        treasurer,  "  and  would  not  if  the  union  were  strong 

enough.     It  is  incumbent  upon  you  to  see  that  this 

strength  is  added  to  us.     I  was  one  of  the  first  to  establish  this  union, 

and  I  am  proud  of  it."     He  was  strongly  in  favor  of  the  co-operative 

printing  office,  he  said,  and  invited  all  non-members  to  affiliate  with 

the  union  so  as  to  consolidate  the  trade  and  secure  such  reforms  as 

were  demanded  by  the  state  of  the  business. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR   HIGHER   WAGES.  237 

Acting  President  Rogers  made  a  few  remarks  concerning  the  scale 
of  prices  and  the  union  then  adjourned.  Thereupon  William  Orland 
Bourne  called  the  persons  present  to  order,  and  said 
the  question  was  whether  the  non-members  in  Effective 
attendance  would  sustain  the  union.  Officers  of  the  Organization 
public  meeting  were  then  chosen  —  Mr.  Bourne  Required, 
president,  F.  J.  Smith  vice-president,  and  F.  J. 
Ottarson  secretary.  A  committee  was  selected  to  procure  the  names 
of  all  printers  who  would  agree  to  sustain  the  union  scale,  after 
which  Chairman  Bourne  addressed  the  meeting,  saying  he  had  long 
looked  for  an  effective  organization  of  the  industry  in  New  York 
City,  and  hoped  that  the  action  of  the  union  and  the  trade  would 
be  such  as  to  raise  the  art  of  printing  to  the  high  position  to  which 
it  was  entitled.  "  I  am  not,"  said  he,  "  but  expect  to  be  a  member 
of  the  union.  But  after  all  your  prices  are  arranged  there  is  still 
something  to  be  done.  The  competitive  principle  is  such  that  it 
will  be  impossible  to  sustain  such  a  scale  unless  other  measures  are 
taken.  It  is  necessary  to  establish  ourselves  by  our  own  will, 
energy  and  capital."  He  advocated  the  claims  of  the  union,  hoping 
that  it  would  become  a  permanent  blessing  to  the  trade,  and  made 
a  strong  plea  to  the  journeymen  to  support  it.  A  strike,  he  thought, 
would  be  a  very  unwise  proceeding,  as  in  30  days  everything 
would  be  wrecked.  "  There  must  be  union  between  employed  and 
employers,"  he  urged,  "  to  make  things  permanent.  The  interests 
of  Capital  and  Labor  are  synonymous.  We  are  not  to  regard  Capital 
as  tyrannical.  Every  employer  has  been  a  journeyman  and  he  has 
not  lost  the  feelings  he  then  had.  If  we  can  only  unite  both  parties 
upon  a  just  scale  the  thing  will  be  accomplished."  He  closed  by 
appealing  for  unanimity  and  perseverance. 

With  the  unanimous  adoption  of  the  following  the  meeting  ad- 
journed : 

Resolved,  That  this  meeting  approve  of  the  scale  of  prices  adopted  by  the  New 
York  Printers'  Union,  and  present  them  our  thanks  for  their  praiseworthy  endeav- 
ors to  promote  the  best  interests  of  the  trade. 


VI. 

Enforcing  the  Scale. 

Notices  printed  in  the  newspapers  of  January  9,  185 1,  conveyed 
the  intelligence  that  "  by  resolution,  passed  unanimously,  of  the 
New  York  Printers'  Union  the  scale  of  prices  adopted  by  that  body 


238  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

is  to  go  into  effect  on  and  after  the  first  day  of  February,  1851." 
Horace  Greeley's  term  as  president  had  then  expired,  and  Franklin 
J.  Ottarson  had  been  elected  as  his  successor,  while  the  new  recording 
secretary  was  C.  Walter  Colburn.  At  a  special  meeting  of  the 
union  on  Saturday  evening,  January  25th,  these  two  officials  were 
instructed  to  distribute  the  scale  of  prices  to  the  trade  with  this 
prefatory  statement: 

To  THE  Trade:  —  The  following  scale  of  prices  has  been  adopted,  after  mature 
deliberation,  by  the  New  York  Printers'  Union  and,  so  far  as  their  members 
are    concerned,    will    be    fully   supported    from    the    first    day   of    February, 

1851. 

We  submit  these  prices  to  the  trade  at  large,  and  ask  for  them  the  support  of 
journeymen  and  employers;  because  we  believe  them  to  be  in  every  respect  just 
and  reasonable  —  because  a  number  of  the  largest  and  best  establishments  in 
the  city  now  pay  them  —  because  the  recent  great  increase  in  the  necessaries  of 
life,  and  the  general  advance  of  wages  by  other  trades,  render  these  enhanced 
prices  in  our  business  imperatively  necessary  —  because  they  will  tend  to  the 
physical  and  consequently  the  moral  improvement  of  printers  —  because  they 
will  protect  good  workmen  against  quacks,  and  thus  become  of  pecuniary 
interest  both  to  the  employer  and  the  workman,  and  because  they  will  form 
what  has  been  long  needed  in  this  city,  a  uniform  and  well-known  tariff  of 
wages. 

With  these  brief,  but  we  think  cogent  reasons,  we  submit  the  New  York  union 
scale  to  the  trade;  and  by  our  signatures  hereunto  appended,  do  certify  the  fol- 
lowing to  be  a  correct  transcript  of  the  original  copy. 

F.  J.  Ottarson, 
President  of  the  New  York  Printers'  Union. 
C.  Walter  Colburn, 

Recording  Secretary. 

January  25,  1851. 

Pursuant  to  call  a  large  number  of  30urne5mien  printers  met  in 

the  morning  of  February  5  th  at  Tammany  Hall  for  the  purpose  of 

adopting  measures  that  would  give  efficiency  and 

Sustaining       strength  to  the  effort  to  advance  the  prices  for 

Members         their .  labor.     The   new   scale   had   been   generally 

on  Strike.        accepted,  but  a  few  employers  refused  to  concede 

the  demands.     Strikes  had  occiured  in  these  latter 

offices  and  the  meeting  was  held  to  peaceably  sustain  those  who  had 

ceased  work.     Officers  of  the  union  organized  the  gathering,  but 

subsequently  vacated  their  seats  and  the  body  reorganized  as  a 

meeting  of  the  trade.     Committees  were  appointed  to  visit  various 

offices  in  quest  of  the  answers  of  proprietors,  and  it  was  resolved 

"  that  we  will  not  work  in  any  office  where  the  new  scale  of  prices  is 

not  paid  in  full." 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  239 

Among  the  offices  involved  in  the  strike  was  that  of  the  New  York 
Journal  of  Commerce,  which  on  February  5th  printed  an  account  of 
the  turn-out,  asserting  that  "  the  printers'  com- 
bination,  whose  object  is  to  dictate  what  prices    Union  Opposed 
shall  be  paid  by  employers  to  their  workmen,  brought    by  Journal 
their  guns  to  bear  upon  the  Journal  of  Commerce    o^  Commerce, 
office  yesterday.     The  effect  was  to  withdraw  about 
two-thirds  of  our  men  from  duty  —  more  to  their  own  inconvenience, 
we  dare  say,  than  our  own.     For  months  past,  without  any  help 
from  the  combination,  we  have  paid  $14  a  week,  or  $728  a  year,  to 
those  of  our  hands  who  were  employed  by  the  week;  while  some  of 
the  piece  hands,  at  30  cents  per  1,000  ems,  earned  even  more  than 
that;  and  the  money  is  always  forthcoming  every  Tuesday  evening. 
This  $14,  when  we  commenced  paying  it,  was  a  dollar  above  the 
combination  rate;  but  as  we  never  have  been  governed  by  those 
rates,  and  never  mean  to  be,  the  discrepancy  was  of  no  consequence 
to  us.     If  we  were  satisfied  and  our  men  were  satisfied,  we  little 
cared  whether  others  were  satisfied  or  not.     This  game  of  foreign 
interference  between  us  and  our  compositors  has  been  tried  before 
and  failed,  as  it  will  now.     The  vacancies  in  our  office  will  soon  be 
filled  and  as  we  intend  to  have  no  more  combinationists  in  our  employ 
we  presume  the  sifting  will  be  decidedly  to  our  advantage.     Any 
good  workmen,  not  of  that  fraternity,  who  desire  good  places,  good 
pay,  and  kind  treatment,  will  do  well  to  apply  without  delay." 

The  Evening  Post  of  February  sth  in  a  news  item  stated  that 
"  about  eighteen  of  the  printers  employed  in  the  office  of  the  Journal 
of  Commerce  turned  out  this  morning  and  refused  to  work  for  the 
wages  they  have  hitherto  received.  It  appears  from  the  accounts 
given  by  the  printers  themselves  that  the  proprietors  of  that  paper 
pay  three  or  four  of  the  men  $14  per  week  for  night  work,  and  give 
the  remainder  only  $10."  On  February  6th  the  Journal  of  Commerce 
denied  this  allegation.  "  The  Post  is  very  credulous  in  receiving 
such  statements  as  true,"  it  averred,  "  and  very  careless  in  publish- 
ing them  as  true.  We  have  never  paid  our  piece  hands  less  than  30 
cents  a  thousand,  which  was  precisely  the  combination  rate  until 
within  a  very  short  time  since.  To  our  week  hands,  five  in  nimiber, 
we  paid  $14.  Quite  recently  the  combination  have  raised  the  price 
of  week  hands  to  our  own  price  ($14),  and  have  added  2  cents  a 
thousand  to  the  price  of  piecework,  making  32  cents  a  thousand. 
They  have  enacted  various  other  rules  for  the  government  of  em- 
ployers, which  we  shall  adopt  when  we  make  up  our  minds  to  yield 
our  independence,  our  self-respect,  and  the  control  of  our  own  busi- 
ness, to  the  dictation  of  a  self -constituted  power  outside  of  the  office." 


240  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX, 

Renewing  its  attack  on  February  7  th,  under  the  caption  "  The 
Printers'  Combination  and  Strike,"  the  Journal  of  Commerce  had 
this  to  say  about  the  union's  course : 

This  movement  has  been  in  preparation  for  more  than  a  year.     The  organi- 
zation which  produced  it  is  called  the  Printers'  Union.    Combinations  of  the  same 
sort  had  been  entered  into  formerly,  but  one  after  another 
Prior  Unions        they  had  dropped  into  disuse,  or  failed  to  coerce  employers 
Had  Dropped      into  submission.     Now   the  thing   was  to  be  done   right. 
into  Disuse.         'pj^g  combination  was  to  be  so  extensive  and  controlling  that 
nobody  would  withstand  it:  —  for  this  reason,  among  others, 
that  it  was  to  include  all  the  printers  in  the  nation.     The  combination  was 
organized  January  i,  1850.     Committees  on  "  the  many  evils  which  encompass 
the  printing  business  in  our  midst,"  submitted  their  report  to  a  mass  meeting 
of  the  printers,  twenty-fifth  of  May,  same  year;  resolution   adopted   by   said 
meeting  requesting  the  combination  (technically  called  the  Printers'  Union)  to 
present  at  its  earliest  convenience  a  scale  of  prices;  Printers'  Union  accordingly 
got  up  a  scale  of  prices,  and  on  the  thirty-first  of  August  last  enclosed  a  copy  "  to 
the  Employing  Printers  of  the  City  of  New  York,"  requesting  their  concurrence. 
To  our  humble  selves,  among  others,  was  this  missive  sent.     We  looked  at  it 
enough  to  see  that  it  was  a  humbug,  and  then  laid  it  aside  to  await  the  result. 
After  awhile  a  committee  of  three  gentlemen  (printers)  waited  on  us  to  know 
whether  we  intended  to  conform  our  prices  to  the  printed  scale.     We  tried  hard 
to  treat  them  civilly,  as  we  entertained  for  them  personally  no  other  feelings  than 
kindness  and  respect;  but  born  as  we  were  among  the  free  air  of  the  Green  Moun- 
tains, the  impudence  of  the  proposition  struck  us  so  forcibly 
Impudence  that  we  could  with  difficulty  persuade  ourselves  that  it  was 

of  tl^e  intended  seriously.     However,  they  soon  gave  us  to  under- 

Proposition.  stand,  partly  by  their  language,  but  more  by  their  manner, 
that  not  only  was  the  proposition  intended  seriously,  but 
that  we  should  find  it  so  in  due  time.  They  then  retired,  one  of  them  taking 
down  the  name  of  the  paper  which  had  the  effrontery  to  decline  their  interference. 
We  understood  perfectly  well  what  that  meant,  having  seen  the  elephant  fifteen 
years  ago,  but  we  determined  just  to  wait  and  see  what  they  could  accomplish 
and  how. 

The  Boston  Printers'  Union  in  the  scale  of  prices  for  1849  had  the  following 
among  its  regulations: 

This  union  therefore  discountenances  the  employment  of  apprentices  on  daily  newspapers. 

This  union  discountenances  the  employment  of  female  compositors;  and  in  order  not  to  be 
misunderstood,  for  the  following  reasons. 

(The  reasons  assigned  are  here  omitted.) 

It  is  therefore  distinctly  understood  that  we  will  not  work  in  any  of&ce  where  they  are 
employed,  or  for  any  employers  who  employ  them. 

Who,  but  a  miserable,  craven-hearted  man,  would  permit  himself  to  be  sub- 
jected to  such  rules;  extending  even  to  the  number  of  apprentices  he  may  employ, 
and  the  manner  in  which  they  shall  be  bound  to  him,  to  the 
No  Great  kind  of  work  which  shall  be  performed  in  his  own  office  at 

Opinion  of  particular  hours  of  the  day,  and  to  the  sex  of  the  persons 

Apprentices.         employed,  however  separated  into  different  apartments  or 
buildings?     For  ourselves,  we  never  employed  a  female  as  a 
compositor,  and  have  no  great  opinion  of  apprentices,  but  sooner  than  be  restricted 
on  these  points,  or  any  other,  by  a  self-constituted  tribunal  outside  of  the  office* 


MOVEMENTS    FOR   HIGHER    WAGES.  24I 

we  would  go  back  to  the  employment  of  our  boyhood,  and  dig  potatoes,  pull 
flax,  and  do  everything  else  that  a  plain,  honest  farmer  may  properly  do  on  his 
own  territory.     It  is  marvelous  to  us  how  any  employer,  having  the  soul  of  a 
man  within  him,  can  submit  to  such  degradation.     But  to  return  to  the  history 
of  the  present  combination  and  strike.     After  the  visits  of  the  dictation  com- 
mittee above  mentioned,  we  heard  but  little  concerning  the  progress  of  the  move- 
ment until  the  twenty-second  of  last  month,  when  we  received  a  letter  signed 
or  otherwise  sanctioned  by  the  names  of  23  men,  comprising  nearly  every  com- 
positor in  our  employ,  asking,  in  substance,  that  the  rates  of  compensation  and 
various  other  matters  in  the  management  of  our  office  might  be  conformed  to 
the  rules  of  the  New  York  Printers'  Union  above  quoted.     The  signers  took  care 
to  inform  us  that  "  they  of  this  trade  throughout  the  United  States  have  formed 
protective  societies  "  for  the  promotion  of  their  common  interests,  and  that 
"  in  New  York  there  is  such  a  one."     We  now  understood  our  position  perfectly. 
We  saw  that  our  liberality  in  receiving  men  as  compositors,  without  considering 
whether  they  belonged  to  the  combination  or  not,  had  been 
abused  for  the  introduction  of  a  Greek  horse  fuU  of  armed       introducing  a 
men  into  our  citadel,  and  that  now  we  must  take  the  con-       Greek  Horse  in 
sequences.     We  saw  that  the  only  alternative  was  submis-       *"*  Citadel, 
sion  or  defiance.     It  did  not  take  us  long  to  determine  our 
course.     We  accordingly  returned  the  following  reply: 

New  York,  Jan.  24,  1851. 
To and  Others,  Compositors  in  the  Office  of  the  Journal  of  Commerce: 

Gentlemen:  —  Your  commxinication  of  the  twenty-second  instant  is  received.  This  Is  the 
fourth  general  application  which  has  been  made  to  me  within  two  years  by  the  compositors  in 
my  employ,  or  most  of  them,  for  an  increase  of  wages.  Twice  I  have  yielded  in  part  to  their 
claims;  once  I  have  declined,  as  I  now  do  again: — 

I.  Because  I  consider  the  present  pay  a  full  equivalent  for  the  services  rendered,  and 
secondly,  because  I  will  not  entertain  a  proposition,  whatever  may  be  its  merits,  in  regard  to 
workmen  In  my  employ,  which  emanates  from  or  is  backed  up  by  a  self-constituted  power 
outside  of  the  ofiBce.     I  remain,  yours  sincerely, 

Gerard  Hallock. 

The  letter  of  our  compositors  was  entirely  unobjectionable  in  its  tone  and 
language,  indeed  it  was  more  respectful  than  we  had  any  right  or  disposition 
to  ask.     But  with  all  this  courtesy  of  manner,  the  claim  itself 
was  wholly  inadmissible,  being  in  eflfect  a  summons  to  sur-         Summons  to 
render  at  discretion  to  the  Printers'  Union.     This  was  the         Surrender  to 
amount  of  the  matter,  and  it  was  doubtless  so  understood         *^®  Union, 
on  both  sides.     It  is  due  to  several  of  the  signers,  however, 
to  say  that  they  appended  their  names  reluctantly,  and  with  a  full  conviction 
that  an  explosion  would  follow  which  might  be  disadvantageous  to  all  concerned. 
The  first  of  February  had  been  fixed  by  the  Printers'  Union  for  their  new  scale  of 
prices  to  go  into  effect;  but  our  own  affair  did  not  come  off  till  the  fourth,  being 
the  end  of  the  financial  week.     The  rest  is  known  to  our  readers.     Suffice  it  to 
say,  that  about  two-thirds  of  our  men  left  on  that  day,  and  two  or  three  sub- 
sequently  were  enticed  or  bullied  away  against  their  better  judgment.     But 
with  the  help  of  three  of  our  junior  editors,  who  are  also  printers,  in  addition  to 
the  few  compositors  who  remained  faithful,  we  have  been  able  to  issue  our  paper 
as  usual  and  now  have  nearly  a  full  complement  of  men,  engaged  on  the  same 
terms  as  our  week  hands  were  before  the  strike. 

The  advertisement  under  which  the  new  men  have  all  been  engaged  is  as  follows : 


242  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Compositors  wanted  at  the  office  of  the  Journal  of  Commerce.     First  rate  hands  receive  S14  a 
week  for  six  days  of  twelve  hours  each.     No  member  of  the  Printers'  Combination  need  apply. 

So  we  suppose  we  still  have  the  honor,  as  we  always  have  had,  of  being  a  "  rat 
ofl&ce,"  and  so  far  as  we  know,  we  are  the  only  such  office  among  the  daily  papers 
of  this  city,  unless  the  claim  of  the  Evening  Minor  to  be  so 
Only  "  Rat "       considered  should  be  admitted  as  valid.    The  facility  with  which 
Daily  Paper         most  of  the  papers  succumb  to  the  demands  of  the  com- 
in  the  City.  bination  surprises  us.     Have  they  no  souls  of  their  own  that 

they  permit  men  not  in  their  employ  and  having  no  business 
connection  with  them,  to  dictate  the  terms  on  which  they  shall  engage  their 
hands,  and  to  prescribe,  in  several  particulars,  the  manner  in  which  they  shall 
conduct  their  own  affairs?     Having  once  entered  this  road,  where  do  they  expect 
it  will  end?    How  long  do  they  suppose  it  will  be  before  a  further  concession  will 
be  required?     When   we  first  became  connected   with   the 
Compositors  Paid      Journal  of  Commerce  in  1829  the  best  set  of  compositors  that 
$10  a  Week  of  we  ever  saw  were  receiving  but  $10  a  week  for  some  thirteen 

81  Hours  in  1829.     qj.  thirteen  and  one-half  hours*  service,  day  and  night,  and 
were  satisfied  with  it.     Now  we  pay  $14  a  week  for  twelve 
hours'  service,  an  advance  of  about  50  per  cent,  and  are  "rats"  at  that.     Well, 
be  it  so.     We  can  afford  to  be  ranged  in  the  same  class  with  the  London  Times. 
That  is  the  great  "rat"  paper  of  London,  and  the  Journal  of  Commerce  the  "rat" 
paper  of  New  York.     Many  years  ago  (as  we  learn  from  an  English  gentleman) 
when  the  late  Mr.  Walter  was  the  principal  editor  and  conductor  of  the  Times, 
the  combinationists  undertook  to  play  the  same  game  on  him  which  they  have  now 
attempted  upon  us.     Mr.   Walter  resisted,  and  a  strike  followed.     But  it  was 
of  no  use.     By  making  the  most  of  the  very  small  force  at 
What  the  his  command,  including  his  own  personal  services,  which  were 

Times  of  ^  most  industriously  rendered,  he  was  enabled  to  bring  out  his 

London  Did.  paper  the  next  morning,  and  each  succeeding  morning  as 
usual.  His  perseverance  and  success,  against  such  odds, 
elicited  the  applause  of  the  whole  community.  From  that  day  to  this  the  Times  has 
been  an  anti-combination  paper,  and  has  done  more  than  any  other  journal  in  the 
world  to  counteract  the  destructive  tendencies  of  such  associations.  In  short, 
it  is  a  "  rat  "  paper  of  the  first  water.  It  employs  an  immense  number  of  hands 
and  pays  them  more  liberally  than  any  other  paper  in  London,  This  is  generally 
admitted.  But  no  combinationist  is  ever  permitted  to  stand  at  its  cases,  so  we 
are  credibly  informed.  They  thought  to  catch  a  "  rat,"  but  got  caught  them- 
selves. 

Indignant  at  the  attitude  of  the  Journal  of  Commerce  toward  the 

Printers'  Union  in  its  efforts  to  establish  a  uniform  scale  of  wages 

throughout  the  city,  Horace  Greeley  entered  into 

Editor  Greeley      a  controversy  in  behalf  of  the  compositors  with  his 

Takes  Up  the       usual  vigor.     He  printed  in  the  Tribune  of  February 

Printers' Cudgels,  gth  a  characteristic  editorial  headed  "  The  Jotimey- 

men  Printers  and  the  Journal  of  Commerce,"  and 

defended  the  course  and  principles  of  the  union  in  the  following 

strong  terms: 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  243 

An  earnest  effort  is  now  being  made  by  the  great  mass  of  journeymen  printers 
of  this  city  to  place  their  calling  on  a  basis  of  justice  and  security.    They  do  not 
ask  nor  expect  high  wages;  on  the  contrary,  their  average 
recompense  per  hour  at  the  rate  prescribed  in  their  scale    Sought  Friendly 
is  less  than  that  of  the  hatters,  shipwrights,  blacksmiths,    Council  With 
or  almost  any  other  trade  requiring  intelligence  and  capacity    Employing  Printers. 
commensurate  with  theirs.     They  do  not  claim  the  right  of 
themselves  to  establish  and  regulate  the  prices  even  of    their  own  labor,  for 
they  began  by  inviting  the  employers  as  a  class  to  confer  and  unite  with  them 
in  a  free  and  friendly  council,  wherein  the  rates  of  compensation  for  all  descrip- 
tions of  journey  work  at  printing  should  be  established  by  mutual  and  general 
consent.     Such  a  scale,  once  adopted,  would  have  been  binding  on  both  parties 
until  changed  by  mutual  consent.     A  good  portion  of  the  employers  responded 
to  the  invitation  by  holding  one  or  two  meetings,  but  concluded  by  simply 
rejecting  (nineteen  to  fourteen)  the  scale  proposed  by  the  journeymen  and  adjourn- 
ing without  day.     They  suggested  no  modification,  proposed  no  substitute;  they 
gave  the  journeymen  no  ultimatum,  no  chance  to  understand  what  portions  or  pro- 
visions of  their  scale  were  deemed  inadmissible,  and  what  modification  would  ren- 
der it  acceptable.     The  only  alternative  practically  offered  to  the  journeymen 
was  this:  "  Submit  to  work  at  as  many  different  rates  and  under  as  many  different 
sets  of  regulations  as  the  several  hundred  different  employers  in  the  city  may  see 
fit  to  estabUsh  and  to  change  at  their  own  good  will  and  pleasure,  or  —  help 
yourselves." 

Thus  repelled,  the  journeymen  have  waited,  deliberated,  reasoned,  expostulated, 
and  finally,  giving  ample  notice  of  their  resolve,  fixed  the  first  instant  as  the  day 
on  and  after  which  their  scale  should  be  the  common  measure  of  their  duties, 
their  rights  and  their  recompense,  while  working  as  journeymen  printers  within 
this  city.     Most  of  the  employers  have  acceded  to  their  scale  and  the  great  mass 
of  the  work  in  our  city  is  now  executed  and  paid  for  in  accordance  therewith. 
The  daily  journals  have  nearly  all  acceded  to  it  promptly  and  cheerfully.     The 
Journal  of  Commerce  is  a  conspicuous  and  natural  exception. 
The   Journal  is  not  content  with  rejecting  the  scale  and        Bitter  and 
refusing  to  employ  any  journeymen   who  respect  it  —  that        Disingenuous 
paper  engages  in  a  bitter  and  disingenuous  warfare  on  those         Warfare, 
who  framed  and  support  it.     It  stigmatizes  the  Printers' 
Union  as  a  "  self-constituted  tribunal,"  when  in  fact  that  union  was  expressly 
authorized  and  instructed  to  frame  a  scale  of  prices  by  a  regularly  called  and 
fully  attended  meeting  of  the  whole  body  of  journeymen  printers,  seven  or  eight 
months  ago.     It  speaks  of  the  scale  as  an  "  edict  "  of  said  "  self-constituted 
tribunal,"  utterly  concealing  the  facts  that  the  Printers'  Union  embraces  em- 
ployers as  well  as  journeymen,  and  that  the  employers  as  a  class  have  been  invited, 
entreated  and  patiently  waited  for,  to  unite  in  forming  a  scale  which  should  be 
satisfactory  to  and  binding  upon  all.    It  drags  in  certain  regu- 
lations of  the  printers'  scale  of  a  distant  city  in  order  to  excite     Creed  of  Making 
prejudice  against  those  of  this  city  which  contain  no  such  pro-      Proprietors 
visions.     It  talks  loudly  of  "liberty"  and  "dictation,"  but     journeymen 
seems  to  have  no  idea  of  any  right  on  the  part  of  the  journey-      Slaves, 
men  mechanics  to  frame  general  regulations  as  to  the  hours 
of  their  own  labor  and  the  rates  of  its  compensation,  carefully  avoiding  any 
clear  statement  of  the  principles  involved  in  this  contest.     The  Journal  virtually 
maintains  a  creed  which  would  make  of  every  printing  office  a  despotism,  every 


244  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

employer  an  autocrat,  every  journeyman  a  slave,  with  the  single  exception  that 
he  might  run  away  without  dread  of  arrest  and  return  under  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law.  So  long  as  he  remains  in  any  office  he  must  work  for  such  prices, 
during  such  hours  and  under  such  regulations  in  every  respect  as  the  employer 
may  see  fit  to  dictate,  subject  to  any  change  which  that  employer's  caprice  or 
cupidity  may  dictate. 

Now,  without  presuming  that  the  journeymen's  scale  is  in  all  respects  perfect, 
and  deeply  regretting  that  the  employers  as  a  class  have  not  seen  fit  to  participate 
in  forming  a  scale,  which  should  be  theirs  also,  we  yet  repel  the  principles  on 
which  the  Journal  proceeds  and  the  course  to  which  they  have  impelled  its  con- 
ductors. There  should  be  a  regular  scale  of  prices  and  code  of  regulations  in 
each  trade,  binding  alike  on  employers  and  journeymen  and  conclusive  in  all 
cases  of  diflference  likely  to  arise  between  them  as  to  their  reciprocal  duties  and 
rights. 

There  ought  not  to  be  one  rate  of  wages  in  the  Tribune  office  and  another  in 

the  Journal's  for  doing  precisely  equivalent  work.     There  should  be  no  chaffering 

and  higgling  between  employer  and  journeymen  as  to  the 

Should  be  ^^^®  °^  payment  on  a  definite  amount  and  kind  of  work; 

No  Chaffering        there  should  be  no  power  in  employers  nor  journeymen  to 

and  Higgling.        change  the  rate  of  compensation,  once   established,  to  suit 

their  interest  or  pleasure.     In  short,  the  relations  of  employers 

and  journeymen  should,  whenever  it  is  possible,  be  placed  on  a  basis  of  Order, 

Harmony,  System,  instead  of  Anarchy,  Antagonism  and  Chaos.     And  herein  is 

exhibited  what  the  journeymen  are  striving  to  effect  and  the  Journal  to  defeat. 

The  triumph  of  the  Journal  in  its  present  course  would  be  a  degradation  and 

enslavement  of  Labor,  not  in  our  trade  only,  but  in  all.     How  any  printer,  with 

a  man's  soul  in  his  body,  and  not  over  nineteen   children   crying   to  him  for 

bread,    can    hold   a   situation    on    the   Journal    under  existing    circumstances 

passes  our  comprehension. 

Before  the  close  of  the  first  week  in  February  39  establishments, 
a  number  of  them  being  the  largest  in  the  city,  had  conformed  to 
the   union   scale   of   prices.     Twenty-one   of   these 
Short  and        were  book  and  job  shops  and  eighteen  newspaper 
Successful       offices,  among  the  latter  being  the  Evening  Mirror. 
Strike.  Recording  Secretary  C.  W.  Colburn  on  February 

Sth  issued  a  circular  to  journeymen  printers  in  other 
places,  cautioning  them  "  against  anything  that  may  be  put  forth 
by  advertisement  or  otherwise  as  an  inducement  to  them  to  come 
here  for  emplo3rment,  as  there  are  now  more  competent  printers 
in  the  city  than  can  obtain  full  work,  and  any  representation  of  a 
scarcity  of  journeymen  will  emanate  from  employers  who  do  not 
pay  fair  wages  for  the  labor  that  fattens  them."  A  Vigilance  Com- 
mittee was  appointed,  and  for  several  weeks  it  conducted  the  strike 
to  a  partially  successful  issue,  not  many  proprietors  standing  out 
against  the  payment  of  unvarying  wage  rates.  The  Journal  of 
Commerce  declined  to  yield,  and  on  February  1 2th  it  announced  that 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  245 

its  printing  office  "  is  again  fully  manned,  on  the  same  free- trade 
basis  as  heretofore.  Among  the  new  incumbents  are  the  late  fore- 
men of  two  daily  papers  in  neighboring  cities  and  an  ex-editor. 
There  is  not  a  combinationist  among  them.  We  are  very  thankful 
to  the  Printers'  Union  for  helping  us  to  so  good  a  set  of  hands." 

It  was  customary  in  those  days  for  the  chapels  in  establishments 
that  had  acceded  to  the  wishes  of  the  union  to  assemble  and  pass 
resolutions  thanking  employers  for  their  friendly 
attitude   and   favorable   responses.     These   expres-       Chapels 
sions  of  appreciation,  signed  by  all  members  of  the       Thank 
chapels,  were  presented  to  the  proprietors  and  given       Employers, 
wide  publicity  by  being  printed  in  the  advertising 
columns  of  newspapers.     A  type  of  these  resolves  was  that  passed 
by  the  compositors  on  the  Sun  on  February  i,  185 1,  the  nineteen 
printers  then  employed  on  that  newspaper  resolving  "  that  we  pre- 
sent our  united  thanks  to  Messrs.  M.  S.  &  A.  E.  Beach  for  the 
gentlemanly  manner  in  which  they  received  our  application  for  an 
increase  of  wages,  according  to  the  scale  adopted  by  the  Printers' 
Union,  and  for  their  ready  acquiescence  thereto. ' '     Among  the  signers 
of  the  resolution  passed  by  the  employees  of  Pudney  &  Russell,  book 
and  job  printers,  "  for  their  straightforward  and  gentlemanly  con- 
duct in  complying  with  our  wishes  to  adopt  the  scale  of  prices  as  laid 
down  by  the  Printers'  Union  of  this  city,"  was  David  H.  Reins,  one 
of  the  founders  and  the  first  secretary  of  the  New  York  Typograph- 
ical Society. 

VII. 

Agitation  for  Higher  Pay  in  1853. 

Accompanying  an  expansion  of  the  currency  there  was  a  large 
advance  in  rents  and  commodities  early  in  the  year  1853.  The  New 
York  Sunday  Dispatch  had  of  its  own  volition  raised  the  wage  rate 
of  compositors,  and  Typographical  Union  No.  6  on  March  5th  ex- 
pressed its  thanks  to  the  proprietors  of  that  paper  "  for  voluntarily 
advancing  the  price  of  composition  on  their  paper  2  cents  a  thou- 
sand more  than  is  required  by  the  scale  of  prices  of  the  union."  In 
a  few  instances  wages  had  been  increased  upon  the  solicitation  of 
book  and  job  chapels.  George  F.  Nesbitt  &  Co.  were  among  the 
largest  of  these  latter  concerns  and  when  on  March  2 2d  the  employees 
of  that  firm  asked  for  an  increase  of  pay  the  response  was  prompt. 
"  We  take  pleasure  in  acceding  to  your  respectful  request  for  an 
advance  of  wages,"  replied  the  employers.     "  We  are  entirely  con- 


246  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

vinced  of  the  correctness  of  your  statements  in  relation  to  high  rents 
and  the  advance  in  the  price  of  all  the  necessaries  of  life.  We  are 
also  pleased  to  have  the  opportunity  to  express  our  appreciation  of 
your  services,  and  trust  you  will  ever  regard  the  advancement  of 
the  interests  of  the  establishment  as  tending  to  promote  your  individ- 
ual interests . ' '  The  chapel  responded  by  passing  a  resolve '  *  tendering 
our  sincere  thanks  to  Messrs.  Nesbitt  &  Co.  for  the  alacrity  and  gen- 
erous disposition  manifested  in  acceding  to  our  simple  request  in 
advancing  our  wages  beyond  the  established  scale  of  prices." 

These  increases  in  individual  cases  inspired  a  general  desire  for 
greater  compensation  among  the  members  of  the  union  in  order  to 
meet  the  dearer  cost  of  living.  So  pronounced  was  the  agitation  for 
an  increased  list  of  prices  that  the  subject  of  a  revision  of  the  scale 
was  presented  to  the  association  on  April  2d.  It  was  the  only  matter 
of  paramount  importance  that  came  before  the  body  at  that  meeting, 
and  the  question  was  speedily  settled  by  the  adoption  of  a  newspaper 
schedule  that  raised  regular  piece  composition  on  morning  dailies 
to  37  cents  per  1,000  ems;  for  day  work  only,  32  cents;  night  work 
only,  42  cents;  per  week,  regular,  $17 ;  night  work  only,  $14;  day  work 
only,  $12 — these  figures  representing  increases  of  from  14.3  per 
cent  to  16.7  per  cent  on  piece  rates,  and  from  20  per  cent  to  27.3 
per  cent  on  time  rates.  On  evening  and  weekly  papers  there  was  a 
rise  to  32  cents  per  1,000  ems  (14.3  per  cent  advance)  and  Si 2  per 
week  (20  per  cent  increase).  Anticipating  a  strike,  the  union  at 
the  same  meeting  ordered  "  that  if  any  member  shall  be  compelled 
to  leave  his  situation  in  consequence  of  adherence  to  the  scale  of 
prices  adopted  at  this  meeting  the  bills  of  such  members  as  have 
been  benefited  by  said  scale  shall  be  taxed  15  per  cent  for  the  pur- 
pose of  raising  a  fund  to  aid  and  sustain  the  members  thus  deprived 
of  situations  while  they  necessarily  remain  unemployed."  It  was 
decided  to  have  the  changes  go  into  effect  on  daily  newspapers  on 
April  8th  and  on  weekly  papers  the  eleventh  of  that  month.  The 
book  scale  was  deferred  to  future  deliberation. 

While  the  demand  of  the  organization  was  successful  in  the  main 
there  were  several  newspapers  that  refused  to  grant  its  terms,  and 
strikes  ensued.  The  daily  newspapers  that  declined  to  recognize 
the  union  or  its  scale  were  the  Journal  of  Commerce,  Day  Book, 
Courier  and  Enquirer,  Mirror  and  Sun.  Immediately  following  the 
walk-out  in  his  composing  room  the  editor  of  the  Day  Book  in  an 
editorial  addressed  the  striking  printers  in  this  strain: 

Without  going  into  any  discussion  upon  the  right  of  the  Tribune  printers  to 
come  to  our  office,  and  dictate  to  us  the  terms  on  which  we  shall  hire  our  men, 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  247 

we  have  to  inform  them  that  we  shall  not  obey  their  mandate.  We  did  not 
commence  the  publishing  business  for  the  sake  of  printers  alone,  nor  for  the  fun 
of  it;  we  want  to  live  as  well  as  they,  and  we  want  something  for  our  services  — 
as  yet  we  have  had  nothing.  They  had  it  all  the  first  two  years,  and  when  we 
thought  we  were  going  to  have  a  little  they  clapped  their  hands  on  that  and 
said,  "  No,  we  must  have  the  whole."  Well,  we  thought  our  turn  would  come 
by-and-by,  and  gave  it  up.  Now,  then,  just  as  we  see  a  little  glistering  in  the 
distance,  and  think  we  are  going  to  have  a  nibble  of  it,  in  steps  the  Tribune 
interferers  and  say,  "  No,  sir,  this  must  go  to  your  printers,  too."  Very  well, 
gentlemen,  you  do  not  mean  to  let  us  live  at  all.  You  are  determined  to  have 
the  whole;  now  take  it,  but  get  someone  else  to  furnish  you  with  copy.  We  have 
worked  for  you  without  pay  or  reward  quite  as  long  as  we  shall  work,  and  if  you 
are  not  disposed,  after  taking  our  services  for  four  years,  to  give  us  a  little  for  all 
we  have  done,  we  shall  strike  —  that's  all.  We  shall  go  into  a  combination  to 
get  higher  wages  and  allow  no  man  to  make  terms  for  us;  but  if  you  will  not 
give  us  a  little  something  for  our  services,  we  shall  go  to  work  for  those  who 
will. 

And  now  we  have  a  proposition  to  make  to  the  printers,  one  and  all.  There 
are  eight  good  situations  in  our  office  for  compositors,  at  28  cents  per  1,000  ems. 
One  of  our  men  earns  about  $15  per  week,  and  the  others  average  from  $10  to 
$12  and  they  do  not  work  hard  —  on  an  average  not  over  eight  or  nine  hours 
a  day.  By  scratching  round  a  good,  active  business  man  can  get  out  of  the  paper 
enough  to  pay  up  every  Saturday  night.  If  any  of  you  choose  to  take  those 
situations  we  will  give  you  our  time  and  services  and  guarantee  you  the  payment 
of  your  wages  and  take  our  pay  out  of  the  surplus  receipts.  Better  than  that 
we  will  not  do.  We  can  do  better  at  something  else  than  to  give  even  29  cents. 
If  you  can  do  better  than  to  take  28  cents,  do  it.  Perhaps  we  can  both  do  better 
at  something  else,  and  had  better  let  the  printing  business  alone. 

The  Courier  and  Enquirer  thus  expressed  itself  in  regard  to  the 
dispute : 

Our  views  as  to  strikes  have  been  often  expressed  and  were  given  at  some  length 
no  longer  ago  than  the  first  instant.  We  are  opposed  to  all  combinations  to 
affect  prices.  We  have  never  meddled  with  the  Printers'  Union,  but  that 
organization  has  attempted  to  meddle  with  us,  and  failing  in  that,  to  destroy 
our  business.  There  is  bat  one  course  left  open  to  us,  and  we  now  announce 
that  for  the  future  we  will  employ  no  compositor  who  acknowledges  the  control 
of  the  Printers'  Union.  Our  present  compositors  are  independent  men,  and  we 
will  not  ask  them  to  sacrifice  their  self-respect  by  associating  with  those  who  will 
consent  to  submit  their  interests  to  the  tyrannical  mandates  of  a  trade  union.^ 


*  Evidently  the  compositors  on  the  Courier  and  EnQuirer  did  not  remain  satisfied,  as  was  indicated 
by  the  following  account  in  the  Tribune  of  May  7,  1855,  of  a  strike  on  the  first-mentioned  news- 
paper: "  During  the  depression  of  business  this  past  winter  the  Courier  and  Enquirer  reduced  its 
compositors'  wages  from  35  cents  per  i  ,000  ems  to  32  cents.  With  the  revival  of  trade  this  spring 
the  men  looked  for  a  restoration  of  the  previous  scale,  which  meanwhile  some  others  of  the  daily 
press  had  been  paying.  In  this  anticipation,  however,  they  were  disappointed;  and  accordingly 
on  Friday  evening  fourteen  of  the  workmen  left  their  stands  upon  receiving  a  point-blank  refusal 
of  their  demands.  They  also  complained  about  not  being  remunerated  for  much  of  their  time 
passed  in  the  office  in  forced  idleness,  for  want  of  copy,  but  this  grievance  was  also  refused 
redress." 


248  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

From  the  Sun  of  April  9,  1853,  is  extracted  the  following  version 
of  the  controversy  concerning  that  office: 

As  soon  as  the  union  reached  a  position  of  some  influence,  its  real  (though  not 
its  nominal)  projectors  began  to  hoist  their  true  colors.  The  candid  and  true- 
hearted  men  connected  with  it  and  hitherto  its  warm  supporters  and  friends 
retired  silently  and  in  disgust,  and  the  majority  of  those  who  remain  at  this  day 
are  members  from  a  compulsion  they  dare  not  resist,  and  not  from  any  wish 
or  will  of  their  own.  The  object  of  the  wire-pullers  now  in  the  union  is  to  create 
disorganization  and  discord  in  the  various  establishments  and  in  the  confusion 
obtain  the  good""  sits"  for  themselves,  or  in  lieu  of  that  to  extort  a  pension  from 
those  who  continue  at  work  to  sustain  them  in  their  idleness.  To  effect  this 
they  last  Saturday  evening  met  and  caused  resolutions  to  be  adopted  concern- 
ing the  management  of  the  work  in  the  different  offices,  the  prices  to  be  paid  for 
it,  and  the  taxes  to  be  levied  and  collected  from  those  who  obtained  work  on  and 
after  the  eighth  instant  —  yesterday.  The  proprietors  were  not  to  be  consulted 
nor  to  be  heard  in  the  matter,  nor  even  were  the  workmen  for  whose  benefit 
this  was  all  done  to  have  their  say.  The  union  managers  did  up  the  whole 
business  for  all  parties,  according  to  their  own  notions  and  to  serve  their  own 
ends.  What  the  result  was  in  other  establishments  we  cannot  say,  but  in  our 
own  it  was  in  this  wise: 

About  noon  yesterday  two  men  called  upon  the  publisher  in  his  office  and 
desired  an  answer  to  the  circular  they  had  left  a  few  days  previously.  They  were 
cordially  received  and  frankly  told  that  so  far  as  he  (the  publisher)  knew  the  men 
employed  by  him  were  perfectly  satisfied  with  existing  arrangements;  that  when 
they  desired  to  change  they  would  undoubtedly  speak  for  themselves  and  most 
certainly  they  would  be  treated  with  that  kindness  and  liberality  which  all 
workmen  are  entitled  to  receive  at  the  hands  of  their  employers.  Any  inter- 
ference by  the  union  between  the  publisher  and  those  employed  by  him  would 
not,  of  course,  be  tolerated.  The  men  received  this  full  and  distinct  reply  to 
their  queries,  and  left  the  office.  A  few  moments  afterwards,  while  the  pub- 
lisher was  in  the  workroom,  in  conversation  with  the  assistant  foreman,  these 
same  men  attempted  to  gain  an  entrance  there,  apparently  for  the  purpose  of 
sowing  a  discontent  which  their  previous  operations  had  not  produced.  They 
were  met  at  the  threshold  and  requested  to  retire.  At  first  they  demurred,  but 
finding  they  could  not  intimidate  the  proprietor,  and  that  a  cordial  understand- 
ing existed  between  him  and  the  men,  they  reluctantly  left  the  premises. 

And  now,  that  our  readers  may  understand  the  relations  existing  between 
the  publisher  of  the  Sun  and  the  men  whom  these  interlopers  wished  to  put 
under  contribution  to  them,  we  append  the  copy  of  a  testimonial  voluntarily 
presented  some  weeks  since.  By  the  date  of  this  document  it  will  be  noticed 
that  before  the  union  had  taken  any  action  whatever  these  men  were  in  receipt 
of  advance  wages,  given  unsolicited,  and  subject  to  no  "  taxes  "  or  drawbacks: 
"At  a  meeting  of  the  compositors  of  the  New  York  Sun  establishment  held  on 
Saturday,  March  19,  1853,  it  was  unanimously  resolved  that  we  present  to 
Moses  S.  Beach,  Esq.,  our  thanks  for  the  generous  and  unsolicited  advance  in 
their  wages."  This  was  signed  by  the  compositors  and  presented  to  Mr.  Beach 
on  the  following  Monday.  The  advanced  wages  had  taken  effect  on  the 
eleventh  of  March  — four  weeks  ago.  Advanced  wages  were  also  given  to  those 
employed  in  the  pressroom  as  far  back  as  last  January. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  249 

The  publisher  of  the  Sun  considers  himself  competent  to  the  management 
of  hia  own  business  and  prefers  always  to  employ  such  men  as  are  free  to  do  for 
themselves  as  they  think  proper.  In  many  respects  the  labor  in  the  compositors' 
department  of  the  New  York  Sun  is  easier  and  more  agreeable  than  on  any  other 
New  York  morning  newspaper.  Hence  the  situations  are  more  prized  and  more 
permanent,  but  in  filling  them  the  publisher  requires  men  of  temperate  and  steady 
habits  —  men  fit  to  think,  act  and  do  for  themselves,  and  who  will  submit  to  no 
outside  dictation  or  pernicious  influences.  With  such  men  his  relations  are 
always  harmonious.  In  a  faithful  and  conscientious  regard  for  the  best  interests 
of  those  employed  by  him  he  yields  to  no  man  living  and  consequently  rejects 
any  comparison  with  a  self-created,  irresponsible  and  intermeddling  union. 
Self-respect  and  adherence  to  the  principle  of  individual  independence  also 
prevent  any  submission  to  the  dictatorial  law  and  odious  guardianship  which 
this  union  seeks  to  establish,  and  so  far  as  lies  in  his  power  he  will  also  protect 
the  men  whom  he  employs  from  being  compelled  to  pay  tithes  of  their  earnings 
against  their  own  wills  and  wishes,  and  from  being,  in  effect,  deprived  of  their 
own  individual  liberty  of  action. 

Antagonism  to  the  printers'  association  and  its  policies  continued 

to  mark  the  course  of  the  Journal  of  Commerce. 

This  hostile  spirit  was  particularly  evinced  in  an      Journal  of 

editorial  that  was  printed  in  its  columns  on  April        o^imerce 
,,,,,.,  ....  Renews  Its 

gth,  when  the  publishers  gave  vent  to  their  opinions      opposition. 

in  these  sentences,  through  which  is  interspersed 

historical  matter  of  much  value: 

A  grand  system  of  combination  among  mechanics  and  laborers  in  different 
parts  of  the  country,  with  a  view  to  the  advancement  of  the  prices  of  labor,  has 
been  in  progress  for  some  time,  and  the  center  of  its  operations  just  now  is  in 
this  city.  Men  of  several  trades  have  struck  within  the  last  few  days  and  in 
other  cases  a  strike  has  been  prevented  by  a  compliance  with  their  demands. 

The  printers,  of  course,  have  a  finger  in  the  pie.      The  Printers'  Union  under 
various  modifications  has  been  in  operation  a  number  of  years,  as  we  have  more 
than    once   occasion  to    know.     Twice   they    have   induced 
the  greater  part  of  our  men  to  abandon  good  places  under  the       impertinence  of 
expectation  of  bettering  their  condition  under  combination       Combined 
auspices;  but  if  any  such  men  have  found  their  expectation        workmgmen. 
realized,  we  don't  know  who  they  are.     Steadfastly  and  upon 
principle  we  have  always  resisted  this  foreign  interference  with  our  business  and 
always  shall.     The  perfect  right  of  men  in  any  establishment  to  demand  what- 
ever wages  they  may  see  fit  we  never  for  a  moment  doubted;  nor  their  right  to 
leave  their  employer  after  reasonable  notice,  in  case  their  demands  are  not  com- 
plied with.     Equally  clear  is  the  right  of  the  employer  to  determine  what  he 
will  pay,  and  if  the  two  parties  cannot  agree  they  have  mutually  a  right  to  sep- 
arate.    But  when  men,  and  especially  a  combination  of  men,  not  connected 
with  any  particular  establishment  undertake  to  say  what  compensation  the 
owner  of  it  shall  pay  to  his  workmen,  and  what  rules  shall  be  established  in  his 
office,  it  is  a  piece  of  impertinence  as  glaring  as  can  well  be  conceived  of.     We 
have  recently  had  a  small  specimen  of  these  tactics.     Some  two  or  three  days 


250  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

since  we  were  presented  with  a  circular  signed  by  a  committee  of  the  Printers' 
Union,  accompanied  by  a  scale  of  prices  and  othec  regulations  which  the  union 
had  decreed  should  go  into  effect  on  the  eighth  (yesterday)  and  eleventh  agree- 
able to  the  following  resolution,  viz: 

Resolved,  That  this  scale  shall  go  into  effect  on  the  eighth  of  April  inst.  in  morning  newspaper 
establishments,  and  on  the  eleventh  of  April  inst.  in  daily,  evening  and  weekly  newspaper  estab- 
lishments. 

This  is  decidedly  a  sweeping  conclusion.  No  newspaper  establishment  is 
excepted,  not  even  the  Journal  of  Commerce.  It  was  news  to  us  that  we  were 
to  pay  the  price  which  men  out  of  the  office  had  dictated  to  us  without  our 
knowledge  or  consent,  nor  have  we  yet  learned  where  they  obtained  the  informa- 
tion. Some  two  or  three  weeks  since  our  compositors,  or  most  of  them,  united 
in  a  respectful  application  for  an  increase  of  wages,  and  although  our  regular 
week  hands  were  then  receiving  $14  a  week  and  some  of  them  as  high  as  $16  or 
$18  a  week  at  piecework,  we  nevertheless  added  a  dollar  a  week  to  the  week  hands, 
and  an  equal  proportion  to  the  piece  hands.  This  we  did  cheerfully  and  with 
pleasure,  after  ascertaining  that  the  application  had  no  connection  with  the 
Printers'  Union.  The  manner  in  which  it  was  regarded  by  our  workmen  may 
be  gathered  from  the  following  card,  which  they  caused  to  be  published  in  this 
and  other  papers  on  the  following  morning: 

At  a  meeting  of  the  compositors  employed  on  the  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce,  held  on  the 
seventeenth  last,  it  was  unanimously  resolved,  that  the  thanks  of  this  meeting  are  due  and  are 
hereby  tendered  to  the  proprietors  of  the  Journal  of  Commerce  for  the  prompt  and  liberal  manner 
in  which  they  complied  with  our  request  for  an  advance  in  the  rates  of  compensation. 

Robert  Bruce, 
S.  S.  May,  Chairman. 

Secretary. 

Thus  we  stand  at  present.     Our  workmen  and  ourselves  have  met  on  terms 

mutually  satisfactory;  but  an  outside,  self-constituted  power  interposes  and 

says  we  shall  not  trade  on  these  terms,  but  on  terms  of  their 

Interposition        (^^e  outsiders')  dictation,  or  not  at  all.     These  terms  are  in 

of  the  Unioa        brief,  $17  a  week  or  37  cents  per  1,000  ems;  being  an  advance 

*  •  of  $3  a  week,  or  5  cents  per  1,000  on  the  prices  previously 

demanded  by  the  same  combination.     They  also  prescribe 

various  rules  for  the  internal  arrangement  of  printing  offices  which  no  employer 

having  any  self-respect  could  or  would  submit  to.    Altogether  there  are  twelve 

articles  relating  to  morning  newspaper  establishments.    The  delegation  who 

handed  us  the  circular  called  yesterday  for  an  answer  and  received  the  following: 

New  York,  April  8,  1853. 
To  Geo,  A .  Colhurn  and  Others,  Committee  of  the  Printers'  Union : 

Gentlemen: —  We  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  circular  of  the  second  instant,  in  which  you 
announce  that  the  Printers'  Union  have  adopted  a  scale  of  prices  and  various  other  rules  for  the 
regulation  of  printing  offices,  all  of  which  are  to  go  into  effect  this  day  in  morning  newspaper 
establishments,  and  in  daily,  evening  and  weekly  newspaper  establishments  on  the  eleventh 
instant.  As  you  purpose  to  call  upon  us  this  day  for  an  answer  we  may,  perhaps,  save  your  time 
and  our  own  by  remarking,  as  we  now  do,  that  when  we  require  any  extraneous  aid  in  the 
management  of  our  business  we  will  not  fail  to  let  you  know.  Such  a  contingency  will  happen, 
if  at  all,  when  you  require  the  interference  of  your  neighbor  in  regulating  the  affairs  of  your 
household,  prescribing  the  hours  for  meals,  the  price  you  shall  pay  your  domestics,  etc.  In  the 
meantime  we  are, 

Yours  respectfully, 

Hallock,  Butler  &  Hale, 

Proprietors  of  the  Journal  of  Commerce. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  25  I 

It  is  no  part  of  our  nature  to  wish  to  pay  less  for  anything  we  receive  than  a 
fair  equivalent.  And  in  point  of  fact,  taking  a  series  of  years  together,  we  doubt  if 
the  workingmen  in  any  printing  office  in  the  city  have  been  better  paid  than  ours. 

We  were  the  first  to  advance  a  part  of  our  week  hands  (those  who  earned  most) 
from  $13  to  $14,  and  again  we  were  the  first  to  advance  the  whole  of  our  regular 
night  hands  working  by  the  week,  from  $14  to  $15,  equal  to  $780  per  annum. 
This  is  what  we  are  now  paying;  and  it  is  certainly  liberal  pay  for  journeymen 
printers.  It  is  true,  the  service  is  in  some  respects  arduous  —  particularly  as 
much  of  it  is  night  work  —  but  on  the  other  hand  there  is  no  great  physical 
exertion  about  it,  no  exposure  to  heat  and  cold,  and  no  days  are  lost  by  bad 
weather.  On  the  whole  there  are  many  professional  men  who  would  be  glad 
to  take  such  berths  if  they  were  competent  to  fill  them. 

Much  is  said  about  the  high  price  of  rents,  provisions,  etc.     Rents  are  high  — 
that's  a  fact;  and  will  not  be  made  lower  by  an  increase  in  the  wages  of  masons 
and   carpenters.     On   the  contrary,  such  advances  if    per- 
manently established  would  not  only  enhance  the  cost  of  all         Comments 
buildings  yet  to  be  erected,  but  the  value  of  those  already         on  the  Cost 
built;  so  that  landlords  as  a  class  would  be  benefited  by  the         °^  Living. 
change.     As  to  provisions  in  the  aggregate,  we  doubt  if  there 
is  much  foundation  for  the  remark  so  often  made.    Meat  is  high,  but  breadstuffs, 
potatoes,  sugar,  molasses  and  most  other  groceries  are  quite  as  low,  and  some  of 
them  lower,  than  usual.     Butter  has  been  extravagantly  high,  but  is  fast  coming 
down.     The  price  of  buffalo  is  only  12 1  cents.     People  talk  about  the  worth- 
lessness  of  money,  but  if  anybody  wants  to  borrow,  outside  of  the  banks,  he  is 
obliged  to  pay  from  8  to  10  per  cent  on  good,  endorsed  business  paper,  while 
paper  at  all  doubtful  can  scarcely  be  negotiated  at  all.     It  is  the  opinion  of 
many  that  a  close  money  market  is  likely  to  continue,  in  which  case  the  prices 
of  all  commodities,  labor  included,  will  soon  feel  its  influence.  » 

Suppose  the  Printers'  Union  should  succeed  by  a  forced  violation  of  the  law 
of  demand  and  supply  in  driving  the  price  of  composition  up  to  a  figure  beyond 
what  the  profits  of  the  business  would  bear,  what  would  be 
the  consequence?     One  consequence  would  be  that  it  would       High  Wages 
crush  weak  establishments  and  throw  the  hands  employed  in       Crush  Weak 
them  out  of  business.     EstabHshments  which  do  but  just       EstabUshments. 
live  at  the  old  prices  would  die  at  the  new.     The  men  thus 
discharged  would  seek  employment  where  they  could  find  it ;  and  might  perchance 
be  glad  to  take  "$2  a  day  and  roast  beef,"  if  they  could  not  get  $2.87^  as  de- 
manded by  the  union.     If,  however,  a  reaction  were  not  produced  in  this  way 
it  would  be  in  another.     For,  if  such  enormous  prices  could  be  realized  by  type- 
setting, thousands  would  think  it  just  the  business  for  their  boys  to  learn  and 
in  a  few  years  the  market  would  be  glutted  with  an  over-supply  of  hands.     Men 
who  violate  the  laws  of  nature,  even  in  a  matter  of  trade,  are  sure  to  be  punished 
for  it  sooner  or  later  by  the  operation  of  those  laws,  if  in  no  other  way. 

It  is  a  misfortune  to  both  sides  and  to  the  interests  of  society  when  jealousies 
arise  between  employers  and  workmen.     The  two  classes  are 
mutually  dependent  upon  each  other  and  should  be  mutual    Jealousies  Behveen 
friends.    Employers  should  be  willing  to  pay  what  is  just  and    Workmen  a 
right  and  what  the  labor  market,  if  left  to  itself,  would  fairly    Misfortune, 
command.      Workmen  also  should  be  reasonable,  and  not 
expect  to  reap  all  the  profits  of  an  old-established  business  which  has  cost  years 
of  labor,  large  investments  of  money,  and  in  the  early  period  of  its  existence, 


252  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

heavy  sacrifice.  As  they  run  no  risk  they  cannot  expect  to  share  all  the  chances 
of  gain.  If,  however,  they  covet  the  risks  and  chances  together  they  can  easily 
have  them.  The  same  free  field  of  competition  is  open  to  them  which  their 
present  employers  entered  (those  who  entered  and  failed  are  not  thought  of),  or 
if  they  prefer  to  take  establishments  already  existing,  they  can  find  many  such 
quite  at  their  service,  both  in  town  and  country. 

Horace  Greeley  believed  that  the  augmentation  of  living  expenses 
justified  an  increase  in  wages,  yet  he  was  of  the  opinion  that  the 
union  had  demanded  higher  rates  than  the  con- 
Greeley  ditions  warranted.     His  judgment   also   was   that 

Criticises  ^i^Q  organized  journeymen  had  erred  in  not  seeking 

the  Course  of      ^,  ^  ^-  r        •   ^-         i      .  •  ^ 

the  Toumal        ^^  co-operation  of  pnntmg-plant  owners  m  read- 

of  Commerce,  justing  the  wage  scale.  Such  course  would  have 
prevented  friction  in  the  trade  and  have  further 
cemented  the  bonds  of  amity  that  had  for  two  years  existed  between 
most  of  the  proprietors  and  their  workmen.  But  on  the  other  hand 
the  great  printer-editor  viewed  with  extreme  repugnance  the  position 
taken  by  the  Journal  of  Commerce,  the  publishers  of  which  he  severely 
criticised,,  not  only  for  paying  less  than  the  prevailing  rates  of  com- 
pensation, but  for  their  persistent  hostility  to  the  union  and  in  hold- 
ing aloof  from  any  plan  that  might  bring  together  into  harmonious 
relationship  the  great  body  of  laborers  and  capitalists.  Said  Mr. 
Greeley  in  an  editorial  which  appeared  in  the  Tribune  of  April  12th: 

The  Printers'  Union  of  this  city  recently  resolved  on  an  increase  of  the  rates 
of  compensation  (by  the  week  or  piece)  to  journeymen  printers,  averaging  15 
per  cent.  This  will  increase  our  expenses  about  $6,000  per  annum.  We  consider 
an  increase  justified  by  the  general  improvement  in  wages  and  prices  resulting 
from  the  gold  yield  of  the  last  two  or  three  years,  though  we  believe  the  journey- 
men printers  have  misjudged  in  raising  their  rates  so  much  as  15  per  cent.  Half 
that  amount,  or  10  per  cent  at  most,  would  have  been  nearer  the  actual  advance 
in  prices  and  the  cost  of  living  since  their  late  scale  was  adopted,  and  would 
have  been  likely  to  endure,  while  we  fear  15  per  cent  will  not.  Wages  and 
prices  are  not  wholly  within  the  control  of  the  parties  having  labor  or  products 
to  sell,  as  experience  will  convince  those  whom  reason  cannot.  Should  the  influx 
of  gold  from  California  and  Australia  continue  the  new  scale  will  be  sustained; 
should  anything  occur  to  arrest  or  diminish  that  influx,  wages  must  recede  to 
the  old  rates,  and  possibly  even  lower. 

We  think  the  journeymen  made  a  mistake  in  proceeding  of  themselves  to  fix 

a  new  and  advanced  scale  of  prices  and  then  asking  the  employers  to  accede  to 

it.     They  ought  to  have  asked  the  employers  to  unite  with 

Journeymen  Should    them  in  revising  the  scale  and  adapting  it  to  the  existing 

Have  Conferred  state  of  things,  and  should  have  been  prepared  with  sta- 

with  Employers.         tistics  to  show  that  the  money  value  of  labor  has  so  changed 

as  to  render  such  revision  just  and  proper.     True,  they  have 

a  perfect  right  to  set  a  price  on  their  own  labor,  but  employers  have  the  same  right 

to  determine  what  they  will  pay;  and  the  object  of  a  scale  is  (or  should  be)  the 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER   WAGES.  253 

establishment  of  a  common  standard  to  the  avoidance  of  all  controversy  or  cavil- 
ing thereafter.  Now  we  shall  pay  the  new  scale,  reserving  our  right  to  determine 
at  any  time  hereafter  whether  we  can  or  cannot  afford  to  persevere  in  so  doing. 
But  had  the  journeymen  seen  fit  to  ask  a  conference  with  the  employers  and  had 
the  scale  been  then  readjusted  with  the  assent  of  both  parties,  we  should  have 
felt  bound  to  pay  it  until  a  modification  had  in  like  manner  been  agreed  to  by 
employers  and  journeymen,  through  their  duly  authorized  representatives.  And 
we  fear  the  new  scale  is  not  likely  to  be  paid,  even  pro  tem.,  so  generally  as  it 
would  have  been  had  the  journeymen  requested  the  concurrence  of  the  employers 
in  the  modification,  as  they  did  when  the  scale  was  last  revised  three  or  four 
years  ago. 

The  Journal  of  Commerce  announces  that  it  will  not  pay  the  new  scale  and 
adds:  "  The  Printers'  Union  under  various  modifications  has  been  in  opera- 
tion a  number  of  years,  as  we  have  more  than  once  had  occasion  to  know.  Twice 
they  have  induced  the  greater  part  of  our  men  to  abandon  good  places  under 
the  expectation  of  bettering  their  condition  under  combination  auspices;  but  if 
any  such  men  have  found  their  expectations  realized  we  don't  know  where  they 
are.  Steadfastly  and  upon  principle  we  have  always  resisted  this  foreign  inter- 
ference with  our  business  and  always  shall.  The  perfect  right  of  men  in  any 
establishment  to  demand  whatever  wages  they  may  see  fit  we  never  for  a  moment 
doubted;  nor  their  right  to  leave  their  employer  after  reasonable  notice  in  case 
their  demands  are  not  complied  with.  Equally  clear  is  the  right  of  the  employer 
to  determine  what  he  will  pay ;  and  if  two  parties  cannot  agree  they  have  mutually 
a  right  to  separate.  But  when  men,  and  especially  a  combination  of  men,  not 
connected  with  any  particular  establishment  undertake  to  say  what  compensa- 
tion the  owner  of  it  shall  pay  to  his  workmen,  and  what  rules  shall  be  established 
in  his  office,  it  is  a  piece  of  impertinence  as  glaring  as  can  well  be  conceived  of." 

Here  are  two  propositions  so  dexterously  blended  that  the  Journal  contrives 
to  state  the  one  and  decide  the  other.     That  the  journeymen  in  any  trade  or 
calling  have  not  the  sole  right  to  determine  what  wages  shall 
be  paid  for  their  labor  therein  is  quite  true  —  the  employers         Gross  and 
having  a  co-ordinate  and  equal  right  —  and  so  far  the  Journal        Mischievous 
is  clearly  right.     But  under  cover  of  this  truth  the  Journal         Fallacy. 
attempts  to  support  the  gross  and  mischievous  fallacy  that 
each  employer  has  a  moral  right  to  cut  under  and  cut  down  wages  as  far  as  he 
shall  believe  it  possible  to  do  so.     This  is  the  principle  on  which  the  Journal  has 
always  stood  and  which  has  rendered  it  malodorous  in  the  nostrils  of  working- 
men  for  the  last  20  years.     When  the  journeymen  asked  $12  per  week  it  refused 
them  that  rate  and  would  pay  only  $10.     It  has  since  been  compelled  to  advance, 
but  has  kept  almost  uniformly  in  the  rear  of  the  current  rate  of  wages,  as  it  now 
does.     Drawing  little  or  nothing  of  its  support  directly  from  the  laboring  class 
it  has  been  able  to  defy  and  oppose  that  class  and  has  thereby  put  some  money 
in  its  purse ;  but  we  do  not  believe  money  so  obtained  can  prove  a  blessing  to  its 
possessors.     The  one  chief  obstacle  to  concert  and  good  un- 
derstanding between  the  journeymen  and  employers  in  our    Chief  Obstacle  to 
trade  during  the  22  years  that  we  have  been  connected  with    Concert  and  Good 
printing  in  our  city  has  been  the  Journal  of  Commerce.    Had    Understanding, 
that  paper  seen  fit  to  concur  in  a  union  of  employers  only, 
or  of  employers  and  journeymen   together,  in  fixing,  maintaining   and  from 
time  to  time  modifying  a  scale  of  prices  for  newspaper  printing  in  our  city,  we 
believe  there  would  have  been  no  dissent  or  demur  from  any  other  influential 


2  54  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

quarter.  But  it  has  chosen  to  stand  out,  and  insist  on  its  right  to  pay  such  prices 
only  as  its  owners  should  from  time  to  time  indicate,  and  these  almost  uniformly 
some  10  to  20  per  cent  below  those  paid  by  the  great  body  of  its  contemporaries, 
none  of  them  more  able  than  and  few  so  able  as  the  Journal  to  pay  full  wages 
By  taking  this  course  it  has  done  very  much  to  keep  the  trade  perpetually  in  a 
state  of  anarchy  and  stir  up  hatred  and  strife  between  employers  and  journeymen. 
We  have  at  all  times  been  willing  to  unite,  as  we  now  are,  in  any  fair  and  equal 
mode  of  adjusting  wages  in  the  printing  business;  and  we  not  only  fully  admit, 
but  resolutely  insist  on  the  equal  right  of  employers  with  journeymen  in  settling 
the  scale  of  prices;  we  are  ready  now  to  act  upon  that  right;  but  the  Journal  and 
such  other  concerns  as  insist  on  the  right  of  each  employer  to  fix  a  price  for  the 
labor  he  hires  without  reference  to  the  price  paid  by  others,  stand  directly  in 
the  way  of  any  efficient  and  conciliatory  action  on  the  part  of  employers,  thus 
perpetuating  the  discord  and  confusion  which  they  yet  seem  to  deplore.  When 
shall  we  have  an  end  of  it? 

These  strictures  so  disturbed  the  choler  of  the  Journal  of  Com- 
merce management  that  it  hastened  to  retaliate,  printing  the  follow- 
ing satirical  reply  in  the  issue  of  April  13th: 

The  Tribune,  after  encouraging  combinations  of  workmen  against  employers 

for  several  years  past,  with  various  success,  now  at  length  discovers  or  pretends 

to  discover  that  the  printers'  combination  have  carried  the 

Reply  of  the        game  too  far.     Why  so?     If  it  takes  but  one  to  make  a 

Journal  of  bargain  why  should  not  the  price  be  made  agreeable  to  that 

Commerce.  Q^g^  whether  it  costs  the   Tribune  an  additional  $6,000  a 

year  or  not?    We  notice,  too,  the  astonishing  intimation  that 

the  Tribune  may  yet  refuse  to  pay  the  combination  prices,  if  they  should  prove 

to  be  higher  than  it  can  afford.     What  is  this  but  calling  in  question  the  right 

of  the  Printers'  Union  to  make  an  employer  pay  whatever  they  please.     No 

shirking,  if  you  please.     Stand  up  to  your  principles,  though  the  heavens  fall. 

The  Tribune  does  us  more  honor  than  we  deserve,  when  it  says  that  *'  the  one 
chief  obstacle  "  to  the  success  of  the  printers'  combination  is  and  has  been  the 
Journal  of  Commerce.  Or  to  use  its  own  language:  "The  one  chief  obstacle 
to  concert  and  good  understanding  between  the  journeymen  and  employers  in 
our  trade  during  the  22  years  that  we  have  been  connected  with  printing  in  our 
city  has  been  the  Journal  of  Commerce.  Had  that  paper  seen  fit  to  concur  in  a 
union  of  employers  only,  or  of  employers  and  journeymen  together,  in  fixing, 
maintaining,  and  from  time  to  time  modifying  a  scale  of  prices  for  newspaper 
printing  in  our  city,  we  believe  there  would  have  been  no  dissent  or  demur  from 
any  other  influential  quarter." 

We  have  no  doubt  but  there  would  have  been  a  perfectly  "  good  understand- 
ing "  between  us  and  the  Printers'  Union  if  we  had  consented  to  pay  whatever 
contributions  they  might  see  fit  to  levy  upon  us;  in  other 
Cost  of  words,  permitted  them  to  rob  us  at  pleasure;  but  we  do  not 

a  Good  wish  a  good  understanding  on  such  terms.    With  our  own 

Understanding,      workmen  we  have  always  had  a  good  understanding  except 
when  it  was  interrupted  by  the  Printers'  Union.     We  have 
such  an  understanding  still.     Not  a  man  has  left  us  that  we  are  aware  of  in  con- 
sequence of  this  mighty  demonstration  of  the  Printers'  Union,  and  we  have  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  any  of  them  intend  to  do  so.     If,  however,  vacancies  should 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  2$$ 

occur  we  can  easily  supply  them.     Fifteen  dollars  a  week  paid  as  punctually  as 
the  sun  is  not  likely  to  go  a-begging  for  want  of  somebody  to  pick  it  up. 

The  Tribune  wonders  why  we  will  not  combine  with  employers  only,  or  with 
employers  and  journeymen  together,  "  in  fixing,  maintaining 
and   from   time   to  time  modifying,  a  scale   of   newspaper  Reasons 

printing,"  i.  e.  prices,  "  in  our  city."     We  answer:  for  Not 

1.  Because  we  should  deem  a  combination  of  "employers  Combining 
only,"  to  fix  the  prices  of  workmen  without  the  concurrence 

of  the  latter,  as  objectionable  in  principle  as  a  combination  of  workmen  only 
for  the  same  object. 

2.  We  beheve  it  impracticable.  The  interests  of  employers  are  various.  Large 
and  strong  establishments  may  think  it  an  object  to  pay  prices  sufficiently 
high  to  break  down  the  weak  ones  so  that  they  (the  large  ones)  may  have  the 
whole  ground.  Small  and  weak  establishments,  on  the  contrary,  are  obliged 
to  economize  expenses  or  die.  If  employers  and  workmen  should  meet  to  fix 
prices,  etc.,  the  elements  of  discord  would  be  further  increased. 

3.  Any  uniform  scale  of  prices  which  might  be  adopted,  either  by  employers 
alone,  or  by  journeymen  alone,  or  by  both  classes  in  conjunction,  would,  in  its 
operation,  be  necessarily  unjust.  Some  journeymen  are  worth  twice  as  much  as 
others;  yet  a  uniform  scale  makes  no  difference  between  them  if  they  work  by  the 
week,  and  an  inadequate  difference  if  they  work  by  the  piece.  A  man  who  sets 
only  3,000  a  day  occupies  as  much  case-room,  burns  as  much  gas,  and  is  as  much 
in  the  way  as  a  man  that  can  set  four  times  as  much.  His  work,  therefore,  is 
not  worth  so  much  to  his  employer,  per  i  ,000  ems,  as  that  of  the  fast  workman. 
Yet  the  slow  workman  ought  to  have  a  chance  to  earn  what  he  can.  Com- 
binations bear  oppressively  upon  inferior  workmen  by  virtually  excluding  them 
from  employment.  Trades  unions,  we  believe,  get  over  this  difficulty  by  com- 
pelling employers  to  take  men  as  they  stand  on  the  list  at  a  common  rendezvous; 
but  we  know  of  some  employers  who  would  not  consent  to  such  a  confounding 
of  merit  and  demerit.  Under  the  free  system  every  man  can  receive  without 
inconvenience  the  true  value  of  his  services. 

4.  Such  a  combination,  whether  it  included  workmen  or  not,  would  make 
every  establishment  amenable  to  the  rest.  This  would  be  inconvenient,  to  say 
the  least,  and  would  be  almost  certain  to  end  at  no  remote  period  in  an  open 
rupture.  It  is  not  every  employer  who  is  willing  to  subject  his  business  to  the 
surveillance  of  his  neighbors  and  rivals.  The  only  combination  which  we  would 
ever  consent  to  is  a  combination  of  employers  to  resist  and  counteract  a  com- 
bination of  workmen.  We  have  thought  sometimes  that  such  a  combination 
on  the  part  of  employing  printers  might  become  necessary.  But,  thus  far,  the 
power  of  the  Printers'  Union  appears  so  insignificant  that  there  is  no  need  of  a 
combined  defense  on  the  part  of  employers.  That  resource  can  be  held  in  reserve 
until  demanded  by  circumstances. 

The  Tribune's  Socialist  tendencies  give  it  a  fondness  for  combination  and 
regulation  to  which  we  are  strangers.     On  the  contrary,  we  like  freedom  of  trade 
in  all  its  branches.    There  is  no  more  fitness  in  a  uniform  scale 
of  prices  among  printers  than  among  merchants.     The  latter       The  Tribune's 
do  not  ordinarily  combine  against  their  customers,  nor  their       Fondness  for 
customers  against  them.     Free  competition  on  both  sides       Combination. 
brings  justice  to  all.     The    Tribune  says:     "  The  Journal 
attempts  to  support  the  gross  and  mischievous  fallacy  that  each  employer  has 
a  moral  right  to  cut  under  and  down  wages  so  far  as  he  shall  believe  it  possible 


256  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

to  do  so.    This  is  the  principle  on  which  the  Journal  has  always  stood  and  which 

has  rendered  it  malodorous  in  the  nostrils  of  workingmen  for  the  last  20  years." 
"  Cut  under"  what?  The  exorbitant  prices  which  a  combination  of  working- 
men  have  attempted  to  impose  upon  him?  Yes,  we  assert,  not  only  that  each 
employer  has  a  moral  right,  but  it  is  his  solemn  duty  to  "  cut  under  "  such  exor- 
bitant prices.  He  has  no  moral  right  to  permit  extortion  to  be  practiced  upon 
him  successfully,  if  he  can  prevent  it;  for  success  will  only  embolden  the  extor- 
tioners to  new  acts  of  oppression. 

There  is  no  need  of  our  replying  to  the  silly  charge  that  in  our  opinion  "  each 
employer  has  as  good  a  right  to  do  this  as  a  combination  of  employers  have; 
or  as  a  combination  of  workmen  have  to  force  up  wages,"  so  far  as  they  shall 
believe  it  possible  to  do  so.  Either  is  moral  robbery,  provided  the  wages  are 
cut  down  or  forced  up  below  or  above  what  the  labor  is  worth  in  a  fair  and  open 
market.  There  is  no  other  available  criterion  than  this  of  the  value  of  labor, 
or  any  other  commodity.  If  an  employer  gives  that  he  commits  no  moral  wrong; 
but  if  a  combination  drives  wages  either  above  or  below  that  line  then  a  moral 
wrong  is  committed.  If  no  combination  exists  on  either  side  it  is  scarcely 
"  possible  "  for  an  individual  employer  to  cut  down  wages  below  the  market 
value,  because  if  he  attempts  to  do  so  the  workingman  will  leave  him  and  go 
where  he  can  do  better. 

As  to  favor  with  workingmen,  we  shall  not  undertake  to  compete  for  it  with 
the  Tribune.     We  have  not  the  same  motive  to  court  the  applause  of  the  dear 
people  that  the  Tribune  has,  and  has  had.     We  never  coveted 
Not  Courting         the  honor  of  going  to  Congress,  or  of  being  an  Alderman  or 
Plaudits  of  Assistant  Alderman.     We  never  required  their  vote  for  any 

Workingmen.  object  of  personal  aggrandizement,  or  political  ascendancy. 
So  much  of  their  favor  as  we  needed  we  have  had  and  still 
have  with  our  own  workmen;  as  we  said  before,  we  have  always  got  along  pleas- 
antly except  when  they  were  tampered  with,  threatened  and  bullied  by  members 
of  the  Printers'  Union;  or  when  disaffection  was  sown  among  them  through  the 
columns  of  the  Tribune. 

This  answer  of  Horace  Greeley  in  the  Tribune  of  April  1 5th  closed 
the  controversy: 

If  the  Journal  of  Commerce  did  not  know  that  its  position  on  the  Labor  ques- 
tion is  indefensible  it  would  not  be  obliged  to  resort  to  such  quibbles  and  sub- 
terfuges as  it  employs.     Our  views  of  the  wages  question  are 
Journal's  Position     not  now  for  the  first  time  proclaimed  and  have  been  set  forth 
Indefensible,  as  lucidly  as  the  English  language  would  permit.     Every 

Wrote  Greeley.         reader  knows  that  we  have  denied  the  right  either  of  employers 
or  journeymen  to  frame  rates  of  wages  which  shall  be  obli- 
gatory on  the  other  class  and  insisted  that  such  rates  should  be  established  by 
the  mutual  concurrence  of  employers  and  journeymen,  fairly  represented  in  a 
conference  of  delegates.     Yet  hear  the  Journal: 

The  Tribune  wonders  why  we  will  not  combine  with  employers  only  or  with  employers  and  jour- 
neymen together,  in  fixing,  maintaining,  and  from  time  to  time  modifying,  a  scale  of  newspaper 
printing,  i.  e.  prices,  in  our  city.     We  answer: 

I.  Because  we  should  deem  a  combination  of  "  employers  only,"  to  fix  the  prices  of  workmen, 
without  the  concurrence  of  the  latter,  as  objectionable  in  principle  as  a  combination  of  workmen 
only  for  the  same  object. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  257 

Now,  we  never  dreamed  of  "  a  combination  of  employers  only  to  fix  the  prices 
of  workmen,  without  the  concurrence  of  the  latter,"  and  the  Journal  never  under- 
stood us  to  favor  anything  of  the  sort.     What  we  desired 
of  its  proprietors,  and  believe  they  ought  to  do,  was  simply   Mutual  Concurrence 
this  —  that  they  would  unite  with  other  employers  in  appoint-  <>*  Employers 
ing  a  deputation  or  committee  to  meet  a  similar  deputation  *"•*  Journeymen, 
from  the  journeymen  in  free  and  friendly  conference,  con- 
sider the  whole  subject  of  printers'  wages,  including  the  cost  of  living,  the  recent 
alleged  enhancement  thereof,  and  the  relation  of  printers'  compensation  to  that 
paid  for  similar  capacity  and  service  in  other  vocations.     A  joint  committee 
thus  constituted  might  readily  unite  upon  one  or  three  retired  printers,  intel- 
ligent and  upright,  to  whom  they  might  submit  any  difference  that  might  arise 
between  them,  and  thus  succeed  in  framing  a  scale  of  prices  which  would  be  just 
to  all  interests,  and  being  adopted  by  both  parties,  would  be  binding  on  both 
until  the  delegates  of  each  should  in  like  manner  concur  in  recommending  a 
change.     In  this  way  we  might  be  forever  rid  of  collisions  between  laborers  and 
employers  and  place  their  relations  on  a  footing  of  concord  and  mutual  good 
will.     Such  an  adjustment  might  have  been  had  ere  this  but  for  the  life-long 
hostility  of  the  Journal  of  Commerce.     That  paper  continues: 

2.  We  believe  it  to  be  impracticable.  The  interests  of  employers  are  various.  Large  and  strong 
establishments  may  think  it  an  object  to  pay  prices  sufficiently  high  to  break  down  the  weak  ones, 
so  that  they  (the  large  ones)  may  have  the  whole  ground.  Small  and  weak  establishments,  on  the 
contrary,  are  obliged  to  economize  expenses,  or  die.  If  employers  and  workmen  should  meet  to 
fix  prices,  etc.,  the  elements  of  discord  would  be  further  increased. 

Now,  we  appeal  to  the  recollection  of  all  printers,  and  not  only  printers  but 
workingmen  generally,  in  support  of  our  averment  that  "  large  and  strong  estab- 
lishments" that  were  abundantly  able  to  pay  full  prices  have 
all  along  been  their  most  powerful  and  persevering  antago-     Large  Firms 
nists,  and  have  done  more  than  all  others  to  grind  the  faces      Most  Persevering 
of  the  poor.     The  Journal's  own  case  is  in  point.     Now,  we      Antagonists, 
for  years  hired  journeymen  when  there  could  hardly  have 
been  poorer  employers  in  the  city  —  we  were  indeed  "  obliged  to  economize 
expenses  or  die,"  but  we  never  thought  of  saving  a  dime  by  paying  our  workmen 
less  than  the  fair  and  usual  wages  of  the  trade.     If  obliged  to  economize  in  that 
way    or  "  die  "  we  choose  to  die.     And  though  there  might  be  some  trouble  in 
fixing  a  scale  of  prices  on  the  plan  we  suggest,  it  would  prevent  trouble  ever 
after.     The  Journal  proceeds: 

3.  Any  uniform  scale  of  prices  which  might  be  adopted,  either  by  employers  alone,  or  by  journey- 
men alone,  or  by  both  classes  in  conjunction,  would  in  its  operation  be  necessarily  unjust.  Somr? 
journeymen  are  worth  twice  as  much  as  others;  yet  a  uniform  scale  makes  no  difference  between 
them  if  they  work  by  the  week,  and  an  inadequate  difference  if  they  work  by  the  piece.  A  man 
who  sets  only  3,000  a  day  occupies  as  much  case-room,  burns  as  much  gas  and  is  as  much  in  the 
way  as  a  man  that  can  set  four  times  as  much.  His  work  therefore  is  not  worth  so  much  to  his 
employer,  per  1,000  ems,  as  that  of  the  fast  workman.  Yet  the  slow  workman  ought  to  have  a 
chance  to  earn  what  he  can.  Combinations  bear  oppressively  upon  inferior  workmen,  by  virtually 
excluding  them  from  employment.  Trades  unions,  we  believe,  get  over  this  difficulty  by  com- 
pelling employers  to  take  men  as  they  stand  on  the  list  at  a  common  rendezvous,  but  we  know  of 
some  employers  who  would  not  consent  to  such  a  confounding  of  merit  and  demerit.  Under  the 
free  system  every  man  can  receive,  without  inconvenience,  the  true  value  of  his  services. 

The  fallacy  of  this  will  be  easily  seen  by  printers,  but  we  can  make  it  palpable 
to  others.  We  know  these  to  be  truths:  No  employing  printer  hires  any  but 
good  workmen  by  the  week;  nor  does  any  daily  newspaper  employ  (except  as  a 

9 


258  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

matter  of  charity)  compositors  who  can  only  do  half  a  good   printer's  work. 
Such  newspapers  must  have  good  workmen  and  they  generally  get  them.     "  Slow 
workmen"  are  wholly  out  of  place  in  the  Journal's  office  or 
Exploding  ours,  and  are  never  employed  by  either  save  at  the  dictate  of 

a  Journal  necessity  or  charity.     We  never  heard  of  any  rule  or  usage  in 

Fallacy.  ^^^j.  ^j-ade  "compelling  employers  to  take  men  as  they  stand 

on  the  list  of  a  common   rendezvous."      And  as   to  every 
man  receiving  "  the  true  value  of  his  services  "  under  the  Journal's  "  free  sys- 
tem," we  know  that  the  printers  employed  on  that  paper  have  not  received  the 
full  value  of  their  work,  or  ours  have  received  more  than  they  have  earned — and 
we  don't  think  the  latter  the  case.     By  the  Journal's  rule  Esau  "  received  full 
value  "  for  his  birthright;  but  we  don't  believe  he  did.     The 
Full  Value  Not        Journal's  compositors  are  allowed  no  voice  in  deciding  what 
Accorded  to  is  "the  true  value"  of  their  work  —  they  must  work  for 

Journal  Printers,     j^^^  what  their  employers  see  fit  to  give  or  have  no  work. 
Having  lost  caste  with  the  great  body  of  their  brethren  by 
working  in  an  inveterately  "  rat"  office,  they  have  virtually  no  choice  but  to 
take  whatever  their  present  masters  see  fit  to  give.     We  consider  that  "  free 
system  "  one  in  which  the  freedom  is  all  on  one  side. 

We  believe  we  have  touched  every  point  in  the  Journal's  article  that 
demands  or  deserves  a  reply.  The  residue  may  slide;  all  we  ask  is  the  sugges- 
tion of  some  mode  of  obtaining  uniformity  in  the  prices  paid  by  rival  employers 
for  labor  of  the  same  value.  We  do  not  wish  to  gain  wealth  by  cutting  down 
the  wages  of  our  workmen  below  the  fair  average  standards  —  and  the  Journal 
(we  think)  should  not  wish  to  do  so  —  but  it  does. 


VIII. 

Rise  and  Development  of  a  Rival  Union. 

Hardly  had  a  settlement  as  to  wages  been  effected  in  the  news- 
paper section  of  the  trade  before  a  new  and  wholly  unexpected  element 
of  discord  arose  and  spread  so  rapidly  that  it  threat- 

p  .  ened  the  annihilation  of  Typographical  Union  No. 

Actively  ^-     Newspaper  compositors  had  been  from  the  start 

Aggressive.  actively  aggressive  in  the  management  of  the  organi- 
zation, to  which  book  and  job  compositors  had 
attached  themselves  in  but  limited  numbers,  the  bulk  of  those  en- 
gaged in  that  end  of  the  printing  business  having  failed  to  join  be- 
cause the  union  was  both  protective  and  benevolent  in  its  range  of 
action,  while  they  favored  an  association  that  did  not  pay  disability 
and  death  benefits,  but  was  devoted  wholly  to  trade  affairs.  A  ripple 
of  discontent  exhibited  itself  upon  the  surface  in  July,  1852,  but  it 
was  ephemeral  and  disappeared.  It  was  caused  by  a  mere  suggestion 
on  the  part  of  a  member  from  a  newspaper  chapel  that  the  union 
be  dissolved  and  that  one  composed  exclusively  of  compositors  on 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  259 

daily  journals  be  organized  in  its  stead.  But  the  great  majority  of 
newspaper  printers  frowned  upon  this  proposition  and  it  evaporated.^ 
When  the  wage  scale  was  amended  in  April,  1853,  it  was  of  advantage 
only  to  the  newspaper  men.  Book  and  job  printers  considered  that 
they  had  been  ignored  without  reason  in  this  readjustment  of  prices, 
although  it  was  stated  at  the  time  that  the  schedule  for  that  branch 
of  the  business  would  receive  future  consideration.  Action  evidently 
was  not  sufficiently  speedy  to  suit  the  book  and  job  compositors, 
scores  of  whom,  believing  that  the  union,  while  possessing  the  deter- 
minating energy  in  the  premises,  did  not  immediately  intend  to 
exercise  it  in  their  behalf,  concluded  to  form  an  association  that 
would  deal  entirely  with  their  interests.  To  the  number  of  200  they 
convened  at  Tammany  Hall  on  April  5th  and  passed  a  resolve  that 
each  book  and  job  office  be  requested  to  choose  three  delegates  to 
attend  a  meeting  on  the  seventh  of  that  month  for  the  purpose  of 
preparing  a  scale  of  prices  to  correspond  with  the  increase  of  com- 
pensation in  the  newspaper  branch.  At  the  public  gathering  of 
April  7th  39  offices  were  represented  by  90  delegates.  As  soon  as 
the  proceedings  opened  a  motion  was  made  that,  while  there  need 
be  no  other  than  friendly  relations  with  the  Typographical  Union, 
the  time  had  come  for  book  and  job  compositors  to  organize.  Some 
of  those  present  favored  the  formation  of  an  organization  of  that 
character,  but  others  deemed  it  inadvisable,  and  the  question  was 
tabled.  Then  a  committee  of  nine  was  appointed  to  revise  the  scale, 
and  it  retired  to  prepare  a  report  on  the  subject.  The  convention 
took  a  recess  for  a  half  hour,  at  the  expiration  of  which  the  Revision 
Committee  submitted  a  partial  report,  when  it  was  decided  to  adjourn 
to  April  nth.  John  Kent  presided  over  the  meeting  on  that  date 
and  Isaac  W.  England  acted  as  secretary.  "  The  object  of  the  meet- 
ing," explained  the  secretary,  "is  to  sanction  a  scale  of  prices  pre- 
pared by  your  delegates.  Should  you  adopt  them  I  would  propose 
that  we  in  the  first  place  form  a  protective  trade  union,  co-operative 
with  the  Printers'  Union,  for  the  advancement  of 
employed  and  employers'  interests.  The  union  will  Not  Favorable 
be  one  free  from  sick-relief  clauses,  as  that  is  the  to  Sick- 
alleged  principal  reason  for  book  and  job  hands  not  Relief  Clauses, 
joining  the  present  union.  When  a  society  is  formed 
we  can  combine  with  the  trade  in  other  cities  in  establishing  a  fair 
and  equal  rate  of  compensation,  thereby  preventing  the  publisher 


'  "  Rogers  last  night  agitated  the  dissolution  of  the  union  and  establishing  one  exclusively  for 
daily  papers.  But  it  amounted  to  nothing." —  E.xtract  from  letter,  dated  July  l8,  1852,  sent  from 
New  York  by  Henry  M.  Failing  to  Charles  W.  Colburn,  who  was  then  in  St.  Louis,  Mo. 


26o  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    tTNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

from  asserting  that  he  can  get  his  work  done  cheaper  elsewhere  when 
our  employers  require  from  him  an  advanced  rate  proportionate  to 
the  one  which  we  ask  from  them.     The  fact  that  an  increased  rate 
of  compensation  is  really  necessary  is  felt  not  only  by  the  employed, 
but  also  by  the  employer,  in  proof  of  which  I  might  cite  instances 
of  honorable  exceptions  to  the  general  rule,  when  employers  had 
come  forward  voluntarily  and  advanced  the  rate 
Voluntary        of    compensation    to    their    emi^loyees,    previously. 
Advances         that  to  the  just  and  honorable  no  scale  was  neces- 
of  Wages.        sary  to  secure  the  workmen  adequate  compensa- 
tion.    I  hope  that  the  publishers  and  the  public 
will  consider  the  wants  and  wishes  of  those  by  whom  they  profited 
so  much.     Employers  are  cordially  invited  to  co-operate  with  us, 
as  it  is  as  much  to  their  interest  as  our  own.     Competition  to  a 
moderate  degree  is  beneficial,  but  when  carried  to  excess  it  has 
always  proved  most  pernicious  in  its  effects.     The  employer  has  an 
undoubted  right  to  work  for  the  pubhc  as  cheaply  as  he  can,  but 
he  has  no  right,  in  order  to  compete  with  his  neighbor  and  secure 
to  himself  a  disproportionate  amount  of  business,  to  keep  down  the 
wages  of  his  workmen  below  the  living  rate.     The  objects  we  have 
in  view  demand  united  and  deliberate  action.     If  we  are  guarded 
by  prudence,  are  not  too  hasty,  and  evince  a  desire  to  consult  the 
interests  of  our  employers,  we  shall  undoubtedly  carry  our  point 
triumphantly.     It  matters  not  to  the  employer  what  amount  of 
compensation  he  gives  his  workmen,  provided  he  obtains  a  pro- 
portionate advance  from  the  public.     It  must  be  our  endeavor  to 
secure  this  to  him  as  far  as  lays  in  our  power.     There 
Average  are  many  printers  in  this  city  who  do  not  average 

Earnings         more  than  $6  per  week;  this  should  not  continue. 
$6  Weekly.      f}^Q  medium  through  which  the  world  is  enlight- 
ened —  to  whose  agency  the  present  advanced  state 
of  civilization  is  mainly  attributable  —  the  men  who  set  before  the 
minds  of  the  wealthy  and  the  lowly  the  immortal  thoughts  of  genius 
—  should  those  men,  who  have  wielded  such  a  mighty  power  for  the 
good  of  their  fellow-men,  whose  tremendous  influence  the  world  has 
reason  to  daily  bless  — •  be  leveled,  in  compensation,  to  mere  hewers 
of  wood  and  drawers  of  water?    No!  emphatically  no!     But  your 
action  will  determine  the  question.     Be  cautious,  firm  and  united!  " 
Horace  Greeley,  who  was  present  by  invitation,  addressed  the 
assemblage.     He  remarked  upon  the  necessity  of  harmony  among 
journeymen  printers,  whom  he  urged  to  be  moderate  in  their  demands 
in  order  to  preserve  the  welfare  of  the  trade  for  all  time.    Employers 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  261 

ought  to  be  consulted  upon  the  question  of  wages,  he  reiterated, 
with  a  view  to  their  coinciding  with  the  scale  adopted,  so  that 
both  sides  would  alike  feel  bound   by   the   terms. 
If  journeymen  consult  only  their  own  views   they    Harmony  Among 
may  so  much  dissatisfy  the  employer  that  when    J°^°^y'^6n 
work  is  dull  they  in  turn  may  curtail  the  number  of    Horace  Greelev 
men  in  their  employ  and  the  rate  of  wages.    Excesses 
ought  to  be  avoided  on  the  part  of  either.      He  considered  the 
employer  as  the  agent  or  mediator  standing  between  the  workmen 
and  the  public.     But  it  would  not  do,  he  contended,  for  generous 
employers  to  pay  high  prices  and  the  other  class  get  their  work  done 
at  cheaper  rates.     "  Such  competition  is  not  fair,"  he  said,  "and 
cannot  be  afforded.     Whatever  scale  is  established  should  be  one 
which  will  be  generally  adopted.     If  the  joiuneymen  and  their 
employers  cannot  agree  upon  the  scale  let  them  choose  qualified 
and  disinterested  judges  to  decide  for  them.     But  of  all  things  let 
matters  be  so  managed  that  journeymen  will  be  in  harmony,  and 
if  possible  in  friendly  relations  with  their  employers." 

A  complete  scale  having  been  submitted  by  the  committee  it  was 
adopted.     It  raised  the  piece  rates  for  bookwork  from  27  cents  to  30 
cents  per  1,000  ems  on  reprint  matter  from  pica  to 
agate,  inclusive,  and  on  manuscript  from  29  cents       Adoption  of 
to  33  cents.     Extra  prices  were  made  for  smaller       Book  and 
type  than  agate  and  for  matter  composed  in  foreign       J°^  Scale, 
languages.     Not  less  than  $12  per  week  was  the 
rate  demanded  for  book  and  job  printers  employed  by  the  week, 
ten  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work.     Pressmen  were  to  receive  at 
least  $12  per  week  for  day  work  and  $14  weekly  for  night  labor, 
with  working  time  at  ten  hours  per  day.     These  figures  represented 
an  advance  of  $2  per  week.     A  resolution  was  passed  that  the  appren- 
tices in  an  office  should  in  no  case  exceed  the  proportion  of  one  to 
four  men,  and  that  they  should  be  bound  by  a  legal  indenture  for 
the  term  of  five  years  in  order  to  insure  the  employer  due  compensa- 
tion for  his  trouble  and  secure  the  trade  from  the  pernicious  effects 
of  incompetent  workmen.     Succeeding  this  action  the  assembled 
printers  applauded  the  proposition  to  form  an  association  to  co- 
operate with  the  Typographical  Union,  a  list  of  362  names  having 
been  obtained  in  favor  of  such  plan,  and  just  prior  to  adjournment 
a  committee  was  designated  to  call  a  meeting  for  April  13  th  to  put 
it  into  execution.     On  that  date  the  new  association  was  formed 
under  the  title  of  the  New  York  Printers'  Co-operative  Union,  and  it 
proclaimed  "that  this  society,  while  it  claims  for  its  members  the 


262  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

right  of  pricing  its  own  labor,  freely  admits  that  employers  have  the 
right  to  refuse  their  demands ;  and  further,  that  this  society  is  regard- 
ful of  the  welfare  of  employers  and  that  for  the  pur- 
Book  and  Job  pose  of  making  its  scale  of  prices  accord  with  their 
Compositors  Form  legitimate  interest  and  of  serving  a  moral  obligation 
New  Union.  binding  all  parties  a  committee  be  now  appointed  to 

secure  the  co-operation  of  the  employing  printers, 
and  to  receive  any  suggestions  they  may  offer."  On  April  isth 
it  adopted  a  constitution  and  by-laws,  these  officers  being  elected 
at  the  same  session:  President,  David  A.  Cooke;  vice-president, 
S.  P.  Jones;  recording  secretary,  John  A.  Smith;  corresponding  sec- 
retary, Isaac  W.  England;  treasurer,  J.  Davis.  A  committee  was 
selected  to  lay  before  the  Typographical  Union  the  objects  of  the 
newly-instituted  society  and  prepare  the  way  for  an  amicable  co-ope- 
ration in  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  trade.  Another  committee  was 
chosen  to  confer  with  employers  in  relation  to  the  revised  wage  scale. 
Meanwhile  Typographical  Union  No.  6  took  steps  to  have  the 
wages  of  the  book  and  job  workmen  advanced,  on  April  i6th  resolv- 
ing to  invite  the  employers  to  appoint  a  committee  to  confer  with  a 
like  committee  from  the  union  relative  to  a  revision  of  the  scale. 
The  committee  from  the  Co-operative  Union  having  appeared  at 
the  meeting  was  granted  the  privilege  of  the  floor,  and  stated  that 
the  latter  association  desired  to  join  issue  with  the  Typographical 
Union  and  receive  the  countenance  and  aid  of  that  body;  that  it 
did  not  wish  to  compete  with  the  older  organization,  but  to  work  as 
an  auxiliary  to  it.  Discussion  followed.  Franklin  J.  Ottarson  was 
of  the  belief  that  the  laws  of  the  National  Union  did  not  permit  the 
existence  of  two  subordinate  unions  in  the  same  city,  and  that  for 
the  purpose  of  carrying  the  matter  over  to  a  period  beyond  the  next 
session  of  the  national  body,  which  would  occur  on  May  2d  in  Pitts- 
burgh, he  moved  that  a  committee  be  chosen  to  advise  with  the  book 
and  job  compositors  upon  such  matters  as  might  be  of  mutual  interest. 
In  the  debate  that  ensued  several  members  argued  that  the  book 
and  job  men  did  not  possess  the  right  to  organize  a  separate  union, 
but  should  have  joined  the  one  already  in  existence  and  worked 
through  it.  It  was  shown,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
Inharmony  the  book  printers  generally  belonged  to  beneficial 
Invades  societies  and  could  not  afford  to  pay  the  dues  de- 

the  Trade.       manded  by  the  union  for  benevolent  features  —  that 
they  wanted  a  trade  association  only.     The  motion 
was  carried,  but  it  was  immediately  saddled  with  instructions  to  the 
committee  to  urge  the  book  and  job  workmen  to  relinquish  their 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  263 

organization  and  affiliate  with  Union  No.  6.  The  committee  having 
been  appointed,  Mr.  Bailey,  on  behalf  of  the  representatives  of  the 
Co-operative  Union,  protested  that  the  instructions  were  a  virtual 
rejection  of  their  application;  that  the  idea  of  their  joining  the  Typo- 
graphical Union  was  one  to  which  they  had  neither  the  right  nor  the 
disposition  to  listen.  "  We  are  firmly  organized,"  declared  he, 
"  and  shall  remain  so,  with  the  fellowship  of  the  union  if  it  be 
extended,  but  without  if  obliged  to  do  so." 

When  the  Printers'  Co-operative  Union  met  on  April  20th  the  Com- 
mittee of  Conference  with  the  Typographical  Union  reported  that  the 
latter  had  virtually  rejected  its  overtures  of  amity,  and  a  recom- 
mendation that  delegates  be  sent  to  the  National  Typographical 
Union  to  present  a  memorial  to  that  body  and  endeavor  to  obtain 
a  charter  was  approved. 

A  conference  of  the  Co-operatives  and  the  employers  on  April 
28th  in  regard  to  the  scale  of  prices  was  without  result,  the  master 
printers  resolving   "  that   an   advance  of   2    cents 
per  1,000  ems  (exclusive  of  work  already  contracted       Employers 
for)  is  all  that  can  be  paid,"  that  "  $10  per  week       Object  to 
is  all  that  can  be  paid  for  ordinary  or  average       Demands, 
hands,"  and  "  that  the  '  extras '  contemplated  by  the 
proposed  scale  cannot  be  acceded  to,  except  in  so  far  as  they  may 
be  at  present,  and  must  depend  upon  mutual  agreement  between 
employers  and  journeymen."     Employers  of  book  compositors  con- 
tended that  printing  in  their  line  had  undergone  important  changes. 
They  claimed  that  28  years  previously  Philadelphia  had  been  the 
great  book-printing  emporium  in  this  country,  but  a  movement 
among  the  printers  similar  to  the  existing  one  in  New  York  —  a 
demand  for  higher  wages  than  could  be  afforded  —  had  driven  much 
of  the  business  to  the  latter  city,  which  since  had  been  the  centre 
of  operations.     The  same  cause,  declared  the  employers,  was  liable 
to  force  this  kind  of  typesetting  to  be  done  in  provincial  towns.     It 
was  even  intimated  that  young  women,  so  far  as  practicable,  might 
be  employed  to  do  the  composition  on  these  publications. 

Next  evening  the  Co-operative  Union  met  and  discussed  the  posi- 
tion of  the  employers,  Mr.  Davis  observed  that  he  was  not  surprised 
that  the  former  objected  to  the  scale,  but  he  was  amazed  at  the  high- 
toned  tyranny  they  had  shown  in  their  resolutions.  He  considered 
such  answer  an  insult  to  the  journeymen.  Many  publishers  were 
interested  in  keeping  boolcwork  in  New  York,  and  even  if  it  were 
removed  the  men  would  go  with  it  to  places  where  the  prices  of  rents 
and  provisions  would  be  less  burdensome  than  in  the  Metropolis. 


264  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

He  said  he  always  had  been  opposed  to  striking,  but  if  the  members 
stood  firm  they  could  enforce  their  demands.     The  two  first  reso- 
lutions of  the  employers  were  then  repudiated  unanimously,  while 
the    third,   in    regard    to    "extras,"    was    laid    upon    the    table. 
Mr.  Bailey  said  there  were  some  items  in  the  scale 
Co-operatives'     for  which  he  was  not  inclined  to  strike.     He  did  not 
Price  List  think  the  "  extras  "  could  be  sustained.     If  a  strike 

juste  .        were  ordered  he  wished  the  matter  to  be  simplified 
as  much  as  possible,  and  he  offered  these  resolu- 
tions covering  the  ground: 

That  in  the  opinion  of  this  union  the  advance  in  price  of  all  the  necessities  of 
life  (and  in  the  absence  of  any  prospect  of  the  means  of  living  being  cheapened) 
imperatively  demands  a  corresponding  increase  of  compensation  in  every  depart- 
ment of  labor. 

That  we  believe  no  candid  man  will  regard  our  proposed  scale  as  exceeding 
a  fair  and  equitable  remuneration  for  our  labor. 

That  on  further  consideration  of  our  scale  of  prices,  wishing  to  conciliate  our 
employers  as  far  as  is  consistent  with  our  duty  to  ourselves,  we  do  hereby  amend 
the  said  scale  so  as  to  require  an  advance  on  ordinary  composition  of  3  cents 
per  1,000  ems;  also  on  weekly  work,  of  $1  per  week;  also  on  presswork  an  advance 
of  3  cents  per  token. 

That  all  work  known  as  "  extras  "  be  regulated  by  each  office  between  em- 
ployers and  employed. 

That  we  cannot  recede  from  this  position;  and  hereby  respectfully  notify  the 
book  and  job  employers  that  the  foregoing  are  the  terms  and  conditions  upon 
which  we  shall  hereafter  work. 

After  the  insertion  of  an  amendment  "  that  the  '  extras  '  be  claimed 
according  to  the  scale,"  the  resolutions  were  adopted  and  the  list 
of  prices  ordered  to  go  into  effect  on  May  2d,  a  committee  being 
chosen  to  be  in  attendance  at  Tammany  Hall  in  the  morning  of  that 
day  to  receive  reports  from  the  various  offices. 

Meanwhile  the  Typographical  Union  had  revised  its  book  and  job 
scale,  making  the  piece  price  on  works  done  in  the  English  language, 
from  pica  to  agate,  inclusive,  30  cents  per  1,000  ems 
Union  No.  6        for  reprint  and  3  2  cents  for  manuscript.     For  reprint 
Revises  Book      3  5  cents  was  charged  for  pearl  and  43  cents  for 
and  Job  Scale,    diamond,  while  for  manuscript  the  rate  was  3  7  cents 
for  pearl  and   45   cents  for  diamond  —  being  an 
advance  of  3  cents   per  1,000  ems  on  each  class  of  work.     Rates 
of  composition  in  foreign  languages  remained  stationary.     Wages  of 
time  workers  were  increased  $i  per  week.     I.  D.  Boyce,  Robert 
Peake  and  J.  C.  Johnson,  constituting  the  Scale  Committee,  sub- 
mitted the  revised  list  of  prices  to  the  employing  book  and  job 
printers,  prefacing  it  with  the  following  communication: 


MOVEMENTS   FOR   HIGHER   WAGES.  265 

Gentlemen: — The  members  of  the  New  York  Printers*  Union,  acting  under 
charter  from  the  National  Union,  feeling  it  imperative  to  receive,  in  this  time 
of  unparalleled  increase  of  rents  and  high  rates  of  living,  an  advance  on  the  exist- 
ing rate  of  remuneration  for  their  labor,  respectfully  invited  the  employers  to 
appoint  a  delegation  of  three  of  their  number  to  meet  a  like  delegation  of  the 
workmen,  that  a  fair  and  just  increase  on  the  scale  should  be  mutually  adopted; 
and,  although  ten  days  were  allowed  for  such  meeting,  the  employers  did  not 
respond  to  the  call  (from  the  fact,  we  presume,  of  having  been  waited  upon  by 
parties  unconnected  with  the  union  and  calling  themselves  the  Co-operative 
Society  of  Book  and  Job  Printers).  We  were  thus  deprived  of  your  assistance 
and  countenance  in  the  work  of  revision.  Accordingly,  the  committee  appointed 
by  the  union  fulfilled  the  duty  assigned  to  them  fairly  and  honestly,  to  the  best 
of  their  judgment,  and  the  scale,  as  by  them  amended,  having  been  adopted  by 
the  union,  we  feel  great  pleasure  in  handing  you  a  copy  of  it,  which  we  doubt 
not  will  meet  with  your  sanction  and  approbation. 

The  committee  from  the  Co-operative  Union  met  at  Tammany 
Hall  on  May  2d  and  obtained  assurances  from  sixteen  concerns  that 
they  would  pay  the  amended  scale,  while  several 
other  offices  were  reported  as  willing  to  accede  to    strike  in 
it  in  part,  or  abide  the  decision  of  -a  majority  of    Non-Paying 
employers.     In  the  non-paying  establishments  more    Establishments, 
than  200  men  went  on  strike.     A  mass  meeting  was 
held  in  the  evening  at  Fountain  Hall,  when  the  Vigilance  Committee 
reported  that  the  intelligence  received  was  more  favorable  than  the 
most  sanguine  could  have  anticipated,  but  regretted  to  learn  that  some 
proprietors,  who  themselves  only  shortly  before  had  been  journey- 
men and  among  the  most  strenuous  in  former  movements  of  this 
nature  to  enforce  just  and  equitable  remuneration,  were  directly 
opposed  to  that  class  from  which  they  had  so  recently  sprung.     An 
assessment  of  10  per  cent  on  the  earnings  of  employed  members  was 
directed  to  be  levied  for  the  support  of  those  who  had  struck.     As 
many  employers  had  expressed  a  desire  to  have  their  compositors 
return  to  work  at  the  advance  of  3  cents  per  1,000  ems  without  the 
"  extras,"  the  Co-operative  Union  on  May  nth  unanimously  decreed 
that  "the  'extras'  shall  remain  in  abeyance  for  thenext  threemonths  to 
enable  all  parties  to  fairly  discuss  the  matter  and  come  to  a  fair  con- 
clusion."    A  number  of  settlements  were  then  made  upon  this  basis. 

But  in  the  meanwhile  the  breach  between  the  two  organizations 
of  joume)mien  had  widened.     Upon  the  completion  of  the  regular 
business  of  the  monthly  meeting  of  the  Co-operatives 
on  May  i6th,  there  being  present  a  large  number  of    widening  of 
members,  all  of  whom  were  in  employment,  the  fol-    Breach 
lowing  preamble  and  resolutions,   offered  by  the    Between  Two 
secretary,  received  the  unanimous  sanction  of  the    Organizations. 
association : 


266  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Whereas,  The  New  York  Typographical  Union  at  a  meeting  held  subsequent 
to  the  formation  of  this  union  appointed  a  committee  to  revise  and  amend  that 
portion  of  the  scale  of  prices  relating  to  book  and  job  work;  and, 

Whereas,  The  said  committee  have  performed  that  duty  assigned  them  and 
are  now  circulating  a  scale  of  prices  different  from  the  one  adopted  by  this  union; 
and, 

Whereas,  In  the  preamble  to  said  scale  they  designate  this  body  as  a  "  Co- 
operative Society  of  Book  and  Job  Printers  "  and  state  that  we  are  in  no  manner 
connected  with  their  union,  thereby  arrogating  to  themselves  the  right  to  fix 
such  laws  for  the  government  of  the  craft  as  they  deem  proper.  Therefore, 
be  it 

Resolved,  That  this  union  does  not  and  will  not  recognize  any  scale  of  prices, 
save  and  except  that  drawn  up  and  acted  upon  by  its  own  members;  and  any 
printer  working  under  any  scale  different  from  it  will  be  regarded  as  an  unfair 
workman  and  consequently  excluded  from  our  fellowship  and  protection. 

Resolved,  That  this  union  claims  for  itself  the  same  right  to  regulate  and  govern 
the  trade  in  the  City  of  New  York  as  that  held  by  the  so-called  Printers'  Union, 
and  is  not  disposed  to  yield  one  jot  or  tittle  of  this  right,  except  in  an  honorable 
and  fair  manner. 

Resolved,  That  we  regard  the  action  of  the  committee  of  the  Typographical 
Union  who  drew  up  the  revised  scale  of  prices  as  impertinent  and  unwarranted, 
and  calculated  only  to  give  "  aid  and  comfort  "  to  those  employers  who  resisted 
our  just  demands. 

Resolved,  That  the  general  indifference  or  contempt  with  which  their  unmanly 
interference  with  our  branch  of  the  trade  has  been  met  by  our  employers  we 
regard  as  a  well-merited  and  effective  rebuke. 

Among  the  vital  questions  that  engaged  the  attention  of  the 

National  Typographical  Union  convention  in  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  on 

May  2,  1853,  was  that  of  the  rival  unions  in  New 

National  Uixion  York  City.     Jeremiah  Gray,   F.   A.   Albaugh  and 

Takes  Part         Thomas  J.  Walsh  represented  Typographical  Union 

in  Controversy,    j^q   5^  ^nd  John  A.  Smith  sought  admission  as  the 

representative  of  the  Printers'  Co-operative  Union. 

Soon  after  the  delegates  had  assembled  W.  B.  Eckert,  of  Philadelphia, 

offered  the  following  petition,  signed  by  386  book  and  job  printers  of 

the  Co-operative  Union: 

To  the  Honorable  the  National  Printers'   Union: 

Gentlemen:  —  Your  petitioners,  book  and  job  printers  of  the  City  of  New 
York,  would  respectfully  petition  your  honorable  body  to  grant  a  charter  to, 
and  legalize  the  existence  of  the  New  York  Printers'  Co-operative  Union  in  the 
City  of  New  York,  and  your  petitioners  in  asking  this  grant  of  you  would  specify 
the  following  among  many  other  reasons  why  the  said  grant  should  be  given: 

I.  That  the  New  York  Printers'  Union,  as  at  present  existing,  is  not  a  fair 
exponent  of  the  views  of  the  printers  of  the  City  of  New  York,  as  it  does  not 
number  in  its  membership  one-tenth  of  the  workmen  in  the  city;  that  nine- 
tenths  of  this  one-tenth  are  those  employed  on  newspapers,  who  do  not  and 
cannot  pay  that  attention  to  the  wants  of  the  majority  —  the  book  and  job 
hands  —  that  their  circumstances  and  wants  require. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  267 

2.  That  the  Printers'  Union,  by  incorporating  into  its  constitution  a  benevolent 
feature,  and,  consequently,  largely  enhancing  the  initiation  fee  and  amount  of 
dues,  has  virtually  kept  the  majority  of  your  petitioners  from  joining  its  ranks 
and  has  thereby  engendered  in  the  trade  a  want  of  confidence  in  its  efficiency 
which  can  never  be  regained. 

3.  That  your  petitioners  believe  that  it  is  best  for  the  interests  of  the  trade 
that  two  unions  should  exist  in  the  City  of  New  York,  and  every  experiment 
of  uniting  the  whole  trade  in  one  union  has  failed,  and  at  present  the  large  majority 
of  workmen  in  the  city  have  no  protection,  if,  seeking  a  fair  remuneration  for 
their  labor,  they  should  be  compelled  to  abandon  their  situations. 

For  these,  among  various  other  reasons,  which  will  be  presented  to  you  by  our 
delegate,  we  ask  at  your  hands  a  charter  for  the  union,  which  has  been  formed. 
The  employers  have  virtually  recognized  our  union  as  the  one  by  which  the  trade 
is  in  future  to  be  governed,  and  your  petitioners  do  not  entertain  a  doubt  but 
that  through  its  means  the  whole  body  of  book  and  job  printers  will  be  brought 
to  act  together  in  one  harmonious  union,  and  the  interests  and  welfare  of  the 
craft  be  thereby  secured  and  perpetuated. 

John  A.  Smith,  on  Mr.  Walsh's  motion,  was  admitted  to  a  seat  in 
the  convention  pending  the  consideration  of  the  petition.  Mr. 
Smith,  after  some  remarks  relative  to  the  position  which  the  Co- 
operative Union  occupied,  asked  for  a  charter,  stating  that  the  peti- 
tion which  had  been  presented  from  the  union  was  signed  by  members 
of  the  craft  working  in  the  following  offices:  E.  O.  Jenkins,  29; 
Harper  &  Bros.,  36;  T.  B.  Smith,  30;  J.  F.  Trow,  38;  New  York 
Stereotype  Association,  16;  American  Bible  Society,  14;  R.  C.  Valen- 
tine, 20;  John  A.  Gray,  26;  Pudney  &  Russell,  26;  S.  W.  Benedict, 
23;  Billings  &  Taylor,  14;  Vincent  Dill,  7;  American  Tract  Society, 
9;  Daniel  Fanshaw,  7;  Collins,  Bowne  &  Co.,  9;  C.  C.  Savage,  6; 
Pick  office,  4;  C.  W.  Benedict,  6;  Linesay  &  Bros.,  4;  Douglass  & 
Co.,  3;  T.  Sutton,  2;  scattering,  57.  Total,  386.  He  proceeded  to 
amplify  the  reasons  given  in  the  application  for  a  different  organi- 
zation from  that  of  the  newspaper  compositors;  that  the  strike  in 
April  was  by  the  newspaper  hands  alone,  and  that  many  job  offices 
had  heard  nothing  of  it  until  it  was  over ;  the  book  and  job  hands, 
having  been  thus  overlooked,  selected  delegates,  revised  their  scale  of 
prices,  and  formed  the  Co-operative  Union,  which  sought  a  charter. 

Mr.  Gray  stated  that  the  book  and  job  hands  were  in  a  majority 
in  New  York  City,  and  if  there  were  any  objection  to  the  beneficial 
feature  in  the  constitution  of  the  Printers'  Union 
they  could  easily  change  it  by  attaching  themselves    Book  and 
to  that  organization.     He  read  a  succinct  history  of    Job  Branch 
the  New  York  union  and  its  course,  signed  by  some    ^°"^^  Control. 
40  of  its  members,  who  asked  to  be  recognized  as 
the  only  legitimate  union.     After  further  remarks  by  the  New  York 
delegates  S.  H.  Atkinson,  of  Cincinnati,  offered  the  following: 


268  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

Resolved,  That,  owing  to  circumstances  existing  in  the  City  of  New  York  not 
obtaining  in  other  localities,  this  union  deem  it  expedient  and  just  that  two 
separate  organizations  of  printers  should  exist  in  the  above-named  place;  and 
therefore  recognize  the  Co-operative  Union  of  New  York  as  one  of  the  subordinates 
of  the  National  Typographical  Union. 

Alexander  W.  Rook,  of  Pittsburgh,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining 
the  expression  of  the  members  on  the  subject,  moved  that  the  prayer 
of  the  petitioners  be  granted.  Mr.  Albaugh  stated  if  that  were  done 
he  and  his  two  colleagues  from  New  York  would  be  compelled  to 
withdraw.     Mr.  Eckert  thereupon  ofiEered  this  substitute: 

Resolved,  That  the  National  Typographical  Union  recommend  the  reorgani- 
zation of  the  craft  in  the  City  of  New  York,  with  the  view  of  abolishing  the  bene- 
ficial system  as  being  detrimental  to  an  efficient  trade  association,  and  that  the 
present  petition  for  the  charter  of  another  union  in  the  City  of  New  York  be  laid 
on  the  table,  for  the  purpose  of  creating  union  and  harmony  among  the  printers 
of  said  city. 

Here  a  recess  was  taken  and  when  the  convention  reassembled 
at  3  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  it  resumed  consideration  of  the  appli- 
cation, Grafton  Pearce,  of  Cincinnati,  moving  to  strike  out  Mr. 
Eckert's  resolution  and  to  insert  as  follows : 

Resolved,  That,  owing  to  the  intimate  connection  between  all  branches  of  the 
printing  business,  it  is  the  opinion  of  the  National  Typographical  Union  that 
two  subordinate  unions  cannot  advantageously  exist  in  the  same  eity. 

Resolved,  That  the  prayer  of  the  New  York  Printers' Co-operative  Union  cannot 
be  granted. 

Mr.  Gray  hoped  that  Mr.  Pearce's  resolutions  would  be  adopted. 
They  would  meet  with  the  general  approbation  of  the  printers  of 
New  York,  as  they  would  tend  to  conciliate  and  harmonize  all 
parties. 

Mr.  Smith  said  that  however  well  they  might  suit  the  gentleman 
from  New  York  and  his  constituents  they  would  not  please  that 
portion  of  the  craft  which  he  represented.  If  the  petition  of  his  con- 
stituents were  rejected  they  would  still  do  their  best  to  protect  the 
interests  of  the  craft  in  New  York. 

Mr.  Atkinson  was  in  favor  of  granting  the  prayer  of  the  petitioners. 
Both  unions  cotild  exist  in  New  York,  and  work  in  harmony  without 
interfering  with  each  other. 

George  H.  Randall,  of  Baltimore,  trusted  that  the  union  would 
not   draw   such   distinctions   as    proposed   in    Mr. 

Petition  of  Atkinson's  resolution.     "  If  you  do,"  he  said,  "  its 

Co-Operatives     effects  will  not  stop  with  New  York,  but  other  cities 

Not  Granted.  ^{n  ^jgQ  -^a^t  two  unions,  and  the  result  will  be  a 
dissolution  of  this  National  Union." 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER   WAGES.  269 

The  question  on  Mr.  Pearce's  resolutions  was  divided,  the  first 
part  being  adopted  by  a  vote  of  22  to  2. 

WiUiam  H.  Egle,  of  Harrisburg,  offered  an  addition  to  the  second 
resolution  of  Mr.  Pearce's  substitute,  which  the  latter  accepted, 
making  it  read: 

Resolved,  That  the  prayer  of  the  New  York  Printers'  Co-operative  Union 
cannot  be  granted;  and  that  it  is  recommended  to  the  New  York  Typographical 
Union  to  adopt  such  measures  as  they  may  deem  the  best  to.  effect  a  more  per- 
fect organization  and  concihation  of  the  craft  in  that  city. 

By  a  vote  of  21  to  3  the  foregoing  was  adopted.  It  was  then 
decided  to  permit  Mr.  Smith  to  retain  his  seat  during  the  remainder 
of  the  convention  without  the  privilege  of  voting.  This  resolution 
offered  by  him  was  carried: 

Resolved,  That  this  National  Typographical  Union  require  such  of  its  sub- 
ordinates as  yet  retain  the  "  beneficiary  system  "  to  alter  their  rules  so  as  to 
admit  to  their  membership  those  members  of  the  craft  who  wish  to  be  admitted 
for  trade  protection  only. 

Revision  of  the  constitution  of  the  Printers'  Co-operative  Union 
occurred  on  May  23d.     The  principal  amendment  adopted  provided 
for  the  establishment  of  the  delegate  system.     It 
required  that  the  delegates  from  each  office  should    Delegate  System 

1  1  1        J  ^  .^     11  u      •      Instituted  by 

meet  once  a  week  as  a  board  and  transact  all  busi-    co_operative 

ness  that  might  be  necessary  for  the  welfare  of  their  Union. 
constituents.  Provision  was  made  for  general 
monthly  meetings  of  the  union,  to  which  the  Board  of  Delegates 
reported  its  proceedings.  At  its  first  general  session  under  the  new 
basic  law,  held  on  May  30th,  the  union  considered  a  proposition  sub- 
mitted by  John  A.  Smith,  its  delegate  to  Pittsburgh,  that  a  com- 
mittee be  appointed  to  wait  on  a  similar  committee  from  the  Typo- 
graphical Union  with  the  object  of  bringing  about  amicable  arrange- 
ments whereby  both  societies  could  work  together  on  brotherly 
terms.  Many  amendments  were  offered,  a  motion  to  He  on  the 
table  was  voted  down,  and  finally  the  matter  was  postponed  to  a 
subsequent  meeting  for  consideration. 

I.  D.  Boyce,  official  representative  of  Typographical  Union  No. 
6,  visited  the  Co-operative  Union  at  its  meeting  on  October  31st 
and  made  a  tentative  proposal  for  peace.     Stating 
that   the   society   he  represented  had   opened  its     "  Big  Six " 
doors  to  every  member  of  the  craft,  he  urged  a     Makes  Peace 
consolidation  of  the  two  unions  and  said  his  organi-      Overtures, 
zation  was  willing  to  admit  the  Co-operative  Union 
as  a  body,  without  the  payment  of  initiation  fees,  and  that  all  past 
dues  would  be  canceled.     It  was  desired  that  the  amalgamation  take 


270  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

place  previous  to  the  election  of  officers.  At  the  conclusion  of  this 
plea  for  a  single  union  in  the  city  Mr.  Bailey,  who  stated  that  he 
wished  to  dispose  of  the  matter  in  the  most  summary  way,  moved 
"  that  this  union  cannot  entertain  any  proposition  from  the  Typo- 
graphical Union  for  any  purpose  whatever."  This  amendment  by 
Mr.  Cooke  was,  however,  carried:  "  That  while  existing  circum- 
stances prevent  the  merging  of  the  two  societies  into  one,  the 
Co-operative  Union  desires  to  extend  the  hand  of  fellowship,  and  to 
forget  all  past  differences;  and,  as  far  as  is  consistent  with  honor 
and  their  own  healthy  growth  and  prosperity,  co-operate  with  their 
brethren  of  the  Typographical  Union  in  the  maintenance  of  a  fair 
rate  of  remuneration  for  labor  and  for  the  elevation  of  the  craft  in 
general;  that  a  committee  of  five  be  appointed  to  confer  with  the 
committee  appointed  by  the  Typographical  Union  —  subject  to  the 
instruction  of  this  union." 

Especially  to  hear  the  report  of  the  committee  to  arrange  the 
conditions  of  consolidating  the  two  unions  of  journeymen  the  Co- 
operative Union  summoned  its  members  to  a  meeting  on  December 
14th.  Charles  W.  Colton,  chairman  of  the  Conference  Committee, 
reported  that  the  Typographical  Union  had,  with  a  view  to  concilia- 
tion, abolished  the  objectionable  beneficiary  provisions  in  its  consti- 
tution, together  with  other  objectionable  regulations.  Typographical 
Union  No.  6,  he  said,  had  agreed  to  admit  the  entire  membership 
of  the  Co-operative  Union  to  full  privilege  free  from  the  usual  pecu- 
niary requirements.  A  majority  of  the  committee  favored  a  union 
of  the  two  bodies,  and  recommended  the  creation  of  a  joint  com- 
mittee to  suggest  such  alterations  in  the  constitution  of  the  older 
union  as  would  be  satisfactory  to  the  printers  affiliated  with  the 
Co-operative  Union.  The  minority  report,  however,  disapproved  the 
proposed  alliance  for  the  reason  that  "  by  doing  so  we  should  destroy 
our  Board  of  Delegates  and  also  much  of  that  liberal  policy  which 
has  gained  for  this  union  so  many  members.  We  believe  that  should 
this  union  be  disbanded  under  such  circumstances  but  few  book 
and  job  printers  would  join  the  Typographical  Union,  and  all  future 
attempts  to  form  a  substantial  union  would  be  unavailing  through 
the  deplorable  failure  of  this,  the  Co-operative  Union;  thus  not  only 
would  the  fruits  of  our  labor  be  destroyed,  but  the  interests  of  the 
trade  would  be  materially  injured  thereby."  It  was  resolved  that 
the  Typographical  Union  be  requested  to  unite  with  the  Co-operative 
Union  in  applying  to  the  national  organization  for  a  joint  charter 
under  which  both  associations  "  may  act  in  their  respective  spheres 
and  under  which  the  act  of  each  in  its  own  department  will  be  recog- 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  271 

nized  as  the  action  of  the  whole  trade."     This  did  not  meet  with 

the  approval  of  Union  No.  6,  and  on  April  lo,  1854, 

the  Co-operatives  decided  to  again  memorialize  the    National  Union 

national  body,   Henry   Lees  and  David  A.  Cooke    of  Printers  Again 

being  designated   as   a  committee  to   prepare  and    Memorialized. 

submit  it.    The  national  convention  of  1854  was  held 

in  Buflfalo,  N.  Y.,  and  on  May  2d  the  following  petition  was  presented 

to  it: 

To  the  National  Typographical   Union,  Assembled  in  Buffalo,  May,  1854: 

Gentlemen: — The  undersigned  special  committee,  appointed  by  the  New 
York  Printers'  Co-operative  Union  to  draft  a  statement  of  the  affairs  of  said 
union  since  its  commencement,  preliminary  to  asking  for  a  charter  from  the 
National  Typographical  Union,  respectfully  submit  the  following  statement: 

During  the  year  which  has  elapsed  since  our  organization,  which  took  place 
on  April  15,  1853,  427  members  were  enrolled;  of  whom  9  withdrew,  8  left  the 
business,  i  was  expelled,  2  died,  and  18  left  New  York  with  traveling  certificates, 
2  of  whom  have  since  returned.  The  number  of  members  on  the  register  at  the 
present  time  is  391.  The  receipts  up  to  April  24,  1854,  were  $515.51 ;  the  expend- 
itures during  the  same  period,  $387.72;  leaving  a  surplus  on  hand  in  bank  of 
$127.79- 

The  causes  which  led  to  our  separate  organization  having  been  discussed  at 
the  last  meeting  of  the  National  Typographical  Union,  held  in  Pittsburgh  last 
year,  it  is  deemed  inexpedient  to  revive  subjects  that  may  tend  to  prevent  the 
mutual  good  feeling  which  is  so  desirable  between  the  various  branches  of  the 
trade  in  the  City  of  New  York;  yet  the  following  appears  necessary  to  a  correct 
understanding: 

The  New  York  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  then  called  the  Printers'  Union, 
was  in  existence  before  ours;  but  being  composed  almost  entirely  of  newspaper 
printers  was  governed  by  laws  which  were  felt  by  those 
engaged  on  bookwork  and  jobbing  to  be  totally  unadapted         Elements 
to  their  wants;  and,  although  the  said  laws  have  since  been         That  Could 
revised,  they  still  retain  features  which,  while  probably  well         ^°'  Blend. 
suited  to  the  requirements  of  the  newspaper  branch,  are 
believed  to  be  insurmountable  obstacles  to  the  union  ever  becoming  powerful 
in  the  book  and  job  departments.     It  is  impossible  for  men  engaged  for  a  long 
series  of  years  in  one  branch  of  the  trade  to  legislate  for,  or  duly  to  appreciate 
the  difficulties  experienced  in  another.     This  was  exemplified  immediately  before 
the  commencement  of  our  union  to  a  degree  which  can  only  be  experienced  in 
great  cities;  and  the  only  remedy  satisfactory  to  the  majority  was  a  separate 
organization.     The  fact  that  the  union  has  continued  to  exist  without  a  charter 
may  be  deemed  sufficient  proof  that  its  organization  was  not  uncalled  for,  but 
was  in  fact  an  urgent  necessity;  and  as  we  still  maintain  the  rise  of  3  cents  per 
1,000  ems,  with  which  our  union  was  inaugurated,  it  has  every  appearance  of 
stability  and  permanence. 

Several  efforts  have  been  made  during  the  year  to  act  in  harmony  with  the 
New  York  Typographical  Union,  which  have  all  resulted  in  disappointment 
and  vexation.     Prior  to  asking  for  a  charter  last  year  a  committee  was  ap- 


272  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

pointed  to  wait  on  that  body  for  that  purpose ;  but  we  received  so  unsatisfactory 
a  reply  that  no  other  attempt  was  made  until  that  union  appointed  a  committee 
to  wait  on  us  for  the  purpose  of  inducing  us  to  amalgamate 
Efforts  to  with  them.     The  Co-operative  Union  promptly  responded  by 

Harmonize  electing  by  ballot  a  committee  of  five  to  consider  the  terms  on 

Unavailing.  which  the  said  amalgamation  should  take  place.     That  com- 

mittee, after  deliberation,  and  finding  that  the  committee 
of  the  Typographical  Union  was  not  empowered  to  consider  changes  in  the  law 
of  said  union,  and  that  the  proposition  made  was  simply  to  disband  the  Co- 
operative Union,  without  stipulation  or  reservation,  and  to  join  the  Typographical 
Union  without  paying  the  usual  initiation  fee,  agreed  to  the  following  resolution, 
believing  that  such  desideratum  was  not  merely  a  money  consideration,  but  was 
in  fact  such  a  policy  in  the  management  of  affairs  as  should  ensure  a  large  and 
powerful  union: 

Resolved,  That  as  a  necessary  step  to  the  consolidation  of  the  two  unions  the  New  York  Typo« 
graphical  Union  be  invited  to  appoint  a  committee  with  power  to  consider  such  changes  in  the 
constitution,  etc.,  as  may  be  proposed  by  the  committee  of  the  Co-operative  Union. 

This  resolution  was  reported  to  the  New  York  Typographical  Union,  which 
decided  by  vote  not  to  appoint  a  committee  with  power,  in  accordance  with 
our  resolution.  The  Co-operative  Union  then  decided,  by  an  almost  unanimous 
vote,  not  to  amalgamate  under  such  circumstances;  and  the  following  preamble 
and  resolution  were  agreed  to: 

Whereas,  There  now  exists  in  this  city  two  distinct  unions  of  journeymen  printers,  known 
respectively  as  the  New  York  Typographical  Union  and  the  New  York  Printers'  Co-operative 
Union,  the  former  being  composed  principally  of  newspaper  compositors  and  the  latter  of  book  and 
job  printers,  and  the  attention  of  each  society  being  principally  limited  to  the  branch  of  the  business 
in  which  they  are  more  immediately  interested;  and. 

Whereas,  It  is  more  beneficial  for  both  classes  to  regulate  the  state  of  the  trade  in  their  own 
immediate  respective  departments;  and  it  is  yet  necessary  and  advisable  to  act  in  harmony  for 
the  benefit  of  the  whole  trade;  therefore. 

Resolved,  That  the  New  York  Typographical  Union  be  invited  to  appoint  a  committee  of  three 
to  meet  a  similar  committee  appointed  from  this  society,  to  draft  articles  of  confederation  to  be 
submitted  to  the  National  Typographical  Union  at  its  next  meeting,  for  its  approval,  as  a  joint 
charter,  under  which  both  societies  may  act  in  their  respective  spheres,  and  under  which  the  act 
of  each  in  its  own  department  will  be  recognized  as  the  action  of  the  whole  trade. 

This  proposition  was  also  declined  by  the  Typographical  Union. 
The  rejection  of  our  offers  has  caused  so  much  dissatisfaction  that  it  appears 
a  fruitless  task  to  attempt  to  amalgamate  the  two  unions,  and  we  do  not  per- 
ceive any  mode  of  an  amicable  adjustment,  except  in  a  joint 
Joint  Charter  charter  conferred  by  your  honorable  body  on  the  two  exist- 

and  Autonomy  ing  unions.     Under  the  authority  of  such  charter  each  union 

for  Each  Branch,  might  legislate  for  its  own  branch  independently,  and  at  the 
same  time  co-operate  with  the  other  on  all  subjects  of  general 
interest,  either  by  means  of  a  standing  committee  appointed  by  the  two  unions 
(an  equal  number  from  each)  or  by  any  other  equitable  method  which  may  be 
agreed  on.  An  interchange  of  cards  or  certificates  would  result  for  the  benefit 
of  those  who  should  pass  from  one  branch  to  another;  and  no  member  of  either 
union  could  infringe  on  the  scale  of  prices  agreed  on  by  the  other  for  its  own 
regulation.  By  this  arrangement  the  benefits  of  local  legislation  may  be  combined 
with  those  which  result  from  the  strength  of  union. 

Shall  it  be  said  that  400  workingmen  ask  in  vain  for  permission  to  use  their 
own  endeavors,  in  their  own  way,  to  extricate  themselves  from  the  diffictdties 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  273 

which  surround  them?  Must  the  courae  to  be  pursued  by  them  be  marked 
out  by  others  less  acquainted  with  their  requirements  and  less  interested  in  the 
result  than  they?  Let  neither  of  the  unions  be  circumscribed  in  its  efforts  by 
a  forced  dependence  upon  the  other;  but  let  each,  in  its  own  respective  sphere, 
use  its  best  endeavors  for  its  own  advancement,  and  for  that  of  the  trade  generally. 

Henry  Lees, 
D.  A.  Cooke, 

Committee. 

The  convention  went  into  Committee  of  the  Whole,  and  O.  A.  Staf- 
ford, of  Chicago,  moved  that  the  prayer  of  the  petitioners  for  a 
charter  be  granted. 

Thomas  J.  Walsh,  of  New  York,  addressed  the  committee  at  length. 
He  stated  that  the  points  set  forth  in  the  memorial  were  a  tissue  of 
misrepresentations.     The  Typographical  Union  had 
done  everything  in  its  power  to  conciliate  the  mem-    Delegate  of 
bers  of  the  Co-operative  Union.     The  beneficiary    Union  No.  6 
clause  —  the    most    objectionable    feattire    of    the    Makes  Answer. 
Typographical  Union,  in  the  eyes  of  the  Co-opera- 
tives —  had  been  stricken  from  the  constitution  of  the  Typographical 
Union,    but    the   Co-operatives   steadfastly   refused    to  conciliate. 
Replying  to  a  question  as  to  whether  the  statement  in  the  memorial 
as  to  the  number  of  members  attached  to  the  Co-operative  Union 
was  correct,  Mr.  Walsh  replied  that  it  probably  had  that  number  of 
names,  but  that  he  doubted  very  much  whether  there  were  50  reUable 
members  in  the  society. 

Mr.  Stafford,  in  supporting  his  motion,  said  he  entertained  the 
highest  respect  for  the  statements  of  the  gentleman  from  New  York, 
but  he  believed  there  were  two  sides  to  the  question.  Having  worked 
in  New  York  he  knew  that  there  were  two  separate  interests  among 
the  printers  of  that  city.  He  thought  there  was  no  hope  of  harmon- 
izing the  printers  there,  and  he  contended  that  it  would  be  a  benefit 
to  the  craft  generally  if  a  charter  were  granted  to  the  Co-operatives. 

Mr.  Walsh  replied  that  the  book  and  job  hands  were  in  the  major- 
ity, and  they  could  at  any  time  control  the  action  of  the  New  York 
Typographical  Union. 

Augustine  Donnelly,  of  Cincinnati,  offered  the  following  as  a 
substitute  for  the  motion  of  Mr.  Stafford: 

Resolved,  That  in  the  opinion  of  this  National  Union  the  existence  of  two 
typographical  unions  in  one  city  will  have  the  effect  of  dividing  the  craft  and 
preventing  the  accomplishment  of  good  by  either  union. 

Resolved,  further.  That  it  be  a  settled  principle  with  this  National  Union  never 
to  recognize  more  than  one  union  in  each  city. 


274  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Resolved,  further,  That  this  National  Union  most  earnestly  and  affectionately 
urges  the  two  unions  in  the  City  of  New  York  to  settle  their  differences  upon 
some  fair  and  honorable  compromise,  and  blend  themselves  into  one  harmonious 
and  united  body. 

I.  D.  Boyce  of  New  York  stated  that  by  the  pecuHar  regulations 
of  offices  in  that  city,  such  as  measuring  matter  on  galleys,  etc., 
many  were  virtually  working  at  "  rat  "  wages.  Should  the  New 
York  Typographical  Union  at  any  time  order  a  strike  it  would  be 
impossible  to  keep  the  Co-operatives  from  taldng  their  situations. 

Almost  unanimously  the  Committee  of  the  Whole 

Co-operatives'     denied  the  application  of  the  Co-operative  Union. 

Application  It  then  rose  and  reported  to  the  convention,  which 

Denied.  refused  to  grant  the  prayer  of  the  petitioners  by  a 

vote  of  23  to  3. 

These  resolutions  were  then  adopted: 

That  this  body  recommend  to  their  fellow-craftsmen  in  the  City  of  New  York, 
of  whatever  branch  of  the  art,  the  actual  necessity  of  meeting  under  one  charter 
and  becoming  a  unity  in  fact  and  in  sentiment. 

That  it  be  a  settled  principle  with  the  National  Union  never  to  recognize 
more  than  one  union  in  each  city. 

Relations  between  the  dual  organizations  remained  strained  for 
three  years  longer.  The  Printers'  Co-operative  Union  met  in  special 
session  on  April  22,  1857.  There  were  present  some  200  compositors, 
representing  a  large  proportion  of  the  principal  book  and  job  offices. 
Ostensibly  the  meeting  had  been  called  to  discuss  "the  abuses  that 
have  sprung  up  since  the  last  meeting,  one  of  which  is  the  introduc- 
tion of  bastard  fonts  and  types  below  the  standard,  which  are  being 
paid  for  at  less  than  the  scale  of  prices;  the  employers,  not  satisfied 
with  the  reduction  of  the  *  extras  '  as  agreed  to  by  the  union,  now 
asserting  that  the  scale  of  prices  for  such  fonts  are  '  extras.'  "  Action 
on  the  matter  was  then  taken  as  follows : 

Whereas,  In  view  of  the  insidious  means  adopted  to  override,  step  by  step, 
the  landmarks  from  age  to  age  regulating  the  price  of  printers'  labor;  and. 

Whereas,  Foremost  among  the  many  grievances  of  the  craft  is  the  right  assumed 
and  usurped  by  employing  printers  of  the  present  day  of  imposing  on  us  type 
of  all  standards  of  thickness,  ranging  from  lij  ems  to  the  alphabet  upward,  at 
the  ordinary  rate  of  type  fully  up  to  the  standard,  and  claiming  to  allow  bastard 
fonts,  according  to  the  face  and  width  only;  and. 

Whereas,  The  rates  of  living  have  increased  at  least  10  per  cent  since  any  alter- 
ation, except  retrogressive,  has  been  made  in  our  wages;  be  it  therefore 

Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  one  from  each  printing  office  be  appointed  to 
report  for  our  sustainment  such  of  the  "  extras  "  as  are  now  disallowed  by  our 
employers,  or  such  rates  of  advance  in  prices,  or  both,  as  our  present  urgent 
circumstances  seem  to  demand. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  275 

But  the  real  object  of  the  meeting  appears  to  have  been  to  obtain 
the  sentiment  of  the  members  upon  the   question  of  establishing 
harmony  among  the  journeymen  through  a  com- 
bination of  the  two  unions,  it  being  resolved  that    Dissolution  of 
the  committee  of  one  from  each  shop  "  be  directed    ^^^  ^^^^ 

to  confer   with   the  committee  of   Typographical    -, 
.,^   .        ,,  .  1  .  1    .         j^  o     1-  Co-operative 

Union  No.  6,  with  a  view  to  their  concurrence  in  Union. 
our  proceedings,"  Meeting  again  at  Tammany 
Hall  on  May  ist  the  Co-operative  Union  wound  up  its  affairs,  those 
present  being  unanimous  in  the  work  of  dissolution,  and  resolving 
to  go  over  in  a  body  to  Union  No.  6,  to  which  it  was  voted  to  transfer 
the  balance  of  funds  in  the  treasury  at  the  period  of  disbandment. 
After  passing  a  vote  of  thanks  to  President  David  A.  Cooke  and  its 
other  officials  for  their  faithful  services  the  association  adjourned 
sine  die,  and  at  a  meeting  of  the  Typographical  Union  on  May  i6, 
1857,  those  who  had  been  members  of  the  defunct  organization  were 
all  admitted  to  the  ranks  of  "  Big  Six."  Thus  ended  a  bitter  struggle 
for  supremacy,  and  never  since  has  its  like  been  experienced  by 
journeymen  printers  in  New  York  City. 


IX. 

Wage  Scale  of   1 85  7. 

An  attempt  was  made  to  modify  the  newspaper  scale  at  a  meeting 
of  the  Typographical  Union  on  May  2 1 ,  1853.     It  failed  then  because 
a  majority  of  the  members  determined  to  enforce 
it  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  it  had  become  estab-    *^i^^ciai 
lished  by  most  of  the  daily  newspaper  proprietors        industrial 
accepting  its  provisions.    Supervention  of  hard  times,    Depression. 
however,  caused  a  change  in  the  attitude  of  those 
who  desired  to  uphold  the  terms  of  the  revised  price  list,  and  the 
printed  schedule  of  1857  shows  reductions  on  newspapers,  although 
no  changes  were  made  in  the  book  and  job  rates.     A  disastrous 
financial  panic  swept  through  the  country  in  the  latter  year  and 
an  industrial  depression  was  incidental  to  that  deplorable  crisis. 
Extensive  discoveries  of  gold  in  California  had  added  many  millions 
of  the  precious  metal  to  the  currency.     This  superfluity  had  led 
financiers,  manufacturers  and  merchants  to  the  erroneous  conclusion 
that  the  country  was  wealthier  than  was  actually  the  fact.     Wild 
speculation  and  a  rash  extension  of  credit  followed.     There  had 
been  several  years  of  general  prosperity.     Prices  of  commodities 


276  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

had  soared.  Manufacturers  had  placed  immense  quantities  of 
articles  in  their  warehouses  with  the  expectation  of  a  greater  rise  in 
values,  much  of  the  goods  thus  stored  having  been  produced  with 
borrowed  money.  Rival-  railroads  had  absorbed  a  vast  amount  of 
cash  capital.  Abuse  of  credit  had  been  noted  in  the  business  policy 
of  a  majority  of  men  engaged  in  mercantile  pursuits.  Banks  of 
deposit  had  been  lending  money  beyond  reasonable  bounds.  These 
were  the  important  causes  of  the  distiirbance,  which  started  in  a 
small  way  at  the  beginning  of  August  in  New  York  City,  when  busi- 
ness people  were  out  of  town  enjoying  the  vacation  period.  It 
commenced  with  a  few  insignificant  failures.  Witliin  a  week  money 
became  tight  owing  to  the  withdrawal  of  deposits  and  the  hoarding 
of  gold  and  silver,  so  that  commercial  affairs  were  conducted  with 
some  difficulty.  A  bank  of  considerable  repute  suspended  payment 
on  August  24th,  and  the  panic  then  began  with  grim  seriousness. 
Advances  were  restricted  by  financial  institutions,  which  also  called 
in  their  loans.  Stocks  and  bonds  were  unsalable,  and  mercantile 
failures  were  of  daily  occurrence.  A  run  on  the  soundest  banks  com- 
menced on  October  gth,  and  by  the  thirteenth  of  that  month  eighteen 
of  these  institutions  had  collapsed  with  an  indebtedness  to  depositors 
of  amounts  extending  far  into  the  millions.  Industry  was  soon 
crippled  as  badly  as  trade,  finance  and  speculation.  Factories 
throughout  the  United  States  had  to  close  or  operate  on  short  time, 
throwing  into  idleness  innumerable  mechanics  and  laborers.  Added 
to  this  condition  the  largest  yield  of  grain  ever  known  up  to  that  time 
in  the  American  States  was  met  by  an  equally  extensive  harvest  in 
Europe.  As  a  consequence  there  was  not  any  market  for  the  wheat 
crop  and  millions  of  bushels  of  that  cereal  were  wasted  while  workmen 
were  being  discharged  by  thousands. 

In  the  printing  trade  the  effect  of  the  panic  was  severe,  and  it  was 
during  that  period  of  embarrassment,  with  its  resultant  shrinkage 
in  prices,  that  the  amended  wage  scale  was  dis- 
Newspaper      seminated.     It  showed  a  reduction  of  2  cents  per 
Scale  1,000  ems  in  composition  on  daily  and  weekly  news- 

Reduced,         papers  and  of  $1  per  week  for  night  work,  while 
on  Sunday  newspapers  there  was  a  decrease  of  i 
cent  per  1,000  ems.     The  schedule  as  it  appeared  in  1857  ^or  the  class 
of  work  named  was  as  follows: 

Morning  Newspaper  Work. 

Compositors  employed  by  the  piece  shall  receive  not  less  than  35  cents  per 
1,000  ems  for  common  matter.  When  compositors  are  employed  at  night  only 
by  the  piece  they  shall  receive  40  cents  per  1,000  ems. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  277 

Compositors  employed  by  the  week  (six  days)  shall  receive  not  less  than  $16 
per  week  —  twelve  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work.  When  employed  on  night 
situations  two  hours  shall  be  devoted  in  the  afternoon  to  distribution,  and  seven 
hours  at  night  (from  7  to  2  o'clock)  to  composition,  and  they  shall  be  paid  $13 
per  week.  For  all  time  beyond  2  o'clock  at  night  in  either  of  the  above  situa- 
tions the  time  shall  be  deducted  out  of  the  time  for  composition  on  the  following 
day. 

Compositors  may  be  employed  during  the  day  on  morning  newspapers  at 
31  cents  per  1,000  ems,  or  $12  per  week  —  ten  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work. 

Evening  Newspaper  Work. 

Compositors  employed  by  the  piece  shall  receive  31  cents  per  1,000  ems  for 
common  matter. 

Compositors  employed  by  the  week  (six  days)  shall  receive  not  less  than  $12  — 
ten  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work. 

Weekly,  Semi- Weekly  and  Tri- Weekly  Newspapers. 

Compositors  employed  by  the  piece  shall  receive  not  less  than  31  cents  per 
1,000  ems  for  common  matter. 

Compositors  employed  by  the  week  (six  days)  shall  receive  not  less  than  $12  — 
ten  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work. 

Compositors  employed  by  the  piece  on  Sunday  papers  shall  receive  not  less 
than  32  cents  per  i  ,000  ems  for  common  matter.  When  employed  by  the  week 
(six  days)  they  shall  receive  not  less  than  $13  —  ten  hours  to  constitute  a  day's 
work,  with  the  exception  of  Saturday,  when  it  is  expected  that  a  week  hand  will 
work  during  the  evening. 

X. 

Book  and  Job  Scale  Advanced  in    1 863. 

Coeval  with  the  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War  in  1861  there  was 
a  subsidence  of  the  adverse  effects  of  the  1857  panic.  By  1863  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  6  judged  that  the  improved  state  of  trade  war- 
ranted an  increase  in  the  wages  of  book  and  job  compositors,  and  in 
September  of  that  year  it  decided  to  put  into  force  a  scale  that 
advanced  the  piece  rates  on  book  composition  to  35  cents  and  37 
cents  per  1,000  ems,  respectively,  for  reprint  and  manuscript,  with 
an  increase  of  $2  per  week  for  time  workers,  making  the  wages  of 
the  latter  $13  per  week.  Some  employers  immediately  acceded  to 
the  new  arrangement,  while  others  declined  or  offered  a  compromise, 
and  the  men  in  several  offices  struck  in  consequence  of  the  refusal. 
Independent  of  the  union  a  numerously  attended  meeting  of  journey- 
men printers  was  held  on  September  23d,  resulting  in  the  passage 
of  the  subjoined  resolutions  and  the  appointment  of  a  committee 
to  enforce  the  revised  scale: 


278  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

That  the  printers  of  New  York  adopt  the  scale  of  prices  of  New  York  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  6,  and  that  no  man  will  work  in  an  office  where  a  strike 
has  taken  place  for  said  scale,  unless  all  the  men  working  in  said  office  receive 
the  union  scale  of  prices,  and  that  all  printers  be  requested  to  stop  work  unless 
paid  such  scale. 

That  this  meeting  sustain  the  action  of  the  New  York  Typographical  Union. 

That  it  is  the  sense  of  this  meeting  that  all  printers  present  not  members 
of  the  union  send  in  their  names  for  membership  at  the  next  regular  meeting 
of  New  York  Typographical  Union  No.  6. 

The  dispute  in  some  of  the  book  and  job  establishments  continued 
through  November,  the  union  having  provided  means  to  relieve 
those  of  its  members  who  were  then  on  strike.  Peace  was  eventually 
restored,  the  controversy  having  been  generally  successful  for  the 
workmen. 

XL 

Disputes  on  Newspapers  in    1 864. 

As  a  result  of  the  war  the  premium  on  gold  fluctuated  frequently 
throughout  the  year  1864  and  these  constant  changes  affected  prices 
of  commodities  almost  daily.     There  was  an  extraor- 
Employers  dinary  rise  in  the  cost  of  everything,  and  living 

Satisfied  expenses  were  very  high.    While  gold  was  at  152 

SIR*'        P^^  ^^^^  ^^  January  2d  it  went  up  to  160  on  March 
in  1864.  ^s^-     Through  speculation  a  difference  of   55   per 

cent  occurred  on  July  ist  alone,  when  the  prices 
ranged  from  225  to  280.  Some  idea  of  the  depreciation  in  the  cur- 
rency may  be  gained  from  the  fact  that  on  that  date  the  New  York 
Sun  advertised  at  the  head  of  its  first  page  that  thereafter  its  price 
per  copy  in  gold  would  be  i  cent  and  in  currency  2  cents.  By 
August  ist  the  value  of  gold  had  dechned  to  258^,  but  it  afterward 
rose  and  fell  daily  like  the  tides  in  New  York  Bay.  This  unusual 
state  of  things  was  deemed  a  sufficient  reason  by  the  union  to  seek 
twice  in  that  calendar  year  advances  in  wages  for  its  members  em- 
ployed on  newspapers.  An  increase  had  taken  place  on  this  kind 
of  work  soon  after  the  opening  of  the  Rebellion,  but  to  keep  pace 
with  rapidly  increasing  expenses  it  was  determined  on  March  12, 
1864,  to  ask  for  these  changes  in  the  rates  of  pay:  Compositors  on 
morning  papers  to  be  paid  not  less  than  45  cents  per  1,000  ems  for 
day  work,  and  not  less  than  50  cents  for  night  work;  those  employed 
by  the  week  to  receive  not  less  than  $21,  instead  of  $18,  as  previously, 
for  night  work,  and  not  less  than  $18  for  day  work,  instead  of  $16. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  279 

Time  to  be  charged  not  less  than  38  cents  per  hour  when  waiting 
for  copy.  For  weekly  papers  the  prices  to  be  not  less  than  40  cents 
per  1,000  ems,  or  $16  per  week  of  six  days,  ten  hours  per  day;  Sunday 
papers  41  cents  per  1,000  ems,  or  $17  per  week  of  six  days  of  ten 
hours  per  day,  and  30  cents  per  hour  for  time  work;  after  7  o'clock 
p.  M.  time  to  be  charged  the  same  as  on  morning  papers.  The  com- 
mittee appointed  at  a  former  session  of  the  union  to  confer  with 
employers  in  regard  to  the  proposed  advances  reported  that  the 
latter  had  generally  acquiesced,  and  upon  the  arrival  of  March  i8th, 
the  time  fixed  for  the  amendments  to  the  scale  to  take  effect,  the 
raises  were  obtained  without  any  difficulty. 

To  the  majority  of  the  union's  members  the  increases  secured  by 
the  book  and  job  branch  in  the  latter  part  of  1863  and  by  the  news- 
paper men  in  the  spring  of  1864  did  not  appear  to 
be  great  enough  to  keep  abreast  of  the  upward    Wage  Scale 
tendency  of  prices  for  the  necessaries  of  life.     They    Revised  Twice 
waited  until  August  6th,  which  they  thought  was    "^  1864. 
a  propitious  season  to  demand  sufficient  compensa- 
tion to  meet  the  growing  requirements  of  themselves  and  families. 
In  goodly  numbers  they  assembled  at  the  regular  meeting  of  the 
union  on  that  date,  and  decreed  that  on  and  after  August  12  th  on 
daily  newspapers  and  August   15th  in  book,  job  and  newspaper 
offices  other  than  dailies  they  would  not  work  for  less  than  the  accom- 
panying rates: 

Morning  Newspaper  Work. 

Compositors  employed  by  the  piece  shall  receive  not  less  than  60  cents  per 
1,000  ems  for  common  matter,  and  shall  be  entitled  to  at  least  two  hours  of 
continuous  composition  before  5  o'clock  p.  M.,  and  at  least  five  hours'  continuous 
composition  between  the  hours  of  6  and  12  o'clock  p.  M.  When  compositors 
are  employed  at  night  only  by  the  piece  they  shall  receive  65  cents  per  1,000 
ems. 

Compositors  employed  by  the  week  shall  receive  not  less  than  $26  per  week 
(six  days)  —  eleven  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work.  When  employed  on  night 
situations  only — eight  hours  to  constitute  a  night's  work;  the  hours  of  employ- 
ment shall  be  between  6  p.  M.  and  3  a.  m.,  and  they  shall  be  paid  $22  per  week, 
and  for  all  time  after  3  A.  m.  time  shall  be  charged.  This  article  shall  also  apply 
to  compositors  employed  in  reading  proof. 

Compositors  may  be  employed  during  the  day  on  morning  newspapers  at 
52  cents  per  i  ,000  ems,  or  $20  per  week  —  ten  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work. 

When  required  to  remain  in  the  office  unemployed  during  the  stipulated  hours 
for  composition  the  compositor  shall  receive  not  less  than  50  cents  per  hour  for 
such  standing  time.  When  required  to  remain  in  the  office  after  3  o'clock  A.  M. 
the  compositor  shall  charge  50  cents  per  hour  in  addition  to  all  work  done  during 
such  time. 


38o  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Evening  Newspaper  Work. 

Compositors  employed  by  the  piece  shall  receive  not  less  than  52  cents  per 
1,000  ems  for  common  matter. 

Compositors  employed  by  the  week  (six  days)  shall  receive  not  less  than  $20  — 
ten  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work. 

Compositors  employed  by  the  piece  shall  be  entitled  to  at  least  three  hours* 
continuous  composition  between  the  hours  of  8  a.  M.  and  12  m.  and  not  less  than 
four  hours'  continuous  composition  between  12  m.  and  5  p.  M.  Standing 
time,  40  cents  per  hour. 

Weekly,  Semi- Weekly  and  Tri- Weekly  Newspapers. 

Compositors  employed  by  the  piece  shall  receive  not  less  than  52  cents  per 
1,000  ems  for  common  matter.  When  required  to  work  one  night  per  week 
they  shall  be  paid  the  prices  that  prevail  on  Sunday  papers. 

Compositors  employed  by  the  week  (six  days)  shall  receive  not  less  than  $20  — 
ten  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work. 

Compositors  employed  by  the  piece  on  Sunday  papers  shall  receive  not  less 
than  54  cents  per  i  ,000  ems  for  common  matter.  When  employed  by  the  week 
(six  days)  they  shall  receive  not  less  than  $21  — ten  hours  to  constitute  a  day's 
work,  with  the  exception  of  publication  day,  when  it  is  expected  that  a  week 
hand  will  work  during  the  evening. 

For  time  work  during  the  day  a  charge  of  40  cents  per  hour  shall  be  made. 
For  time  work  at  night  a  charge  of  50  cents  per  hour  shall  be  made. 

Bookwork. 

All  works  done  in  the  English  language,  common  matter,  manuscript,  52  cents 
per  1,000  ems;  reprint  works,  50  cents  per  1,000  ems. 

Works  done  in  foreign  languages  shall  be  charged  as  follows:  Latin,  Spanish 
and  Italian,  manuscript  58  cents  per  1,000  ems,  reprint  56  cents  per  1,000  ems; 
German,  French,  Welsh,  Indian  and  African,  manuscript  62  cents  per  1,000  ems, 
reprint  60  cents  per  1,000  ems. 

Compositors  employed  by  the  week  shall  receive  not  less  than  $18  —  ten  hours 
to  constitute  a  day's  work. 

Time  occupied  by  alterations  from  copy,  by  casing  or  distributing  letter  not 
used  by  the  compositor,  to  be  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  40  cents  per  hour.  When 
compositors  are  required  to  work  beyond  regular  hours  they  shall  be  paid  at  the 
rate  of  50  cents  per  hour  or  60  cents  per  i  ,000  ems. 

When  compositors  are  required  to  remain  in  the  office  unemployed,  awaiting 
orders  from  the  employer,  etc.,  they  shall  be  paid  at  the  rate  of  40  cents  per  hour 
during  the  daytime  and  50  cents  per  hour  at  night,  but  shall  perform  any  work 
appertaining  to  the  business  that  may  be  required. 

Job  Work. 

All  men  employed  by  the  week  shall  be  paid  not  less  than  $20  —  ten  hours 
to  constitute  a  day's  work;  when  paid  by  the  hour  the  price  shall  be  40  cents 
per  hour.  When  required  to  work  beyond  the  regular  hours  such  extra  time 
shall  be  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  50  cents  per  hour. 

Presswork. 

No  pressman  shall  work  for  a  less  sum  than  $20  per  week  for  day  work  or  $22 
for  night  work  —  the  day's  work  in  all  cases  to  consist  of  ten  hours.  Overwork 
shall  be  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  50  cents  per  hour. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  28 1 

Besides  the  increases  in  wages  a  noticeable  feature  in  the  fore- 
going scale  was  the  reduction  of  working  time  on  morning  papers  of 
one  hour  per  day  —  from  twelve  hours  to  eleven 
hours.    So  large  were  the  advances  insisted  upon  by    Proprietors 
the  union,  and  coming  so  soon  after  the  previous    ,    ^^^    °    ^° 
raise  had  been  conceded  by  employers,  that  many    jjj  q^^  year. 
newspaper  proprietors  remonstrated,  claiming  that 
the  demand  was  unjust  and  unwarrantable.     They  prepared  to  give 
battle,  and  their  antagonism  for  the  nonce  brought  to  naught  the 
influence  of  the  printers'  organization.     A   correspondent  signing 
himself   "A  Journeyman  Printer  "  sent  to  the  Tribune  a  communi- 
cation that  was  printed  therein  on  August  loth.     Addressing  Editor 
Greeley  the  writer  said: 

Knowing  you  to  be  the  friend  of  the  journeyman  printer,  and  always  anxious 
to  promote  whatever  may  eventuate  beneficially  to  him,  I  desire  to  point  out 
to  my  craftsmen,  through  the  columns  of  a  paper  which  has 
ever  championed  their  just  claims,  what  I  believe  with  hun-     Advance  Impolitic, 
dreds  of  others  to  be  a  false  and  dangerous  policy.     I  refer,     One  Journeyman 
of  course,  to  the  schedule  of  rates  adopted  recently  by  Typo-     Pointer  Declares. 
graphical  Union  No.  6  to  go  into  effect  on  the  twelfth  of 
this  month.     For  the  following  reasons  I  believe  the  advance  demanded  impolitic, 
and  calculated  to  embarrass  and  injure  the  craft;  and  I  hope  every  intelligent 
printer  will  pause  and  reflect  before  he  concludes  to  resort  to  coercion  to  secure 
what  the  union  in  its  mistaken  notion  emphatically  demands.     Let  us  reason: 

1.  It  cannot  be  controverted  that  any  ordinary  workman  now  holding  a 
situation  on  the  Tribune,  Times,  Herald  or  News  can  earn  from  $22  to  $25  per 
week  —  many  expert  compositors  realize  from  $35  to  $40.  This,  Mr.  Editor, 
your  own  books  will  show  you  to  be  the  truth.  What  other  class  of  artisans 
can  do  better?  I  know  that  the  existing  currency  fluctuates,  and  that  all  the 
ordinary  requirements  of  existence  have  greatly  risen  in  price;  but,  everything 
weighed,  journeymen  printers  are  now  paid  better  wages  —  as  regards  news- 
papers particularly  —  than  any  other  class  of  mechanics  in  New  York  City. 
Is  it  policy,  then,  to  seek  to  increase  these  rates  40  per  cent  while  the  enhanced 
cost  of  paper,  ink,  etc.,  is  rendering  many  newspaper  proprietors  daily  less  able 
to  pay  even  the  present  rates?  The  interest  of  the  employer  and  journeymen 
should  be  identical.  While  the  aggressions  of  Capital  upon  the  rights  of  Labor 
should  be  indignantly  lepelled,  it  is  no  less  a  wrong  when  the  operatives,  by 
artificial  means,  constrain  employers  to  acquiesce  in  measures  which  cripple  their 
energies. 

2.  Can  the  employers,  without  serious  pecuniary  loss,  pay  the  proposed 
advance?  They  cannot  as  a  general  thing.  While  the  large  daily  papers  may 
be  enabled  to  stand  up  for  a  season  under  the  pressure,  less  prominent  and  less 
wealthy  journals  must  either  employ  boys  or  women  or  shuffle  off  their  mortal 
coil.  Will  the  trade  be  advantaged  by  such  events?  Is  it  not  more  wise  to 
permit  40  men  to  work  for  $18  per  week  than  to  so  raise  the  rates  as  to  compel 
capitalists  to  employ  but  20  at  $30  per  week?  Will  not  the  proposed  increase 
of  wages  induce  the  proprietors  of  large  daily  papers  to  seriously  curtail  the  amount 


282  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

of  general  reading  matter  they  now  give  the  community,  thereby  dispensing 
with  the  services  of  many  compositors? 

3.  There  is  an  excess  —  a  great  excess  —  of  printers  in  the  market  over  the 
demand.     Book  printers  are,  as  a  general  thing,  idle.     They  are  not  dissatisfied 

with  40  cents  per  1,000  ems,  but  they  cannot  secure  work. 
Excess  of  If  men  are  unable  to  find  employment  at  40  cents  per  hour 

Printers  in  is  it  not  the  acme  of  absurdity  to  demand  52  cents?  There 
the  Market.  ^^j.^  ^^  ^|^|j,  writing  over  400  book  printers  walking  the  streets. 
The  scarcity  of  labor,  so  apparent  in  other  branches  of  in- 
dustry, does  not  exist  in  the  printing  business.  Singular  as  it  may  appear  it  is 
the  fact.  Ordinarily  speaking,  a  journeymen  printer  is  not  worth  two  weeks' 
board  ahead  of  his  wages.  Now,  if  a  strike  is  ordered,  is  it  likely  that  the  chances 
for  work  will  be  enhanced?  On  the  contrary,  is  it  not  reasonable  to  conjecture 
that,  after  such  men  fail  to  procure  any  kind  of  employment  at  either  the  present 
or  proposed  rates,  the  union  will  either  be  compelled  to  support  them  out  of 
its  treasury,  or  submit  to  the  humiliation  of  beholding  them  soliciting  employ- 
ment at  any  price  they  can  obtain? 

4.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  Typographical  Union  No.  6  are  not  "  the 
printers  of  New  York,"  as  is  erroneously  conjectured  by  many.  While  New 
York  contains  over  2,200  compositors  —  book,  job  and  newspaper  —  the  union 
has  not  500  members.  It  is  but  a  cHque,  which,  by  studiously  excluding  from 
the  offices  they  control  the  1,700  who  are  not  in  its  fold,  are  competent  to  dictate 
what  terms  they  see  fit  to  their  employers.  Now,  should  the  employers  resist 
the- contemplated  advance  they  would  of  course  open  their  doors  to  the  tabooed 
1,700,  the  most  of  whom  would  jump  at  the  opportunity  of  earning  from  $22 
to  $25  per  week.     What,  then,  would  become  of  the  union? 

If  the  morning  paper  printers  would  preserve  their  organization,  keep  their 
employment,  avoid  differences  and  schisms  among  themselves,  their  true  course 
is  to  compromise  with  their  employers,  who  are,  I  understand,  willing  to  make 
such  an  advance  on  the  present  rates  as  will  be  compatible  with  their  pecuniary 
existence.     Can  reasonable  men  ask  more? 

Replying  to  the  above  the  Tribune  editor  remarked  that  "  we 

certainly  think  the  proposed  advance  an  unreasonable  one  —  as  we 

notified  the  union  before  it  was  determined  —  and 

Greeley  Thinks  ^^^  ^^^  disposed  to  concede  it.     Should  we  be  coerced 

Proposed  .^^^  doing  it,  it  must  be  with  the  distinct  under- 

Unreasonable,     standing  that  we  deem  it  unjust,  and  shall  endeavor 

to  escape  from  it  at  the  earliest  moment.     With  this 

view,  we  solicit  proposals  by  letter  from  compositors,  whether  already 

in  oiu-  employment  or  others,  willing  to  work  on  the  Tribune  for  45 

cents  per  1,000.     We  shall  not  pay  60  cents  if  we  can  help  it;  and 

if  we  do  pay  it  we  shall  cease  to  do  so  at  the  earliest  moment.     We 

protest    against    our    correspondent's    averment  that  we  are  the 

'  friend  '  of  journeymen  printers  especially.     We  believe  in  justice, 

and  would  render  it  to  all     We  must  dissent  also  from  one  argument 

adduced  above  by  '  A  Journeyman  Printer.'     He  asserts  that  most 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  283 

employers  cannot  afford  to  pay  the  proposed  advance.  We  do  not 
consider  that  at  all  to  the  purpose.  Labor  is  worth  whatever  it  will 
command;  and  he  who  cannot  pay  the  market  price  must  go  with- 
out it  —  that  is  all.  Every  printer  has  a  right  to  fix  his  own  price 
on  his  work,  and  refuse  to  work  for  less ;  and  he  is  equally  at  liberty 
to  combine  with  others  to  sustain  that  rate.  He  has  no  right  to 
employ  violence  or  intimidation  to  prevent  others  working  for  less. 
Let  every  one  respect  the  right  of  every  other  and  there  need  be  no 
difficulty." 

"  A  Journeyman  Job  Printer  "  wrote  a  reply  to  "  A  Journeyman 
Printer  "  and  it  was  printed  in  the  Tribune  a  few  days  afterward. 
Speaking  of  the  latter  correspondent's  views  the  former  contended: 

He  takes  a  very  strange  and,  I  deem  it,  a  very  unwarranted  view  of  the  advance 

now  asked  by  the  craft.     He  hinges  his  whole  article  upon 

the  idea  that  employers  are  to  be  "coerced."     The  expres-       A  Job  Printer 

sion  is  entirely  gratuitous  and  uncalled  for.     Who  speaks       ^^'sagrees     1 
.  Joixmeyman 

of  coercion  or  threatens  violence?     Not  one.     The  craft,  as       Printer." 

such,  is  as  law-abiding  as  is  any  other  in  the  United  States. 

We  ask  an  advance  for  this  simple  reason:  At  present  we  are  inadequately 
paid  —  are  not  paid  at  an  equal  rate  with  other  mechanics  requiring  similar 
skill  and  care.  The  price  list  at  present  for  weekly  hands  in  New  York  is  $15 
(in  Philadelphia  it  is  $14),  and  that  has  been  the  price  for  the  greater  part  of  the 
spring  and  through  the  summer.  Prior  to  the  war  printers  were  paid  fio  and 
$11  a  week  and  now  $15  only. 

And  is  it  necessary  to  argue  with  any  person  that  provisions  of  all  kinds  have 
advanced  100  and  in  some  instances  over  200  per  cent,  and  yet  to  this  day  the 
wages  of  printers  have  only  advanced  40  to  50  per  cent? 

We  as  a  craft  are  willing  to  bear  our  full  share  of  the  war  burdens  imposed 
upon  our  country,  but  we  do  not  consent  to  work  for  wages  which  are  altogether 
inadequate  for  the  maintenance  of  our  families. 

The  statement  of  the  would-be  journeyman  who  appears  in  your  columns  — 
for  we  think  we  see  internal  evidence  in  the  article  that  he  has  ceased  to  work 
as  a  "  jour  "  so  long  that  he  has  forgotten  how  it  feels  to  be  one  —  of  the  improve- 
ments of  printers  is  rather  uncalled  for.  Can  we  not  point  with  pride  to  the 
editor  of  this  journal  as  a  journeyman  printer?  And  also  to  nine  out  of  every 
ten  now  established  in  the  trade  in  this  city? 

The  grand  question  with  us  is  this:  Is  our  labor  worth  at  the  present  time 
$20  per  week?    We  say,  emphatically,  Yes! 

The  question  of  an  advance  has  been  mooted  for  some  time;  and  several  of 
the  employers  have  said:  "  Why  don't  you  strike  now,  while  business  is  dull? " 
We  meet  their  wish,  because  we  feel  our  claim  is  both  just  and  reasonable.  The 
busy  season  will  soon  be  at  hand,  in  the  usual  course  of  business;  but  we  have 
not  waited  until  then.  We  ask  the  advance  when  we  are  well  aware  that  business 
is  dull. 

As  to  putting  down  the  price  at  the  first  opportunity,  we  never  knew  it  other- 
wise. Wages,  as  a  rule,  are  the  first  to  go  down  —  the  last  to  rise ;  and  employers 
will  vastly  change  w'hen  they  do  not  put  them  down  at  the  first  opportunity  — 
no  matter  how  much  experience  they  may  have  had  as  journeymen  themselves. 


284  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

To  which  the  Tribune  editor  made  answer,  saying  that  "  we  desire 
in  reference  to  the  above  first  to  state  a  fact  and  then  ask  a  ques- 
tion. I.  The  fact:  Our  correspondent  says  em- 
Improvidence  ployers  always  improve  every  opportunity  to  put 
of  Printers  down  wages  —  that  wages  are  *  first  to  go  down, 
Alleged.  ja,st  to  rise.'     Now,  we  have  been  engaged  in  print- 

ing in  this  city,  either  as  journeyman  or  employer,  for 
the  last  33  years,  and  we  have  never  known  or  heard  of  a  reduction 
of  the  regular  wages  of  journeymen  printers  here  in  all  that  time. 
On  the  contrary,  in  the  fall  of  1861  when  (because  of  the  war)  trade 
was  very  dull  and  most  employers  losing  money,  while  the  cost  of 
living  was  remarkably  low,  we  solicited  a  reduction  of  10  per  cent 
in  our  journeymen's  scale  of  recompense,  and  we  were  decisively 
informed  that  it  could  not  be  granted.  2.  Now  for  the  question: 
Our  correspondent  scouts  the  suggestion  that  many  printers  are 
improvident,  and  are  on  that  account  needy;  and  several  similar 
letters  before  us  harp  on  the  assumption  that  journeymen  cannot 
live  at  the  rates  now  paid  Now,  it  is  none  of  our  business  how  they 
spend  their  earnings;  but,  since  this  point  is  so  persistently  made, 
we  will  thank  our  correspondent  to  give  his  own  estimate  of  the 
amount  annually  expended  by  the  journeymen  printers  of  our  city 
in  liquor  saloons,  gaming  houses,  and  worse  haunts  (if  there  can 
be  worse)  which  they  might  far  better  keep  out  of.  Let  us  see  if  it 
be  the  fact  that  men  cannot  live  at  the  current  rates." 

Over  the  signature  of  "  C.  W.  C,"  a  member  of  the  Typographical 
Union,  the  Tribune  on  the  same  day  inserted  in  its  columns  a  letter, 
dated  August  nth,  taking  issue  with  Mr.  Greeley. 
A  Union  Printer   This  communication,  which  sheds  much  light  con- 
Replies  to  the       cerning  retail  prices  of  foodstuffs  and  other  com- 
Tribune  Editor,    modifies  that  prevailed  in  the  fifties  and  sixties  of 
the  last  century,  is  here  presented  in  full: 

I  see  by  the  Tribune  of  this  morning  that  you  give  "  fair  notice  "  that  you 
deem  the  prices  asked  by  the  printers  of  this  city  to  be  "  extravagant  and  unjust," 
and  that  you  will  not  pay  them.  This  is  your  undoubted  right,  so  it  is  the 
undoubted  right  of  every  man,  or  association  of  men  to  put  a  price  upon  his 
or  their  labor;  but  when  you  assign  reasons  why  you  will  not  pay  the  prices 
asked,  and  those  reasons  are  false  in  fact,  I  as  a  printer  and  a  member  of  the  New 
York  Typographical  Union  request  the  privilege  of  showing  through  your  columns 
wherein  you  are  wrong. 

You  say:  "  It  is  currently  assumed  that  the  cost  of  living  has  doubled  since 
i860;  but  such  is  not  the  fact.  The  heavy  item  of  rent  has  scarcely  increased. 
We  ride  in  city  cars  and  stages  as  cheaply  as  ever." 

The  rent  of  the  apartments  I  have  occupied  for  the  last  six  years  has  been 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES. 


28s 


increased  this  year  by  an  addition  of  25  per  cent,  while  the  same  rooms  were 
they  to  be  rented  now  could  not  be  obtained  for  that.  But  then  "  we  ride  in 
the  city  cars  and  stages  as  cheaply  as  ever. ' '  Why ,  sir,  you  know  that  the  average 
amount  paid  for  car  and  stage  riding  by  morning  paper  compositors  in  this  city 
will  not  reach  $5  a  year. 

"  It  is  currently  assumed  that  the  cost  of  living  has  doubled  since  i860,  but 
such  is  not  the  fact." 

Yes,  sir;  such  is  the  fact,  and  you  ought  to  know  that  such  is  the  fact,  and 
I  will  prove  it  to  you.  My  wife  is  a  very  careful,  frugal 
housekeeper;  never  wastes  anything;  never  pays  more  than 
is  absolutely  necessary  to  obtain  a  good,  wholesome  article 
of  food,  or  a  fair  article  of  wearing  apparel  for  herself  and 
children.  She  tells  me  her  household  expenses  have  more 
than  doubled  and  here  is  her  proof,  being  a  transcript  from  her  — 


Cost  of 

Living  Doubles 
in  Four  Years. 


Diarjr  of  Expenses. 

When  you 

willingly       Whfen  you 
paid  3SC.    are  asked  to 
per  1,000    pay  60c.  per  Increase 

Articles.  ems.          1,000  ems.          per  cent. 

Flour  (Hecker's)  per  bag |o .  87i  $1  •  75  100 

Beef  per  lb .15  30  100 

Pork,  fresh  and  salt .10  .20  100 

Butter  per  lb .20  .50  150 

Potatoes  per  peck .40  .90  12s 

Tomatoes  "     "       .20  .60  200 

Cabbages  each .06  .12  100 

Coffee  per  lb .20  .6s  225 

Tea  per  lb .75  2 .  00  166 

Sugar  per  lb .11  .33  200 

Molasses  per  gal .60  125  112 

Shoes  per  pair i .  SO  3 .  00  100 

Stockings  per  pair .20  i .  00  400 

Calico  per  yard .10  .40  300 

Canton  flannel  per  yard .  I2i  .75  500 

Shirting,  bleached,  per  yard .10  .75  650 

Sheeting,  unbleached,  per  yard .10  i .  00  900 

Coal  per  ton 5.00  15.00  200 

Average  increase  over  257  per  cent. 
Increase  on  scale  about  713  per  cent. 

The  above,  Mr.  Greeley,  are  all  articles  of  prime  necessity,  as  you  well  know. 
This  is  no  fancy  sketch,  but  a  sad  reality  —  a  veritable  copy  of  same  actually 
expended  then  and  now.  I  deem  it  pertinent  to  remark  in  this  connection,  also, 
that  I  have  to  pay  $1.04  a  month  for  my  daily  copy  of  the  Tribune,  instead  of 
52  cents  as  formerly.  And  further,  if  our  association  wish  to  advertise  in  your 
own  or  other  journals  of  the  city  they  have  to  pay  all  the  way  from  25  to  100 
per  cent  advance  on  former  rates. 

And  to  the  reasoning  of  its  correspondent  the  Tribune  responded 
in  this  manner : 

I.  That  our  correspondent  in  admitting  that  he  pays  but  25  per  cent  more 
rent  than  he  paid  for  the  same  rooms  three  or  four  years  ago,  concedes  the  whole 
case.     His  living  does  not  cost  double  what  it  did,  even  on  his  own  exhibit. 


286  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NLTMBIiR    SIX. 

2.  We  believe  the  amount  paid  by  each  journeyman  for  riding  in  cars,  boats, 
and  stages  averages  fully  $20  per  year. 

3.  That  if  he  cannot  buy  beef  fit  to  eat  under  30  cents  per  pound,  we  can. 

4.  We  can  do  better  than  buy  potatoes  at  90  cents  per  peck,  and  if  our  friend's 
wife  cannot,  then  he  overrates  her  merits  as  a  housekeeper. 

5.  It  is  not  fair  to  argue  from  a  momentary  dearness  of  summer  vegetables 
caused  by  an  intense,  protracted  drought,  as  if  it  were  the  result  of  abiding 


Under  protest  the  Tribune  management  yielded  on  August  12  th 

to  the  demands  made  by  the  union  for  an  increase 

Refusal  to  Set      q£  wages.     But  late  in  the  same  evening  the  fol- 

TT  •    •  4.   r.      "   lowing  advertisement  was  handed  in  at  the  count- 
Umomsts  Causes  .  ° 

Tribune  Strike.     i'^S  room,  entered   upon  the   books,  charged  and 
sent  to  the  composing  room  to  be  put  in  type : 

Compositors  Wanted. —  Twenty  competent  compositors  wanted  on  a  morning 
paper  in  this  city,  to  whom  permanent  situations  will  be  given.  Fifty  cents 
per  1 ,000  ems  will  be  paid.     Apply  to  George  Jones,  Times  office. 

Members  of  the  chapel  refused  to  set  up  the  advertisement  and 
notified  the  business  manager  of  the  Tribune  that  if  it  were  not 
withdrawn  the  whole  force  would  strike  work.*  "An  appeal  was 
made  to  their  good  sense  to  recede  from  so  unreasonable  a  position," 
to  quote  the  words  of  the  Tribune  of  August  13th.  "  It  was  repre- 
sented that  they  had  no  right  thus  to  dictate  what  should  or  should 
not  appear  in  oiu*  columns;  that  we  could  yield  to  no  dictation  in 
the  editing  of  our  paper;  and  that  we  had  no  right  to  refuse  an 
advertisement  perfectly  proper  in  itself,  because  others  deemed  it 
might  interfere  with  their  interests.  The  appeal  was  in  vain  and 
we  were,  therefore,  compelled  to  go  to  press  with  such  matter  as  we 
had  already  in  type." 

The  strike  was  on  in  stern  earnest  and  the  friendly  relations  that 
had  for  so  many  years  existed  between  Horace  Greeley  and  his 
compositorial  force  was  for  a  time  severed.  It  was  only  two  years 
previously  that  they  had  presented  to  him  a  $400  gold  watch  as  a 
testimonial  of  the  high  esteem  in  which  they  held  him,  and  when 
the  parting  of  the  ways  came  these  printers  blamed  the  great  editor, 
the  first  president  of  their  union,  not  for  ciny  resistance  on  his  part 


*  This  resolution  which  was  proposed  by  a  member  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  at  its  Decem- 
ber, 190S.  meeting  was  ignored  by  that  organization  and  consequently  did  not  become  a  part  of 
its  code  of  laws:  "  That  members  of  No.  6  refuse  hereafter  to  set  up  advertisements  for  '  scabs  ' 
in  any  branch  of  the  allied  printing  trades."  As  a  union,  so  far  as  is  known,  it  has  never  incul- 
cated in  its  rules  and  regulations  any  provision  prohibiting  composition  on  advertisements  of  the 
character  here  mentioned.  Apparently  the  strike  on  the  Tribune  v/as  a  chapel  affair,  which  was 
subsequently  supported  by  the  parent  body. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  287 

to  their  claims,  but  rather  for  refusal  to  exercise  his  influence  on 
this  occasion  in  their  behalf,  thereby  incurring  for  him  some  tem- 
porary unpopularity  among  his  craftsmen.^ 

In  its  issue  of  August  isth  the  Tribune  again  called  attention  to 
the  controversy,  observing  editorially: 

The  patrons  of  the  Tribune  must  bear  with  us  for  a  few  days  if  they  perceive 
some  deficiencies  in  the  contents  of  our  journal. 

They  are  aware  that  the  compositors  employed  in  our  establishment  at  a 
late  hour  on  Friday  evening  took  offense  at  an  advertisement  for  printers  received 
by  us  from  the  Times  office,  and  demanded  its  suppression  under  penalty  of 
their  immediate  withdrawal;  and,  on  our  declining  compliance,  they  all  left  us 
on  the  instant,  to  get  on  as  we  could.  There  was  no  question  of  wages  involved, 
but  simply  one  of  our  right  to  control  these  columns  as  against  the  claim  of  our 
workmen  to  dictate  their  contents. 

It  was  not  entirely  a  new  question;  years  ago  the  Printers'  Union  saw  fit  to 
advertise  herein  a  very  respectable  and  worthy  master  printer  as  an  enemy  of 
their  craft,  intending  therein  to  deprive  him  of  the  labor  he  required;  and  we, 
being  appealed  to  by  him,  decided  that  our  advertising  columns  were  open  to  all 
comers  who  did  not  ask  the  insertion  of  aught  treasonable,  libelous,  indecent 
or  immoral,  and  that  we  could  not  therefore  exclude  the  union's  advertisement. 
We  had  already  made  the  same  decision  in  favor  of  the  cards  and  appeals  of 
political  adversaries,  which  we  might  have  chosen  to  exclude  had  it  been  a  matter 
of,  simple  discretion  or  preference  on  our  part. 

Our  compositors  having  thus  suddenly,  and  as  we  think  unjustifiably,  left  us 
at  a  critical  moment  and  having  induced  the  union  to  sustain  them  in  their 
course,  we  have  no  choice  but  to  make  the  best  fight  in  our  power.  We  give 
fair  notice,  then,  that  we  want  compositors  —  that  we  stand  ready  to  give  liberal 
wages  and  permanent  situations  to  good  workmen;  but  it  must  be  with  a  distinct 
understanding  that  this  establishment  belongs  to  its  proprietors,  and  that  no 
rule  or  scales  are  to  be  effective  in  it  until  we  shall  have  been  allowed  a  voice 
in  their  formation.  We  stand  ready  now  as  ever  to  unite  with  our  fellow-crafts- 
men in  the  establishment  of  a  just  scale  of  recompense  for  work  in  the  trade; 
but  in  making  and  modifying  it  employers,  as  well  as  journeymen,  must  be 
heard  and  represented.  Compositors  who  deem  these  terms  just  and  reason- 
able will  please  apply  forthwith  to  Thomas  McElrath,  Tnhune  office. 


6  Henry  P.  McManus,  one  of  the  founders  of  the  New  York  Printers'  Union,  interviewed  by 
James  M.  Bell,  in  the  New  York  Union  Printer  and  American  Craftsman,  of  June  6,  1896,  gave 
this  account  of  the  controversy:  "  The  strike  of  1864  was  directly  caused  by  the  radical  advance 
in  the  price  of  composition  on  morning  newspapers  from  45  cents  to  60  cents  per  i  ,000  ems.  Many 
of  the  wisest  and  most  conservative  members  of  the  union  were  opposed  to  such  a  radical  change 
and  strenuously  advocated  a  compromise  of  55  cents  per  1,000.  This  rate  would  have  been 
accepted  by  the  proprietors,  but  the  younger  and  hot-headed  element  were  in  the  majority.  They 
would  not  listen  to  reason  or  argument,  and  the  scale  took  effect.  Sixty  cents  per  1,000  was  paid 
for  a  brief  spell.  During  this  time  the  proprietors,  aided  by  the  Associated  Press  and  Western 
Union  Telegraph  Company,  scoured  the  United  States  and  Canada  for  '  rats,'  and  they  were 
colonized  as  fast  as  secured.  At  the  proper  time  they  let  the  '  rodents  '  loose  on  us,  and  the  fight 
was  on.  Even  the  Tribune  was  '  ratted  '  without  much  trouble,  while  the  men  on  the  Times 
received  official  notification  to  get  out.  We  subsequently  admitted  defeat  and  accepted  the  55 
cents  that  the  conservatives  had  originally  proposed." 


288  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

The  union  met  on  August  13  th  and  passed  a  resolve,  "  that  on 
Sunday  morning,  August  14th,  the  members  working  in  the  various 
daily  morning  newspaper  offices  in  the  City  of  New  York  shall  demand 
of  the  proprietors  of  the  same  whether  they  will  pay  the  recently 
advanced  scale  so  long  as  required  by  this  union,  and  in  case  of 
refusal  the  employed  in  such  offices  shall  promptly  strike  and  refuse 
to  resume  work  until  their  demands  are  fully  acceded  to,  unless 
already  acceded  to  unconditionally." 

It  was  stated  that  the  Associated  Press  had  been  issuing  circulars 

to  all  newspapers  in  the  country  requesting  them  to  send  non-union 

printers  to  New  York,  and  it  was  therefore  necessary 

General  to  strike  before  the  arrival  of  these  men,  if  the  union 

Strike  expected  to  triumph.     President  Holmes  imparted 

Ordered.  ^-j^g  information  that  the  employing  book  and  job 

printers  had  offered  to  pay  47  cents  per  1,000  ems 

for  reprint,  50  cents  for  manuscript,  33  cents  per  hour  for  time  work, 

and  $16  per  week  to  job  printers.     A  member  stated  that  the  book 

offices  were  filled  mostly  with  compositors  not  in  the  union  and  he 

did  not  beUeve  a  strike  could  be  carried  to  a  successful  issue  in  such 

shops.    The  proposition  of  the  employers  was  rejected,  and  it  was 

unanimously  agreed  to  abide  by  the  original  decision  of  the  union 

regarding  the  book  and  job  scale.      A  Vigilance  Committee  was 

appointed  to  look  after  the  interests  of  the  association,  and  it  was 

particularly  enjoined  not  to  adopt  any  violent  or  illegal  measiu"es. 

A  representative  from  the  German   Printers'    Union  notified  the 

meeting  that  the  principal  German  offices  were  paying  the  advanced 

scale. 

A  mass  meeting  was  held  in  City  Hall  Park  on  August  iSth  under 

the  auspices  of  the  Workingmen's  Union  in  support 

Union's  Position  of  the  strike,  which  was  then  in  full  force.     The 

Defined  at  various  trades  were  well  represented.     Edward  A. 

Mass  Meeting.     Holmes,    president   of    the    Typographical    Union, 

who  was  elected  chairman  of  the  gathering,  gave 

this  version  of  the  dispute : 

The  matter  out  of  which  this  strike  arose  occurred  in  the  New  York  Tribune 
office.  Upon  last  Friday  the  men  in  that  composing  room  waited  upon  their 
employers  and  requested  to  know  whether  they  were  or  were  not  going  to  pay  the 
prices  established  by  the  New  York  Typographical  Union.  The  employers  stated, 
through  their  foreman,  that  they  should  pay  that  scale  under  protest;  and  the  men 
concluded  not  to  go  to  work  upon  so  ambiguous  an  answer.  They  then  stated 
that  there  was  a  combination  among  the  employers  not  to  pay  that  scale  of 
prices,  but  that,  notwithstanding  that  combination,  the  proprietors  would  use 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER   WAGES.  289 

no  trick  against  the  interests  of  the  workmen  until  the  union  had  met  on  Satur- 
day evening.  Upon  that  statement  the  compositors  employed  in  the  Tribune 
office  went  to  work.  About  1 1  o'clock  on  the  evening  of  Friday,  while  the  men 
were  at  work,  an  advertisement  came  up,  stating  that  "  twenty  compositors 
were  wanted  on  a  morning  paper.  For  further  information  apply  to  Mr.  Jones, 
Times  office."  Upon  the  receipt  of  that  all  the  men  refused  to  work.  The 
editor  stated  that  he  would  try  to  have  it  withdrawn  by  Mr.  Jones  of  the  Times 
office,  and  sent  out  a  messenger.  In  the  meantime  the  men  employed  in  the  Times 
office  had  struck  against  this  advertisement  and  Mr.  Jones  had  given  a  written 
order  withdrawing  the  advertisement  from  the  Tribune  and  other  papers  in 
which  it  was  ordered  to  appear.  When  the  gentleman  went  to  the  Tribune  office 
and  requested  that  the  advertisement  be  withdrawn  the  superintendent  said  that 
that  must  appear  in  the  paper  if  nothing  else  did.  The  men  thought  that  adver- 
tisement a  trick  and  they  left  the  office  in  a  mass.  Upon  Saturday  evening  the 
Printers'  Union  met  and  did  not  recede  from  their  scale. 

Upon  the  following  Sunday  applications  were  made  at  the  Tribune  office  for 
work,  and  among  others  were  two  young  gentlemen  from  Poughkeepsie  who 
had  telegraphed  to  Mr.  Jones  of  the  Times  office  in  regard  to  the  20  com- 
positors, and  here  was  the  answer:  "  New  York,  15  August.  In  answer  to  tele- 
gram to  Times  office  we  will  give  employment  to  compositors  who  report  to  our 
foreman  to-morrow  morning.  Thos.  McElrath,  Tribune  office."  Did  not  that 
prove  a  trick?  When  employers  enter  into  an  honorable  engagement  with  the 
men  the  latter  have  a  right  to  hold  them  to  it  and  make  them  keep  it,  as  well 
as  keep  their  own. 

Robert  M.  Poer,  one  of  the  speakers,  stated  that  he  was  in  a 

pecuHar  predicament,  for  he  had  for  fifteen  years  been  the  pupil  of 

Horace  Greeley  and  the  Tribune.     "  I  do  not  want 

to  say  anything  against  my  old  master,"  declared    White-Coated 

the  speaker.     "  He  has  always  been  the  friend  of    o.-!.°!°^  ^^ 
,  •  1  -1  1  •        1  ,1      Still  Among 

the  workingmen,  and,  notwithstanding  the  crooked-    journeymen. 

ness  of  the  present  business,   I  beheve  Greeley's 

heart  is  yet  in  the  right  place.     But  as  the  Tribune  is  conducted  by 

an  association  I  believe  there  is  a  power  behind  the  throne  greater 

financially  than  the  throne  itself.     I  believe  a  trick  has  been  played 

on  the  men  in  the  Tribune  office.     The  printers  had  agreed  to  work 

at  the  old  prices  till  the  union  met  and  in  the  meantime  the  Tribune 

Association   was   advertising   for   compositors   from   the   country. 

Every  employer  has  a  right  to  get  work  done  as  cheaply  as  he  can, 

and  the  workingmen  have  an  equal  right  to  get  what  they  can  for 

their  labor.     I  have  been  a  printer  30  years,  both  as  journeyman 

and  employer,  and  I  assert  that  the  journeymen  book  printers  in 

New  York,  Washington,  Boston,  Cincinnati  and  other  cities  are 

worse  used  than  any  other  workingmen.     The  newspaper  printer 

is  also  a  perfect  slave.      I  have  to  work  sixteen  hours  out  of  the 

24  and  ten  of  those  after  sundown.     And  our  wages  are  not  enough 


290  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

to  live  on.     Now,  the  papers  have  stated  that  men  get  about  $35  a 
week;  but  will  any  other  tradesman  work  sixteen  hours  a  day  in 
August,    and    then    go    home  beyond   Eighteenth 
Hardships  of      street  and  lie  down?     I  am  certain  that  no  printer 
Morning  Paper   could  work  this  time  without  a   *  sub;'  so  a  daily 
Printers.  paper  compositor  is  obliged  to  give  half  his  wages 

away  to  enable  him  to  earn  the  other  half.  As 
to  the  book  and  job  printers,  ninctcen-twenticths  of  them  do  not 
get  more  than  $16  a  week.  This  is  not  the  fault  of  the  proprietors, 
but  of  the  slaves  who  submit  to  it.  A  few  pages  of  manuscript  are 
given  to  a  compositor  to  set  up.  He  does  so,  takes  a  proof,  and  it  is 
sent  to  the  author  in  Newport,  the  compositor  having  to  suck  his 
thumbs  until  the  corrected  proof  comes  back  from  the  watering-place. 
The  poor  fellow  must  look  for  a  job  somewhere  else,  because  he  is 
not  paid  for  his  work  until  it  is  measured,  and  this  is  not  done  until 
it  is  made  up.  Then  there  are  overgrown  boys  in  the  offices  who  are 
set  to  read  proofs,  and  the  poor  devil  who  sets  it  up  when  he  goes 
for  his  wages  finds  himself  50  cents  in  debt  to  his  employer.  The 
remedy  for  all  this  is  a  greater  union  between  compositors  and  press- 
men, for  the  latter  could  stop  the  machine  when  they  like."  The 
speaker  said  he  hoped  that  the  men  intended  no  demonstration  on 
the  Tribune  or  any  other  establishment  in  New  York.  "  We  ask  for 
the  assistance  of  the  workingmen  of  the  city,"  he  said.  "  Let  them 
hold  meetings  in  every  ward  and  show  how  the  journeymen  printers 
are  used.  We  will  raise  $6,000  in  a  short  time,  and  that  will  help  the 
union.  I  am  unwilling  to  give  up  Horace  Greeley.  I  shall  not  do 
so,  for  I  certainly  believe  the  old  white-coated  philosopher  is  still 
among  the  journeymen  printers." 

Robert  Crowe,  of  the  Tailors'  Union,  said  they  had  not  met  to 
oppose  any  particular  firm  or  person,  but  merely  to  protect  the  work- 
ingmen in  their  rights.     He  spoke  of  the  conse- 
Resolutions       quences  of  a  contest  between  Labor  and  Capital, 
Expressing        and   believed    "  eternal   vigilance  "    would   be   the 
Sympathy.         price  of  Labor's  independence.     "  I  do  not  wish  to 
detract  from  him  who  has  been  the  noble  friend  of 
the  workingman  for  the  last  30  years  —  Horace  Greeley  —  but  even 
he  will  soon  learn  that  combination  is  essential  to  success,"  con- 
cluded the  speaker.     Addresses  were  also  made  by  President  Hard- 
ing, of  the  Workingmen's  Union,  and  several  others,  after  which 
the  assemblage  expressed  sympathy  with  the  printers  in  these  reso- 
lutions, which  were  carried  by  a  unanimous  vote: 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  29I 

Whereas,  Differences  and  difficulties  have  arisen  between  a  considerable  number 
of  the  employing  printers  of  this  city  and  those  employed  by  them,  with  regard 
to  the  justice  and  propriety  of  the  recent  advance  in  the  scale  of  prices  of  the 
New  York  Typographical  Union.  These  difficulties  have  been  caused  mainly 
by  the  refusal  of  the  former  to  comply  with  the  justice  of  its  demands  to  concur 
with  the  right  of  the  laborer  to  organize  for  the  purpose  of  fixing  an  equitable 
i^rice  for  his  labor. 

Therefore  be  it  resolved: — 

That  while  deprecating  a  resort  to  what  are  technically  called  strikes  for  trivial 
causes,  we  recognize  in  the  present  strike  good  and  sufficient  cause  therefor, 
and  that  we  hereby  pledge  ourselves  to  do  our  utmost  to  maintain  the  Typo- 
graphical Union  in  the  position  taken  by  it. 

That  as  the  manufacturer,  the  merchant,  and  the  publisher  have  an  undoubted 
right  to  fix  the  prices  of  their  products,  so  also  has  the  workingman  an  indisputable 
right  to  fix  the  price  of  his  labor. 

That  what  we  deemed  originally  to  be  a  difference  only  between  the  printers 
and  a  portion  of  their  employers  having  now  assumed  the  character  of  a  contest 
between  Capital  and  Labor,  thereby  making  it  the  cause  of  workingmen  generally, 
we  recommend  the  adoption  by  the  several  trades  unions  of  such  measures  as  will 
enable  them  to  act  in  harmony  for  the  protection  of  their  mutual  interests. 

That  we  hereby  recommend  that  the  workingmen  withhold  their  countenance 

and  support  from  such  employers  as  refuse  to  comply  with  their  just  demands 

or   to  recognize  their  right    to  organize   for   protection;   and   we  suggest  the 

propriety  of  an  interchange  of  such  information  as  will  lead  to  intelligent  action 

n  this  regard. 

As  the  controversy  proceeded  it  waxed  more  bitterful.     In  the 
editorial  columns  of  the  Tribune  Mr.  Greeley  continued  to  express 
his  views  of  the  strike  in  his  characteristic  style. 
"  The  journeymen  till  recently  employed  in  setting      Intimidation 
up  the  type  on  which  the  Tribune  is  printed,"  wrote      Charged  by 
he  on  August  20th,  "  saw  fit  to  quit  our  employment      Tribune, 
in  a  body  one  week  ago  last  night.     They  did  it 
without  notice,  at  the  (for  us)  most  inconvenient  hour  possible, 
when  our  daily  must  very  soon  go  to  press,  when  we  had  news  to 
put  quickly  into  type,  and  when  it  was  too  late  to  put  other  work- 
men in  their  places.     Though  we  think  they  treated  us  most  unfairly 
and  unjustly  we  made  no  complaint,  but  went  on  with  our  business 
as  best  we  could.     All  we  ask  of  those  who  thus  deserted  us  is  that 
they  stay  away,  and  not  infest  our  premises  to  annoy  us  and  frighten 
ofE  those  who  have  been  employed  by  us  in  their  stead,  and  who  are 
satisfied  with  our  wages,  as  we  are  with  their  work.     If  the  skulking 
assassins  who  dog  the  homeward  steps  of  our  new  journeymen  in  the 
small  hours  of  the  night,  in  order  to  fall  upon  them  unawares  in  some 
dark  comer,  and  there  deal  them  stealthy,  cowardly  blows,  will  only 
mind  their  own  business,  if  they  have  any,  we  shall  be  obliged;  if 


292  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

not,  they  will  be.  That's  all.  The  men  who  deserted  us  at  so  critical 
a  period,  expecting  to  bring  us  to  our  knees,  cannot  be  quiet.  They 
are  haunted  by  a  guilty  consciousness  that  they  have  taken  a  posi- 
tion which  nothing  can  justify  and  which  nothing  but  falsehood 
can  render  plausible.  Hence  a  Mr.  Holmes,  at  the  meeting  of 
Thursday  evening,  impudently  declared  the  advertisement  of  the 
Times  for  compositors  *  a  trick,*  knowing  better  all  the  time.  Mr. 
Jones,  the  Times  publisher,  has  already  repeatedly  stated  that 
there  was  no  trick  in  the  case — that  he  advertised  for  compositors 
because  he  wanted  them,  paid  us  our  regular  price  for  the  adver- 
tisement, and  went  his  way,  utterly  unsuspicious  of  wrong  or  offense, 
as  we  were.  That  advertisement  went  in  regular  course  to  our 
composing  room,  and  was  given  out  there  like  any  other  copy,  when 
the  compositor  who  received  it  read  it  to  his  fellows,  and  they 
instantly  resolved  that  it  should  be  suppressed  or  they  would  stop 
work.  Argument,  entreaty,  remonstrance,  were  wasted  upon  them; 
they  knocked  off  and  quit  the  office,  leaving  us  to  get  on  without 
them  as  we  might.  This  we  have  since  done,  and  intend  to  keep 
doing.  And  we  only  ask  of  those  who  left  us  so  unjustifiably  that 
they  keep  away.  We  have  always  hitherto  acceded  promptly  to 
each  scale  adopted  by  the  Printers'  Union,  and  have  paid  our  journey- 
men accordingly,  though  some  of  the  exactions  seemed  to  us  unreason- 
ably hard  on  us.  When,  two  weeks  since,  a  committee  of  the  union 
waited  on  us  with  the  newly-revised  scale,  we  asked  time  to  consider 
it  and  duly  responded  that  we  thought  it  too  high,  although 
we  were  willing  to  agree  to  a  fresh  advance  of  more  than  lo  per 
cent.  Notwithstanding  this,  the  new  scale  was  adopted,  and  we 
had  decided  and  agreed  to  try  it  temporarily  under 
Paid  Scale  protest.  But  our  journeymen  saw  fit  to  make  an 
Under  issue  with  us  on  another  point  —  one  which  we 

Protest.  could  neither  concede  or  compromise  —  so  we  had 

to  take  our  stand.  That  stand  we  purpose  to  main- 
tain. We  are  ready  now  and  henceforth  to  unite  with  our  fellow- 
employers  in  appointing  a  committee  of  three  or  more  persons  to 
meet  a  like  committee  from  the  journeymen  (we  mean  all  the  journey- 
men in  our  city),  and  any  scale  of  prices  and  office  regulations  which 
may  be  agreed  upon  by  a  majority  of  each  committee  we  will  accept 
and  abide  by  upon  a  distinct  understanding  that  it  can  only  be 
changed  by  the  concurrence  of  two  similar  committees  hereafter; 
but  no  scale  will  we  recognize  henceforth  which  is  made  by  journey- 
men alone.  If  we  are  not  entitled  to  at  least  an  equal  voice  with 
our   journeymen  —  much  more   with   other   joiurneymen  —  in   the 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER   WAGES.  293 

regulation  of  our  office,  we  will  quit  this  business  for  some  other 
wherein  we  shall  have  some  recognized  rights,  some  freedom  of  judg- 
ment and  of  action." 

Although  the  union  had  already  cautioned  its  Vigilance  Committee 
to  conduct  the  strike  in  the  most  orderly  manner, 
it  again  placed  itself  upon  record  on  August  20th    ^^^°^  Abhors 
as   being   utterly   out   of   sympathy   with   lawless    t  '^  ^,  ° 
behavior,  adopting  the  following: 

Whereas,  It  having  been  stated  in  one  of  the  papers  that  men  who  have  gone 
to  work  at  prices  below  those  asked  for  by  this  union  have  been  offered  violence, 
it  is  hereby 

Resolved,  That  while  Typographical  Union  No.  6  will  use  all  lawful  means  to 
have  the  prices  established  by  it  generally  paid,  the  union  at  the  same  time 
utterly  condemns  and  deprecates  all  attempts  at  violence  and  intimidation. 

Resolved,  That  the  members  of  this  union  call  upon  all  persons  friendly  to  their 
organization  to  discountenance  any  acts  that  may  tend  to  injure  the  good  name 
of  this  union  as  a  law-abiding  and  law-maintaining  body. 

From  its  first  issue  the  New  York  Daily  News,  the  publication  of 
which  was  commenced  by  Judge  Gideon  J.  Tucker  in  1855,  had 
upheld  the  principles  of  organized  labor  and  during 
the  1864  dispute  it  made  a  novel  suggestion  for  the    Daily  News 
promotion  of  industrial  peace.     "  We  see  to-day,"    Suggests  a 
its  editor  remarked,   "  clashes  that  ought  not  to    Unique  Remedy. 
exist  —  employers  arrayed  against  workingmen,  and 
workingmen  arrayed  even  one  against  another.     This  state  of  things 
we  anticipated  some  time  ago  as  a  sequence  from  the  depreciation 
of  the  currency,  and  look  forward  to  now,  as  certain  to  go  on  in 
aggravated  violence.     As  a  preventive  of  the  evil,  we  proposed  in 
former  issues  of  the  Daily  News  standing  committees  of  arbitration 
of  employers  and  employees  for  making,  from  day  to  day,  binding 
awards  on  all  questions  of  labor  arising  out  of  the  depreciations  that 
we  may  expect  to  go  on  rapidly  in  the  currency  through  the  fall  and 
winter.     The  Tribune  has,  we  observe,  felt  the  force  of  our  reasoning 
on  the  subject,  and  accepts  our  proposal  in  reference  to  the  difficulties 
of  the  printing  trade.      We  urge  it,  therefore,  upon  all  men  of  that 
calling  now  on  strike,  and  do  so  in  hope  that  both  parties  may  be 
benefited  —  the  one  saved  from  inconvenience  and  the  other  from 
privation."     Horace  Greeley  commented  in  the  Tribune  of  August 
23d  on  the  proposal  of  the  Daily  News.    "We  beg  the  News  to  be 
assured,"  he  said,  "  that  while  we  concur  most  heartily  in  the  above 
suggestions,  we  have  not  '  felt  the  force  of  its  reasoning '  very  severely, 
inasmuch  as  we  have  always  favored  what  that  journal  now  so 
forcibly  recommends.     We  joined  the  Printers'  Union  in  its  infancy 


294  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

on  the  understanding  that  it  was  to  be  an  organization  of  employing 
as  well  as  journeymen  printers,  to  the  precise  end  above  suggested. 
We  believe  it  was  no  fault  of  the  journeymen  that  it  became  one- 
sided in  its  character;  the  wrong  inheres  in  the  assumption  of  a 
right  by  one  party  to  a  bargain  to  make  both  sides  of  it.  We  believe 
in  good  wages  whenever  they  can  be  paid  (though 
Employers  ^g  think  smaller  better  than  none)   and  we  are 

--  .    ,    „  willing  to  pay  such  rates  for  composition  as  shall 

Union's  One-  -,,  it-^  .ta,. 

Sided  Course.     '^^  agreed  on  by  such  Jomt  Committee  of  Arbitration 

as  the  News  suggests.  It  is  not  of  so  much  moment 
to  us  that  the  rates  should  be  a  Httle  higher  or  lower  as  that  they  may 
be  uniform;  and  whenever  we  cannot  afford  to  pay  the  rates  estab- 
lished as  aforesaid  we  will  quit  the  business.  But  the  demand  that 
the  rates  to  be  fixed  for  printing  shall  be  fixed  by  the  journeymen 
alone  —  and  not  even  by  all  the  journeymen,  but  by  a  minority  — 
is  utterly  inadmissible.  One  evil  consequence  is  flagrant  inequality, 
where  equality  is  palpably  required.  The  rates  recently  decreed  by 
the  Printers'  Union  are  notoriously  not  paid  to  one-third  of  the 
journeymen  now  at  work  in  our  city.  They  are  not  paid  by  a 
majority  of  the  morning  journals,  and  we  presume  not  of  the  evening 
journals  either.  They  are  unreasonably  hard  on  newspaper  as 
compared  to  bookwork.  In  short,  they  are  just  such  as  might  be 
expected  when  one  class  attempts  to  dictate  respecting  matters 
wherein  other  classes  are  equally  interested  and  have  equal  rights. 
They  cannot  be  maintained,  because  they  should  not  be." 

The  union  on  the  twenty-fourth  of  August  ordered  that  (as  several 
newspapers  had  recommended  that  Committees  of  Conference  be  ap- 
pointed by  both  journeymen  and  employers  for  the 
Conference        purpose  of  adjusting  the  difhculties  in  the  printing 
Committee        business,  declaring  that  "  it  has  always  been  the 
Appointed.         policy  of  this  union,  where  any  disposition  has  been 
shown  to  be  so  met,  to  appoint  such  committee,") 
seven  representatives  of  the  organization  be  chosen  to  act  for  the 
journeymen  in  any  conference  that  might  be  arranged  by  both  sides. 
Not  much  was  accomplished  by  these  seven  conferees.     They  met  on 
August   27  th  and  received  letters  from  Horace   Greeley  and  the 
secretary  of  the  Employing  Printers'  Association,  whose  official  stated 
that  the  latter  could  only  accept  the  terms  theretofore  proposed, 
while  the  Tribune's  editor  said  that  he  was  favorable  to  an  amicable 
arbitration.     After  a  lengthy  deliberation  the  committee  decided 
to  recommend  the  following  scale  of  prices  for  book  and  job  work: 
Manuscript,  50  cents  per  1,000  ems;  reprint,  47  cents  per  1,000  ems; 
time  work,  day,  33  cents  per  hour,  night  45  cents  per  hour;  week 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  295 

work,  $18.  That  schedule  was  accepted  by  the  union,  which  subse- 
quently lowered  its  prices  on  newspapers  to  the  following  basis: 
Morning,  55  cents  per  1,000  ems,  or  $24  per  week,  eleven  hours  per 
day  (afternoon  and  night),  $20  a  week  for  night  work  only;  evening 
and  weekly,  45  cents  per  1,000  ems,  or  $18  per  week.  These  became 
the  prevailing  wage  rates  and  were  paid  by  nearly  all  the  printing 
firms  in  the  city. 

The  Times,  which  on  August  14th  at  first  refused  to  pay  60  cents 
per  1,000  ems,  but  a  few  hours  later  on  the  same  date  acceded,  on 
September    17th    summarily   discharged   its   union 

compositors  and  installed  a  new  set  of  printers  in  Times 

Disclid.rGr6S 
their   places.     Enclosed   in   an   envelope   with   his      j^^  Union 

week's  earnings  each  of  the  locked-out  men  found  Compositors, 
a  note  stating  that  neither  his  nor  the  services  of 
any  union  man  were  longer  required  in  that  establishment.  Other 
large  newspapers  were  also  lost  to  the  union,  the  membership  of 
which  dwindled  in  fifteen  months  to  a  figure  below  that  recorded  at 
the  end  of  the  first  year  of  its  existence  and  which  has  never  since 
reached  so  low  an  ebb.  At  the  convention  of  the  National  Typo- 
graphical Union  in  1865  the  delegates  from  New  York  reported  that 
Union  No.  6  had  begun  to  repair  the  "  damages  sustained  in  its 
defeat  last  fall." 

For  several  years  the  Tribune  was  operated  under  the  open-shop 
system.     Union   compositors   obtained   situations   there,    and   two 
chapels,  one  consisting  of  organization  men  and  the 
other  of  non-members  —  each  having  a  chairman         ^^     1,  . 
and   its   own   set   of   regulations  —  conducted   the    Relations  with 
trade  affairs  of  the  composing  department.^     Grad-    Greeley. 
ually  Horace  Greeley  and  his  old  employees  became 
reconciled,  feelings  of  mutual  affection  and  good  will  for  each  other 
were  renewed,  and,  prior  to  1870,  the  Tribune  was  again  placed  upon 
the  union's  list  of  fair  offices,  remaining  there  until  some  five  years 
after  the  demise  of  the  celebrated  editor  and  reformer.      The  Times 
and  other  newspapers,  besides  many  book  and  job  offices,  were  also 
eventually  regained  by  the  associated  typographers. 

s  The  union  chairman  of  the  Tribune  chapel  was  Francis  L.  Fitzpatrick,  through  whose  efforts 
negotiations  that  finally  led  to  an  adjustment  of  the  dispute  were  opened  with  the  management 
of  that  newspaper.  Although  born  in  1838,  Mr.  Fitzpatrick  is  still  actively  engaged  at  the  printing 
business,  being  a  compositor  on  the  day  force  of  the  New  York  Herald.  A  native  of  Ireland,  he 
came  in  childhood  to  the  United  States  with  his  parents,  who  settled  in  New  York  City,  where 
he  was  educated  in  the  public  schools.  After  completing  his  term  as  apprentice  in  the  office  of 
John  A.  Gray  he  united  with  Typographical  Union  No.  6  on  February  7,  1863,  and  since  then  has 
been  a  continuous  member,  representing  the  union  in  1880  at  the  International  Typographical 
Union  convention  in  Chicago,  serving  on  the  Deliberative  Committee  of  the  New  York  association 
from  i86s  to  1868,  and  also  performing  duties  on  other  important  committees. 


296  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

XII. 

Book  and  Job  Dispute  in   1  869. 

With  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  the  Typographical  Union  made  an 

extraordinary  effort  to  strengthen  its  ranks,  and  at  the  opening  of 

1869  it  had,  in  a  period  of  less  than  four  years, 

Distinction         increased  its  membership  by  more  than  600  per 

Between  cent.     These  recruits  came  for  the  most  part  from 

anuscrip         ^^^  book  and  job  branch  of  the  printing  trade,  and 

and  Reprint        .  ..,/,,  .  _  , 

Eliminated.        ^^  was  decided  by  the  umon  on  January  19th  to  put 

into  operation  an  amended  scale  of  prices  for  their 
benefit.  Aside  from  the  wage  increases  in  this  new  schedule  the 
prominent  feature  was  the  elimination  of  all  distinction  between 
manuscript  and  reprint,  and  instead  differentiating  between  leaded 
and  soUd  matter.  Briefly,  the  rates  sought  were:  Works  done  in 
the  English  language,  common  matter,  manuscript  or  reprint :  Solid 
composition,  54  cents  per  1,000  ems;  matter  leaded  with  eight-to-pica 
and  less  than  four-to-pica  leads,  52  cents;  with  four-to-pica  or 
thicker  leads,  50  cents;  under  eight-to-pica,  to  count  as  solid. 
Pearl  and  diamond  5  cents  additional.  Compositors  employed 
on  time  to  receive  not  less  than  $20  per  week  of  59  hours.  Cor- 
responding increases  were  provided  for  works  in  foreign  lan- 
guages and  for  extras  of  various  kinds.  These  projected  advances, 
the  maximum  of  which  on  piecework  was  7  cents  per  1,000  ems 
and   $2   on  week  work  over  the  rates  of    1864,   were  scheduled 

to  take  effect  on  Monday,  January  25th.     Many 

Demand  for        small  offices  and  a  considerable  number  of  large 

_*^  .^^^  .  ones  granted  the  demands  on  that  date,  and  in 

Precipitates  a  ^^  ' 

Strike.  establishments  where  employers  would  not  consent 

to  the  changes  strikes  were  ordered,  about  500 
compositors  being  called  out.  From  day  to  day  other  concerns 
conceded  the  increases,  but  some  of  the  largest  printing  firms  in  the 
city,  comprising  an  association  called  the  Typothetas,  which  origi- 
nated in  1862,7  held  out  against  the  requirements  of  the  united  ty pog- 


'"Oneof  the  most  Important  labors  undertaken  by  him  [Peter  Carpenter  Baker]  was  the 
formation  of  a  society  of  master  printers.  With  one  exception,  none  had  ever  previously 
existed  in  this  country,  the  exception  being  one  in  Boston  in  the  early  part  of  the  century.  In 
this  work,  in  which  he  '  builded  better  than  he  knew,'  he  succeeded,  conjointly  with  Mr.  Theo- 
dore L.  DeVinne,  in  establishing  a  society  which  now  exists  in  every  large  city  in  the  Union, 
and  which  has  been  imitated  even  as  far  away  as  Australia.  The  heavy  taxation  and  the 
depreciated  currency  of  the  country  during  the  Civil  War,  together  with  the  number  of  persons 
who  had  gone  into  service,  and  the  unequal  burden  of  affairs  upon  the  public,  had  altered  all 
the  prices  which  were  current  before  the  struggle  began,  and  rendered  correct  estimates  impos- 
sible upon  the  former  basis.     Mr.  Baker  and  Mr.  DeVinne  saw  that  there  would  be  no  way  out 


MOVEMENTS    FOR   HIGHER   WAGES.  297 

raphers.  The  organization  of  employers  met  on  January  29th. 
W.  C.  Martin,  the  chairman,  suggested  that  whatever  the  meeting 
might  do  the  proprietors  should  merely  stand  on  the  reasonableness 
of  their  course,  and  not  as  taking  any  antagonistic  position  apart 
from  what  the  journeymen  had  done,  but  to  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  their  demand  could  not  be  acceded  to  on  account  of  the  situa- 
tion of  the  trade.  He  considered  that  it  was  "  not  a  fitting  time 
to  spring  any  advanced  scale  of  prices  on  us,  and  certainly  not  the 
kind  of  a  scale  that  has  such  objectionable  features  as  the  present 
one  possesses." 

C.  A.  Alvord  said  the  journeymen  printers  "  had  formed  an  asso- 
ciation some  time  ago  to  manage  journe3mien  and  masters  also. 
Through  the  indiscretion  of  masters  they  had  suc- 
ceeded in  making  the  society  greater  than  it  would    Xypothetae  Will 
have  been  if  the  employers  had  not  parted  with  so    Not  Treat  with 
much  of  their  rights.     Now  these  men  ask  this    Typographical 
advance  as  highwaymen  solicited  on  the  high  road,    ^^o^i' 
They  gave  us  no  notice  or  time  for  a  consideration 
of  the  matter.     On  Monday  morning  the  new  scale  was  presented, 
and  on  Monday  morning  it   went  into  effect  —  that  is,  they  all 
struck.     The  compositors  alone  are  not  involved  in  this.     Pressmen, 
stereotypers  and  others  will  all  have  their  terms,  and  there  is  danger 
even  of  all  manufacturing  interests  being  affected  by  a  movement 
of  this  kind.     It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  the  prices  paid  journey- 
men printers  in  New  York  are  much  higher  than  in  any  other  city 
of  the  Union.      The  effect  of  this  movement  will  be  to  send  the 
business  to  provincial  towns,  where  the  work  can  be  done  cheaper. 
We  can  get  our  printing  done  now  in  Boston,  Cambridge,  or  even  in 
Albany  for  from  25  to  50  per  cent  cheaper  than  in  New  York." 

This  declaration  was  then  adopted: 

Whereas,  The  Printers'  Union  of  this  city,  regardless  of  right  and  courtesy, 
have  attempted  through  a  secretly  premeditated  strike,  the  enforcement  of  an 
obnoxious  scale  of  prices ;  therefore 

Resolved,  That  in  all  future  conferences  on  the  subject  of  wages  or  trade  rules 
we  will  treat  with  no  committee  from  the  Printers'  Union. 


of  their  difBculties  unless  the  employing  printers  could  be  brought  together.  This  was  done  late 
in  the  season  of  1862,  but  before  spring  came  on  the  organization,  which  it  was  then  determined 
should  be  permanent,  was  still  further  crystallized.  Its  members  dined  together  at  the  Metro- 
politan Hotel  in  March,  1S63,  and  the  body  assumed  the  title  of  the  Typothetse.  The  pressure 
of  that  day  compelled  their  attention  to  be  turned  almost  solely  to  financial  considerations,  but 
the  society  then  founded,  with  its  sister  societies,  has  since  taken  up  every  question  relating  to 
the  improvement  of  the  art  and  the  elevation  of  those  who  follow  it,  together  with  the  consid- 
eration of  the  technical  matters  that  are  involved." — W.  W.  Pasko,  "  Old  New  York,"  Volume 
II.  pages  333-4- 


298  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 


Views  of 


Approval  of  the  appended  circular  to  the  public, 
,       which  had  been  prepared  by  a  committee,  was  a 
Association       P^^^  °^  *^®  business  transacted  at  the  employers' 
meeting : 

The  employing  printers  of  the  City  of  New  York  have  determined  that  they 
will  not  accede  to  the  demands  of  the  Printers'  Union. 

They  believe  that  the  times  do  not  justify  an  advance  upon  the  high  prices 
paid  for  two  or  more  years  past.  Their  patrons  generally  are  looking  for  a  fall 
rather  than  a  rise  in  prices,  and  the  employers  do  not  feel  at  liberty  to 
increase  the  cost  of  printing. 

Besides  they  know  from  past  experience  that  if  they  should  accede  to  the 
demands  of  the  compositors  the  publishers  would  not  be  willing  to  pay  the  addi- 
tional rate,  especially  as  they  claim  that  they  are  enabled 
Recognize  Difference  to  contract  for  work  in  other  cities  at   considerably  lower 
Between  Leaded         prices  than  New  York  printers  are  compelled  to  ask.     While 
and  Solid  Matter.       ^j^g  employers   do   not  deem   it  possible  to  submit  to  the 
unreasonable  and  absurd  exactions  of  the  Printers'  Union, 
yet  they  are  willing  to  recognize  the  difiference  in  leaded  and  solid  matter,  and 
to  allow  3  cents  per   1,000  ems  additional  for  the  latter;  and  while  distinctly 
claiming  the  necessity  for  discriminating  in  respect  to  the  competency  of  work- 
men, yet  they  are  willing  to  pay  $20  per  week  (as  most  have  been  paying)  for 
all  hands  who  are  able  to  earn  so  much  and  they  will  pay  more  or  less  than  this  sum, 
depending  entirely  upon  the  expertness  of  the  compositors  employed.     The  em- 
ployers regret  that  any  of  the  book  and  job  compositors  of  this  city  should  have 
been  induced  to  leave  their  places  at  this  time.     They  believe  that  the  prices  paid 
average  as  high  as  those  of  any  other  mechanical  calling  and  that  the  men  were 
doing  as  well  as  at  any  previous  time;  and  if  it  be  true,  as  claimed  by  the  Printers' 
Union,  that  they  have  a  fund  of  many  thousands  of  dollars,  and  that  they  can  remain 
idle  for  a  long  time,  no  better  evidence  than  this  can  be  offered  to  satisfy  any  one 
that  the  rates  heretofore  paid  have  not  been  too  low.     The  employing  printers 
entertain  none  but  friendly  feelings  towards  the  compositors  and  they  trust 
they  may  decide  to  return  to  their  places  without  further  loss  of  time,  at  the  usual 
rates,  with  the  increase  for  solid  matter  as  proposed.     A  few  years  since,  when 
the  very  highest  war  rates  ruled,  we  accepted  a  scale  of  prices  from  the  com- 
positors, since  which  time  we  have  abated  nothing,  but,  on  the  contrary,  have 
in  many  cases  voluntarily  and  in  others  from  their  impor- 
Reduction  in         tunity  advanced  all  occupying  positions  of  any  responsibility 
Prices  of  very  materially,  while  at  the  same  time  the  prices  of  family 

ecessi  les.  necessities,  dry  goods,  groceries,  clothing,  etc.,  have  been 

gradually  falling,  so  much  so  that  one  of  the  heaviest  dry 
goods  houses  in  the  city  is  said  to  have  lost  over  $3,000,000  in  1868  from  depre- 
ciation. Indeed  it  is  a  fact  that  a  family  can  be  respectably  supported  at  the 
present  time  in  this  city  at  a  less  cost  than  in  any  of  the  smaller  towns,  notwith- 
standing the  item  of  house  rent  is  much  higher  here,  and  yet  we  pay  our  com- 
positors 25  per  cent  more  than  is  paid  in  smaller  places. 

Many  of  us  have  contracts  running  from  three  to  twelve  months  predicated 
upon  prices  which  we  had  no  reason  to  suppose  would  be  otherwise  than  satis- 
factory so  long  as  general  matters  should  remain  as  they  were;  and  yet  the  com- 
positors spring  this  trap  upon  us  in  an  instant,  giving  us  no  time  for  deliberation. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  299 

but  with  the  scale  in  one  hand  and  the  strike  in  the  other,  it  is,  with  an  assumption 
of  fairness,  "  your  money  or  your  life,"  and  at  once. 

Demagogues  talk  of  the  tyranny  of  Capital.  Never  yet  did  Capital  in  this 
country  attempt  such  an  act  of  tyranny  as  this;  but  Labor  has  done  it  periodically 
and  the  periods  are  shortening. 

This  counter  scale  was  then  adopted: 

Prices    for    composition,    distribution    and    correction  —  Counter 

Scale 
free  from  all  charges  for  making  up,  matter  to  be  cleared  Adopted. 

away  by  the  office: 

Reprint.  Manuscript. 

Per  1,000  Ems.  Solid.  Leaded.  Solid.  Leaded. 

English  and  German,  common  matter |o .  47  |o .  44  $0.50  Jo .  47 

Latin,  common  matter 0.50  0.47  0.58  0.55 

French,  Spanish,  Italian  or  Portuguese 0.52  0.49  0.60  0.57 

All  matter  leaded  with  a  thinner  than  eight-to-pica  shall  rate  as  solid. 

When  compositors  make  up  their  own  matter  they  shall  be  entitled  to  3  cents 
additional  on  the  above  prices  and  shall  unlead  and  clear  away  their  own 
matter. 

In  consideration  of  the  compositors  being  released  from  unleading  and  clearing 
away  of  dead  matter  and  of  the  advance  in  the  price  of  solid  matter,  the  office 
shall  be  entitled  to  claim  and  count  all  blanks  composed  by  the  maker-up. 

The  compositor  shall  make  his  work  correct  to  copy.  All  alterations  from  copy 
in  proof  shall  be  paid  on  time. 

Type  larger  than  pica  to  be  measured  as  pica. 

Pearl  and  diamond  5  cents  per  i  ,000  ems  extra. 

Ten  hours  shall  be  considered  a  day's  work. 

Compositors  employed  by  the  week  will  be  paid  according  to  their  capacity 
by  special  agreement,  $20  per  week  being  considered  a  fair  price  for  an  expert 
workman. 

Compositors  employed  by  the  hour  in  alterations  or  other  time  work  will  be 
paid  at  the  rate  of  35  cents  per  hour;  if  for  ten  consecutive  hours  at  the  usual  rate 
per  week. 

When  compositors  are  required  to  do  work  out  of  regular  hours  they  shall  be 
paid  at  an  advance  of  one-third  upon  the  price  of  day  work,  from  6  to  10  o'clock 
p.  M.,  including  half  hour  allowed  for  supper;  and  at  an  advance  of  one-half  on 
the  price  of  day  work  for  all  work  after  10  o'clock. 

Distributing  of  plain  English  matter  shall  be  paid  at  12  cents  per  1,000  ems. 

Assembling  on  January  31st  the  Executive  Committee  of  the 
Typothetae  received  the  report  of  a  special  committee  appointed 
to  consider  the  propriety  of  excluding  all  union  men 
from  the  offices  of  the  associated  employers  and   Propriety  of 
postponed  action  to  a  subsequent  date,  when  the   Excluding  Union 
resolution  was  modified  so  as  to  provide  that  a    ^®^  Considered. 
committee  of  three  be  empowered  to  consult  with 
master  printers  as  to  the  advisability  of  retaining  union  printers 
in  their  service.     It  was  determined  to  offer  more  active  and  positive 


300  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

resistance  to  the  strike,  and  an  amount  in  excess  of  $10,000  was  at 
once  subscribed  to  further  such  object,  while  measures  were  adopted 
for  obtaining  an  additional  sum  from  absent  proprietors  who  were 
in  sympathy  with  this  plan  of  warfare. 

By  February  5th  the  Typographical  Union  had  succeeded  in  induc- 
ing 79  establishments  to  pay  its  revised  scale  of  prices,  among  these 
being  the  large  offices  of  Harper  &  Brothers,  Appleton  &  Co.,  Metho- 
dist Book  Concern,  Metropolitan  Book  and  Job,  Evening  Post  Book, 
Bradstreet's,  Dun  &  Co.,  the  Bible  House,  Nesbitt  &  Co.,  and  the  New 
York  Printing  Co.     It  having  been  reported  in  the  newspapers  that 
the  organized  employing  printers  had  met  on  February  17  th  "  and 
perfected  a  new  scale  of  prices,  which  will  be  submitted  for  the 
consideration  of  the  compositors  on  strike,  this  scale  not  differing 
materially  from  that  previously  offered,  except  in 
Journeymen's     minor  details,"  prompted  the  following  statement 
Side  of  the  (published  in  the  Tribune  of  February  19th)  from 

Controversy.       ^  union  printer,  whose  remarks  voiced  the  sentiments 
of  the  typographical  organization : 

A  statement  of  the  strike  of  the  printers  in  this  morning's  paper  is  calculated 
to  mislead  the  public  on  a  very  important  point,  and  I  ask  the  indulgence  of 
your  columns  to  refute  it.  It  says  that  the  employers  at  their  meeting  yesterday 
perfected  a  scale  of  prices,  previously  offered  to  the  journeymen,  but  which  was 
rejected,  and  will  be  again  submitted  to  them  for  adoption.  Now,  the  point 
I  wish  to  explain  and  deny  is  this :  In  the  first  place  no  scale  of  prices  has  been 
offered  by  the  employers  to  the  men  on  strike.  It  is  true  that  a  scale  was  made 
and  published  and  advertised,  but  by  the  passage  of  the  resolution  at  the  Astor 
House  some  two  weeks  ago  that  the  Typothetae  would  have  no  dealing  or  com- 
munication with  the  union  the  employers  effectually  locked  their  scale  up  in  a 
strong  box,  placed  it  out  of  the  reach  of  all  journeymen  printers,  and  virtuallj'- 
offered  it  to  "  rats  "  only. 

Now  doubtless  they  will  again  offer  it  by  the  same  means.  This  they  will 
find  is  futile.  No  journeymen  can  be  approached  nor  any  offer  be  received  except 
through  the  medium  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  and  the  union  cannot  be 
reached  by  any  advertisement,  but  only  by  a  manly  action  on  the  part  of  the 
employers,  rescinding  the  resolution  above  referred  to  and  then  sending  a  com- 
mittee for  a  conference.  Until  this  course  is  taken  all  statements  that  a  scale 
has  been  offered  to  the  strikers  is  false;  and  by  their  own  action  the  employers 
have  shut  off  the  only  means  by  which  a  conclusion  of  the  strike  can  be  accom- 
plished at  any  scale,  either  that  of  the  union  or  that  advertised  for  the  "  rats." 

The  whole  thing  is  simply  this:  The  employers  know  and  have  felt  and  tested 
the  strength  of  the  union  and  they  cannot  bring  themselves  to  acknowledge  it, 
after  the  very  dignified  position  they  took  at  the  opening  of  the  strike;  yet  I 
fear,  before  they  see  the  end  of  it  they  will  have  to  own  up  that  our  position  was 
equally  good  and  that  we  had  the  advantage  of  right  on  our  side,  for  we  have 
never  in  any  way  intimated  that  we  would  not  receive  and  listen  to  a  committee 
from  their  august  body,  while  their  first  action  was  a  deliberate  insult  to  a  respect- 
able body  of  citizens  incorporated  into  an  association  by  the  laws  of  our  State. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR   HIGHER    WAGES.  301 


Issues  Second 
Address. 


On    February    17  th    the   association   of   master 
printers  resolved  to  issue  another  address  to  the    Jypot^etae 
public,    and   on   the    19th   published   these   views 
of  the  situation  from  the  employers'  standpoint: 

This  is  the  fourth  week  of  the  "  union  "  strike.  Both  parties  we  believe  are 
now  better  fitted  to  judge  of  its  merits.  We  were  never  consulted  about  the 
union  rules  and  prices.  The  scale  of  prices  we  discussed  in  joint  committee 
is  not  the  scale  of  prices  now  demanded.  We  hold  that  it  takes  two  parties  to 
make  a  bargain,  and  object  to  the  enforcement  of  rules,  in  making  which 
we  have  not  even  had  the  chance  to  express  an  opinion.  The  prices  are  unreason- 
able and  made  in  the  interest  of  poor  workmen;  for  who  but  a  poor  workman 
would  wish  to  abolish  the  distinction  between  manuscript  and  reprint  to  be 
exempted  from  the  correction  of  his  errors  by  the  limitation  of  one  proof — to 
require  the  aid  of  a  union  in  enforcing  his  claim  for  $20  a  week,  when  it  is  a  well- 
known  fact  that  that  price  has  for  a  long  time  been  readily  paid  by  the  employers 
to  good  workmen? 

Attempt  was  made  to  enforce  prices  not  by  argument  or  persuasion,  but  by  a 
surprise  and  coercion.  We  had  been  assured  that  there  was  no  intention  to 
strike  —  that  in  all  future  attempts  at  change  of  prices  compositors  would  rely 
on  reason  and  justice  only.  And  yet,  regardless  of  our.existing  contracts,  regard- 
less of  all  courtesy  and  all  justice,  the  union  deliberately  planned  the  best  method 
of  attaining  its  ends  by  coercion.  We  regard  this  action  of  the  union  as  bad 
faith  and  bad  manners.  We  can  yield  nothing  to  force.  We  ask  reflecting  men 
to  compare  the  prices  we  offer  to  those  of  the  union.  Calculate  the  difference  in  a 
week's  work  between  both  scales.  Will  it  pay,  either  in  money  or  in  any  other 
way,  to  sustain  this  strike?  So  far  we  have  acted  mainly  on  the  defensive.  We 
have  trusted  to  the  returning  good  sense,  to  the  sober  second  thought  of  the 
compositors  in  the  belief  that  they  would  see  that  this  strike  was  as  unwise  in 
its  plan  as  it  was  unjust  in  its  execution.  It  is  for  you  to  decide  whether  the  next 
six  months  shall  see  a  supply  of  compositors,  largely  in  excess  of  the  demand, 
competing  with  each  other  for  employment  on  a  declining  market  for  labor. 

Soon  after  the  inception  of  the  dispute  the  Adams  Pressmen's 
Association    volunteered    to    support    the    compositors,    "  heartily 
sympathizing  with  the  members  of  Typographical 
Union  No.  6  in  their  movement  to  sectire  reasonable     Pressmen 
living  wages,"  and  resolving  upon  the  appointment       ^™^^    ^^® 
of  a  committee  of  five  to  consult  with  that  associa-      Compositors. 
tion  "  on  such  measures  as  are  calctilated  to  aid 
said  union  in  its  pending  movement."     Means  to  conduct  the  strike 
were  needed  by  the  Typographical  Union  at  the  opening  of  the  fifth 
week  of  the  conflict,  and  having  directed  its  president  "  to  make  an 
appeal  to  all  sister  unions  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  National 
Typographical  Union  for  a  financial  loan  to  the  extent  of  their  means 
to  enable  us  to  carry  the  strike  to  a  successful  issue,"  the  following 
communication    was    on    February   25  th  addressed  by   President 
William  Stirk  to  other  unions  of  printers  for  financial  assistance : 


302  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

The  strike  of  the  book  and  job  compositors  of  this  city,  which  was  inaugurated 

on  Monday,  January  25th,  is  now  in  its  fifth  week.     During  this  time  all  the  offices 

in  this  city,  with  the  exception  of  Messrs.  Gray  &  Green's, 

Appeal  for  and  some  six  or  seven  firms  connected  with  the  Typothetae 

Financial  —  an  association  of  employing  printers  —  have  acceded  to 

ssis  ance.         ^^^  advanced  scale,  and  have  been  paying  the  same  since  the 

first  and  second  weeks  of  the  strike.     We  have  had  over  200 

men  on  relief  list  each  week,  and  have  so  far  expended  something  over  $9,000. 

Our  members  at  work  have  taxed  themselves  heavily;  but  notwithstanding  this 

our  disbursements  are  so  far  in  excess  of  our  receipts  that  we  are  now  compelled 

to  solicit  a  financial  loan  from  our  sister  unions,  to  the  extent  of  their  ability, 

to  enable  us  to  carry  the  strike  to  a  successful  termination.      The  members  of 

our  union  have  held  together,  staunch  and  true,  with  very  few  exceptions.     The 

offices  on  strike  are  receiving  but  very  slight  additions  to  their  working  force, 

as  we  succeed  in  getting  men  out  as  fast  as  they  get  them  in. 

Whatever  loan  your  society  can  accommodate  us  with  will  be  remitted  as 
soon  as  possible  after  the  present  difficulty  is  settled.  The  success  of  the  strike 
is  as  much  the  interest  of  our  sister  unions  as  it  is  with  us,  for  success  with  us 
will  show  employers  how  useless  it  will  be  for  them  to  combine  against  the  just 
demands  of  Labor;  and  the  moral  influence  will  be  so  felt  throughout  the  trade 
that  it  will  encourage  the  unions  in  other  cities  to  make  a  demand  approximating 
the  prices  of  New  York." 

From  Cambridge,  Mass.,  on  March  ist,  the  New  York  union 
received  a  telegram  stating  that  the  new  scale  demanded  by  the 
printers  of  that  city  had  been  complied  with  and  that  thereafter 
they  would  receive  45  cents  and  47  cents  per  1,000  ems,  which  was 
said  to  represent  an  advance  of  10  cents  a  thousand  over  the  old 
scale.  One  of  the  strongest  arguments  urged  by  employers  against 
the  strike  in  New  York  was  that  Boston  and  Cambridge  employing 
printers  were  paying  their  old  prices,  and  that  on  this  account  much 
of  the  work  of  the  Metropolis  had  been  drawn  to  the  two  Massachu- 
setts cities.  News  of  this  character  tended  to  change  the  situation, 
and  late  in  March  there  were  indications  that  the 
Mutual  strike  was  about  to  terminate  owing  to  the  fact  that 

Concessions  three  of  the  leading  representatives  of  the  Typothe- 
Settle  Strike.  ^  ^^^^(j  g^  private  conference  with  the  officers  of 
the  Typographical  Union  on  the  2 2d  of  that  month, 
when  it  was  said  a  spirit  of  mutual  concession  prevailed  between  the 
two  sides  to  the  controversy.  This  was  verified  on  April  5th,  at 
which  time  it  was  officially  stated  that  an  amicable  adjustment  had 
been  acquiesced  in  by  the  committees  of  employers  and  joumejinen, 
the  former  agreeing  to  an  advance  in  the  piece  scale  above  that 
which  they  had  proposed  at  the  beginning,  but  slightly  below  the 

'  The  appeal  for  funds  was  successful,  Albany  Typographical  Union  alone  having  sent  I250 
and  placed  the  remainder  of  the  funds  in  its  treasury  (Si, 600)  at  the  disposal  of  the  New  York 
union;  and  on  September  6,  1870,  the  president  of  the  latter  announced  that  all  the  money  that 
had  been  loaned  to  it  by  different  organizations  during  the  strike  of  1869  had  been  refunded. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  303 

amounts  demanded  by  the.  compositors,  to  pay  $20  per  week  to  time 

hands,  and  to  recognize  the  union.     This  compromise  having  been 

ratified  by  the  parent  bodies,  the  workmen  who  had 

been  on  strike  returned  to  their  employment,  and      Compromise 

on  April  27th  the  Conference  Committee  met  again      on  Scale 

and  completed  the  details  of  the  settlement,  the  im-      °^  Prices. 

portant  portions  of  the  scale  being  as  follows,  the 

union  waiving  its  demand  for  the  abolition  of  the  distinction  between 

manuscript  and  reprint  copy: 

Composition  on  bookwork  for  common  matter  made  up:  Works  in  English  — 
manuscript,  solid  53  cents  per  1,000  ems,  leaded  50  cents;  reprint,  solid  50  cents, 
leaded  47  cents.  Foreign  languages  —  manuscript,  solid  from  62  cents  to  $2  per 
1,000  ems,  leaded  from  58  cents  to  $1.95;  reprint,  solid  57  cents  to  $1.95,  leaded 
53  cents  to  $1.90. 

Dictionaries,  concordances,  indexes,  etc. ,  5  cents  extra  per  i  ,000  ems ;  arithmetics, 
grammars,  etc.,  locents  extra;  algebras  with  profusion  of  signs, etc.,  socents  extra. 

Extra  prices  for  narrow  measure,  ranging  from  i  cent  per  1,000  ems  for  18 
ems  to  50  cents  for  6  ems. 

Book  and  job  compositors  by  the  week,  $20;  ten  hours  per  day,  nine  hours 
on  Saturday. 

Piece  hands  working  occasionally  on  time,  casing  letter,  correcting  alterations 
from  copy,  etc.,  35  cents  per  hour. 

Overtime,  50  cents  per  hour,  or  10  cents  an  hour  in  addition  to  matter  com- 
posed. 

Sunday  work,  70  cents  per  hour  in  daytime  and  $1  an  hour  at  night;  piece- 
workers double  price. 

Holiday  prices,  by  mutual  agreement. 

The  Joint  Conference  Committee  was  composed  of  M.  B.  Wynkoop, 
John  F.  Trow,  E.  O.  Jenkins,  Theodore  L.  DeVinne,  R.  H.  Smith, 
for  the  Typothetas,  and  John  Wood,  William  Egan,  William  Stirk, 
Joshua  E.  Williams,  William  Philp,  for  Typographical  Union  No.  6. 
The  conferees  also  inserted  these  provisions  in  the  scale: 

This  scale  shall  not  be  altered  except  by  a  call  for  a  mutual  conference  between 
a  joint  committee  of  employers  and  journeymen,  and  no  alterations  shall  take 
effect  except  upon  one  month's  notice  by  either  party  to  the  other,  unless  by 
mutual  consent. 

In  case  of  dispute  as  to  the  meaning  or  intention  of  any  part  of  this  scale,  it 
shall  be  settled  by  reference  to  a  joint  committee  of  employers  and  journeymen. 

In  his  opening  address  to  the  National  Typographical    Union 

which  convened  in  Albany  in  June,  1869,  President 

Robert  McKechnie  threw  additional  light  upon  the  l^^!:^  ^^.°"*  ^ 
TVT        Tr     1    1       1  1   •  ,         •  ,        .1  T^  strike  Given  by 

New  York  book  and  job  printers   strike.     He  gave   National 

the  following  details  in  regard  to  the  long  contro-   President. 

versy,  and  in  the  course  of  his  remarks  suggested  a 

plan  for  the  inauguration  of  industrial  peace : 


304  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

The  strike  in  New  York,  which  occurred  in  January  last,  was  confined  to  the 
book  and  job  branches  of  the  trade,  and  lasted  eleven  weeks.     The  strongest 
argument  used  by  the  employers  against  the  demand  of  the  union  was  that  its 
concession  on  their  part  would  on  account  of  the  low  price  of  composition  in 
the  Eastern  States,  particularly  in  Boston  and  Cambridge,  Mass.,  cause  pub- 
lishers and  others  to  give  their  work  to  those  places,  and  thereby  destroy  the 
market  in  New  York.     An  examination  into  the  matter  has  demonstrated  that 
this  had  no  foundation  in  fact.    There  are  no  large  book  ofhces  in  Boston. 
The  class  of  work  in  the  above  branch  of  the  trade  done  there  is  chiefly  pamphlet 
work,  which  is  always  wanted  in  haste,  and  pays  a  good 
Cambridge  Could     price    everywhere.      In    Cambridge    there    are    three  large 
Not  Perform  book   offices,   viz:     The   University   Press,  Riverside  Press 

New  York  Work.  ^^^  Wilson  &  Son.  They  are  kept  constantly  employed 
on  work  belonging  to  that  section.  The  University  Press  is 
almost  entirely  employed  by  the  well-known  publishing  house  of  Ticknor  & 
Fields,  of  Boston;  the  Riverside  Press  is  owned  and  run  by  Hurd  &  Houghton, 
who  do  their  own  publication;  and  the  press  of  Wilson  &  Son  is  employed  entirely 
by  Little,  Brown  &  Co.  and  the  American  Unitarian  Association.  Those  houses 
could  not  do  any  large  work  without  great  inconvenience  to  themselves,  and 
consequently  at  enhanced  prices.  I  know  also  of  one  firm  in  New  York  that  took 
a  large  work  they  had  in  hand  at  the  time  of  the  strike  to  Boston  and  Cambridge 
for  the  purpose  of  having  it  done  at  either  place,  and  found,  much  to  their  astonish- 
ment, that  the  price  demanded  there  was  more  than  they  were  receiving  in  New 
York,  notwithstanding  the  difference  in  the  price  of  composition. 

The  conduct  of  the  members  of  the  union  during  the  eleven  weeks  of  the  strike 
was  beyond  all  praise  and  showed  a  law-abiding  disposition  and  a  discipline  in 
the  ranks  of  the  union  well  worthy  of  imitation  in  similar 
Conciliation  cases.     The    employers,    at    their    first    meeting,    solemnly 

or  Arbitration  resolved  that  they  recognized  no  such  body  as  the  Printers* 
Union,  and  voted  $40,000  to  fight  it  with.  The  union,  on 
the  contrary,  kept  the  door  open  all  the  time  for  an  equitable 
settlement  of  the  differences,  provided  the  employers  should  see  fit  to  rescind 
their  resolution;  which  they  ultimately  did,  and  asked  for  a  Committee  of  Con- 
ference. The  committee  was  granted  by  the  union,  and  to-day  a  scale  satis- 
factory to  both  (signed  by  the  joint  committee  of  the  employers  and  of  the  union) 
has  been  agreed  upon  and  put  into  operation.  The  strike  cost  the  New  York 
union  about  $21,000,  over  $17,000  of  which  was  defrayed  by  the  treasury  of  that 
body,  the  remaining  $4,000  being  contributed  by  sister  unions.  The  aggregate 
loss  of  the  employing  printers  must  have  been  considerably  more  —  all  of  which 
might  have  been  saved  had  the  employing  printers  of  New  York  been  willing 
to  adopt  the  course  in  the  first  place  which  was  finally  resorted  to.  This  strike 
teaches  the  lesson  that  it  is  much  better  to  settle  all  differences  that  may  arise 
between  our  employers  and  ourselves,  where  practicable,  by  mutual  concessions, 
or,  if  necessary,  by  arbitration. 


XIII. 

In  the  Early  Seventies. 

Revision  of  the  newspaper  scale  of  prices  occurred  on  February  i, 
1870.     While  the  piece  rates  remained  stationary  the  prices  for  time 


MOVEMENTS    FOR   HIGHER    WAGES.  305 

work  at  night  advanced  to  $22  per  week  of  48  hours  and  $20  for  day 
work  —  an  increase  of   $2.     Men  holding   situations   on  morning 
newspapers  that  required  their  services  a  part  of  the  afternoon  and 
all  night  had  their  hours  reduced   to   ten  daily. 
The  scale  also  provided  for  at   least  seven  hours'      Newspaper 
continuous  composition  each  day  for  pieceworkers.      Wage  Scale 
Further  amendments  were  made  to  the  price  list  on      Readjusted. 
October  i,  1872.      Compositors  employed  by  the 
week,  as  proofreaders  or  otherwise,  on  morning  newspapers  were 
not  permitted  to  work  for  less  than  50  cents  per  hour,  with  at  least 
eight  hours'  labor  between  6  p.  m.  and  3  A.M.;  when  employed  previous 
to  6  p.  M.  or  after  the  conclusion  of  eight  hours'  work,  50  cents  per 
hour.     This  brought  the  regular  wages  of  eight-hour  workers  up 
to  $24  per  week  and  the  few,  if  any,  ten-hour  men  to  $30.     The  piece 
rate  for  day  work  on  morning  papers  was  established  at  50  cents 
per  1,000  ems  and  time  work  $22  a  week,  this  being  an  advance  of 
5  cents  and  $2,  respectively.     Similar  increases  were  made  in  the 
schedule  for  semi-  and  tri-weeklies.     After  these  changes  had  gone 
into  effect  the  chairman  of  the  Journal   of  Commerce  office,  which 
had  previously  adjusted  its  differences  with  the  associated  journey- 
men and  became  a  union  chapel,  reported  (on  November  4th)  that 
the  owners  of  that  paper  had  advanced  piece  compositors'  wages  to 
56  cents  per  1,000  ems  and  raised  weekly  wages  in  eight-hour  situa- 
tions to  $27.     These  rates  were  for  night  work,  that  paper  issuing 
morning  editions. 

In  less  than  a  year  after  the  foregoing  changes  had  been  made  in 
the  newspaper  scales  one  of  the  severest  crises  that  ever  visited  the 
United  States  occurred.     Its  causes  were  various. 
The  panic  began  on  the  Vienna  Bourse  in  May,       Industrial 
1873,    speedily    involving    the    whole    of    Austria-       Crisis 
Hungary    Germany,  Italy  and  Switzerland  in  its       °^  ^^73- 
injurious    consequences.     Breaking    out    with    re- 
doubled force  in  this  country  in  September  it  in  turn  seriously 
affected  the  money  markets  of  England,  Russia  and  the  Scandinavian 
countries,  as  well  as  the  industries  of  France,     The  shock  was  felt 
even  as  far  as  Africa  and  South  America.     Beginning  with  the  failure 
on  September  i8th  of  the  financial  institution  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.  in 
New  York,  many  banking  houses  suspended,  and  the  New  York 
Stock  Exchange  was  closed  until  September  30th.     Not  an  industry 
in  the  United  States  escaped  the  effect  of  the  collapse.     Mills, 
factories    and    workshops    closed    everywhere,    throwing    3,000,000 
mechanics  into  idleness,  it  was  estimated,  and  causing  a  glut  in  every 


3o6  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

department  of  trade.  General  suspension  of  operations  on  new 
railroads  deprived  thousands  of  laborers  of  employment,  thus 
adversely  affecting  the  iron  and  steel  business.  Excessive  specula- 
tion in  railroads  and  real  estate,  inflation  of  the  currency,  and  the 
unnatural  stimulus  given  to  industry  by  the  Civil  War  were  some  of 
the  causes,  it  was  stated,  that  brought  the  monetary  affairs  of  the 
country  to  a  crisis,  with  its  resultant  widespread  distrust  and  fall 
of  prices,  that  finally  produced  the  industrial  depression,  which 
continued  until  late  in  1878.  Most  lamentable  was  the  state  of 
things  in  New  York  City  throughout  the  whole  of  that  dark  period. 
Almost  the  first  line  of  business  to  suffer  from  the  panic  was  the  printing 
trade,  and  as  early  as  December  5,  1873,  the  Typographical  Union 
received  from  the  association  of  master  printers  a  communication 
asking  it  "to  appoint  a  committee  to  meet  the  employers  for  con- 
ference and  consultation  respecting  the  present  scale  of  prices,  and 
with  reference  to  such  changes  as  may  seem  to  be  demanded  by  the 
exigencies  of  the  times. ' '  The  committee  was  chosen,  and  on  January 
6,  1874,  it  reported  to  the  union  "  that  a  conference  took  place  at 
the  Astor  House,  at  which  the  employers  asked  for  a  reduction  of 
ID  per  cent  on  the  book  and  job  scale  of  1869."  The  committee  was 
instructed  to  inform  the  printing  firms  that  the  union  would  not 
accede  to  their  request. 

XIV. 

Book  and  Job  Strike  and  Wage  Reduction  in   1876. 

During  the  intervening  two  years,  although  unemployment  in  the 
trade  reached  an  astonishingly  high  figure,  the  numerical  strength  of 
the  workers'  organization  showed  a  gradual  gain,  and 
Wage  Scale       the  scale  remained  intact.     But  it  was  not  destined 
Proposed  by      to  continue  so  for  any  great  length  of  time.    The  lean 
Employers.        period  lingered  and  the  employers  resolved  upon  a 
course  to  pursue.     They  again  on  January  4,  1876, 
solicited  and  succeeded  in  inducing  the  appointment  of  a  Conference 
Committee  by  the  union  to  meet  with  a  similar  number  of  repre- 
sentatives from  the  association  of  proprietors  to  consider  a  general 
wage  reduction  in  the  book  and  job  trade.      The  union's  delegates 
reported  on  February  ist  that  the  Typothetee  desired  that  the  scale 
be  cut  down  to  40  cents  and  45  cents  per  i  ,000  ems  and  $18  per  week. 
This  was  not  agreeable  to  the  compositors'  conferees,  whose  recom- 
mendation that "  after  thoroughly  considering  the  subject  the  request 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER   WAGES.  307 

of  the  employers  be  not  acceded  to  "  was  sanctioned  by  the  organiza- 
tion. When  on  February  5th  the  Committee  of  Conference  with 
employers  reported  that  the  latter  had  given  notice  "  that  in  30 
days  from  date  they  would  not  be  governed  by  the  present  scale  of 
prices,"  a  tax  of  5  per  cent  was  levied  by  the  union  on  members' 
earnings  in  excess  of  $10  per  week,  to  create  a  defense  fund  for  the 
support  of  those  of  its  members  who  might  become  involved  in  a  strike 
to  maintain  the  1869  scale.  March  ist  arrived  and  the  Typothetae 
convened  to  carry  out  its  purpose  to  lower  wages.  It  adopted  a 
schedule  that  brought  the  rates  down  to  this  basis :  Composition  on 
works  in  English :  Manuscript,  solid  48  cents  per  i  ,000  ems,  leaded  45 
cents;  reprint,  soHd  43  cents,  leaded  40  cents.  Composition  in 
foreign  languages:  Manuscript,  solid  56  cents  to  $1.90  per  1,000 
ems,  leaded  52  cents  to  $1.85;  reprint,  solid  47  cents  to  $1.75,  leaded 
43  cents  to  $1.70.  In  the  absence  of  any  other  agreement  job  com- 
positors were  to  receive  $18  per  week.  These  proposed  decreases 
on  ordinary  matter  in  English  amounted  to  5  cents  per  1,000  ems 
for  manuscript  and  7  cents  for  reprint.  On  works  in  foreign  languages 
the  reduction  ranged  fron  6  cents  to  10  cents  per  1,000  ems  for 
manuscript  and  10  cents  to  20  cents  for  reprint.  Overtime  work 
was  reduced  10  cents  per  hour  —  from  50  cents  to  40  cents.  Job 
workers  were  to  suffer  a  decline  of  $2  a  week  in  their  rate.  Having 
determined  to  put  their  plan  in  operation  on  March  13th,  and 
anticipating  resistance  by  the  union,  the  employers  began  immediately 
to  prepare  for  the  emergency  by  hiring  a  large  number  of  two- 
thirders,  both  boys  and  girls,  to  work  in  their  composing  rooms  at 
typesetting.  The  union  refused  to  accept  the  pro- 
prietors' ultimatum  and  the  dispute  began  in  a  few    General  Strike, 

offices  on  March  i^th,  some  150  men  laying  down    „ 

.  ,  ...  ,        „,..  ,      Compromise  m 

theu"  composmg-sticks    and    qmttmg  work.     With    Some  Offices. 

the  advent  of  April,  however,  the  strike  became 
quite  general,  affecting  in  the  aggregate  834  journeymen  in  21 
establishments.  Large  houses  like  Harper  &  Brothers,  Scribner  & 
Co.  and  Appleton  &  Co.  were  not  concerned  in  the  reduction  and 
were  therefore  unaffected  by  the  controversy.  Representatives  of 
five  book  and  job  printing  concerns  held  a  conference  with  the 
officers  of  the  Typographical  Union  on  June  2d  and  a  compromise 
resulted  so  far  as  these  houses  were  concerned.  Piece  rates  on  book- 
work  were  fixed  at  50  cents  and  47  cents  per  1,000  ems,  respectively, 
for  solid  and  leaded  manuscript,  and  43  cents  and  40  cents  for  reprint, 
with  the  weekly  wage  at  $19,  and  overtime  45  cents  per  hour.  On 
June  nth  the  dispute  was  declared  closed  by  the  union,  after  it  had 


308  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

expended  $38,352.90  in  strike  benefits.  Only  temporary  was  the 
partial  advantage  gained  in  June  by  the  organized  journeymen,  as 
a  majority  of  the  employers  still  held  out  for  their  original  scale  of 
prices,  and  on  November  26th  the  union  submitted  to  the  inevitable 
by  ordering  "  that  the  job  rate  be  reduced  from  $19  to  $18  per  week, 
and  that  the  scale  be  made  to  conform  substantially  to  the  employers' 
scale  in  other  details." 

XV. 

Wages  Decreased  on  Newspapers  in   1876. 

Publishers  of  evening  newspapers  on  April  9,  1876,  requested  the 
union  to  select  a  Committee  of  Conference  to  consider  a  reduction  of 
wages.  The  committee  was  appointed,  and  on  April  30th  it  reported 
that  the  employers  had  asked  for  a  reduction  of  10  cents  per  1,000 
ems.  The  matter  at  the  time  was  referred  to  the  officers  of  the  union, 
which  on  June  nth  acted  favorably  upon  a  proposition  to  appoint 
a  Scale  Committee.  Exactly  a  week  later  a  revised  list  of  prices  was 
reported  and  adopted.  It  provided  for  a  reduction  in  the  piece  rate 
on  morning  newspapers  to  50  cents  per  1,000  ems  at  night  and  45 
cents  in  the  daytime;  to  40  cents  on  evening  dailies  and  weeklies, 
and  45  cents  on  semi-  and  tri-weeklies.  For  time  employees  at  night 
the  rate  was  decreased  to  45  cents  an  hour  and  from  $22  to  $20  per 
week  for  day  work  on  morning  newspapers.  On  August  20th  the 
weekly  scale  on  evening  newspapers  was  fixed  at  $18.  Depression 
of  trade  continuing  the  newspaper  employers  were  not  satisfied 
with  the  reductions  that  the  union  had  made  in  prices,  and  they 
demanded  further  decreases.  A  committee  that  had  been  appointed 
to  wait  upon  the  publishers  reported  on  April  15,  1877,  in  favor  of 
additional  changes  to  conform  to  the  wishes  of  employers,  so  the 
union  established  the  piece  prices  on  morning  newspapers  at  46  cents 
per  1,000  ems  and  on  evening  and  weekly  papers  at  35  cents.  Com- 
pensation for  eight-hour  situations  on  morning  journals  was  fixed 
at  $20  per  week  of  six  days  (a  reduction  of  $4)  and  for  ten-hour 
positions  to  $25,  which  was  a  decrease  of  $5  weekly  in  comparison 
with  the  1872  scale,  while  for  day  situations  on  morning  papers  the 
rate  was  made  to  accord  with  that  on  evening  newspapers  —  $18 
per  week,  ten  hours  daily,  being  a  cut  of  $2.  Even  with  these 
alterations  some  of  the  employers  were  not  content  and  as  a 
consequence  the  union  lost  control  of  three  daily  newspaper 
chapels. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  309 

XVI. 

Book,   Job   and   Morning   Newspaper   Scales  Suspended. 

At  the  same  meeting  the  book  and  job  scale  was  suspended,  as  the 
resolution  read,  "  for  the  present  to  enable  our  men  to  root  out  and 
drive  from  the  city  the  men  who  are  now  doing  the  work  that  union 
men  should  do."  A  letter  having  been  received  from  the  publisher 
of  the  World  asking  for  a  reduction  in  the  price  of  composition  to 
40  cents  per  1,000  ems  on  morning  newspapers,  it  was  concluded  by 
the  union  on  August  7,  1877,  "  that  in  order  to  maintain  as  long 
as  possible  the  scale  of  prices  now  paid  on  morning  papers,  and  also 
to  secure  work  for  our  members  in  offices  where  prices  cannot  longer 
be  maintained,  the  members  of  chapels  are  hereby  directed  and  em- 
powered to  obtain  the  highest  possible  rate  of  wages  in  such  offices; 
that  members  be  permitted  to  work  wherever  they  can  obtain  employ- 
ment at  the  rates  established  by  the  chapel,  wherever  there  be  a 
chapel;  if  no  chapel  exist,  then  at  the  rates  paid  in  the  office;  but 
before  accepting  such  work  members  must  report  to  the  officers  of 
the  union  and  execute  a  pledge  to  the  officers  in  relation  thereto." 
It  was  also  resolved  "  that  no  member  of  the  union  be  allowed  to 
take  the  situation  of  another  member  at  less  than  the  price  paid 
the  former  holder." 

XVII. 

Upbuilding  Process  Begins. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  strike  in  1876  to  the  opening  of  the 
year  1879  the  membership  of  the  Typographical  Union  declined  rap- 
idly, showing  a  drop  of  nearly  160  per  cent  in  that 
period.     There  were  a  trifle  more  than  i  ,000  members       Reverses 
when  the  panic  that  began  in  1873  came  to  a  close.        Impel 
and  on  September  2,  1879,  indications  of  a  business       Prudence. 
revival  being  very  pronounced,  the  association  of 
printers  began  its  work  of  rehabilitation  by  passing  a  resolve  ' '  that  the 
present  outlook  of  the  printing  trade,  particularly  in  the  book  and  job 
departments,  are  such  as  to  promise  a  busy  fall  and  winter ;  that  it  is 
time  to  take  some  initiative  steps  looking  toward  the  establishment  of 
a  permanent  scale  of  prices  in  those  departments ;  that  therefore  from 
and  after  the  passage  of  these  resolutions  no  member  of  the  union 
shall  leave  the  House  of  Call  for  less  than  35  cents  per  1,000  ems 


3IO  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

piecework."  Slow  indeed  was  the  upbuilding  process.  Reverses 
in  the  past  had  impelled  prudence  in  making  demands.  An  entire 
year  elapsed  before  the  subject  of  a  unifonn  wage  scale  was  again 
broached.  Meanwhile  efforts  to  increase  the  number  of  members 
were  fraught  with  some  success.  It  was  on  September  lo,  1880, 
that  the  union,  having  regained  enough  confidence  in  its  ability  to 
at  least  attempt  to  improve  trade  conditions,  appointed  a  com- 
mittee of  five  —  two  job  and  three  book  men  —  "to  consider  the  ques- 
tion of  a  book  and  job  scale  and  report  to  the  next  regular  meeting." 
But  its  report  was  unready  then,  and  it  was  not  until  January  2, 
1 88 1,  that  one  was  submitted,  as  follows:  "  That  in  accordance  with 
power  given  them  at  the  November  meeting  of  the  union,  they  issued 
a  circular  to  the  employing  printers  of  this  city  asking  them  to 
appoint  a  Committee  of  Conference  to  meet  your  committee.  Three 
weeks  have  elapsed  since  said  circular  was  issued,  and  we  regret  to 
say  that  only  three  replies  have  been  received.  Your  committee 
therefore  begs  to  recommend  that  two  of  its  members  be  empowered 
to  personally  interview  such  employers  as  in  their  discretion  may 
seem  best  to  attain  the  object  for  which  this  committee  was  ap- 
pointed." Though  the  idea  of  a  personal  visitation  to  employers 
seemed  to  be  a  good  one  to  the  members  of  the  union,  which  promptly 
adopted  the  recommendation  of  the  committee,  the  labors  of  the 
sub-committee  were  devoid  of  results;  so  that  on  April  loth  the 
organization  resolved  to  refer  the  scale  question  to  the  book  chapels ; 
"  that  said  chapels,  and  also  offices  having  no  organized  chapels, 
are  empowered  to  appoint  delegates  with  the  purpose  of  fairly  repre- 
senting the  book  interests,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  confer  together, 
and  if  possible  harmonize  opinions,  which  at  present  are  conflict- 
ing, as  to  the  wisdom  of  adopting  a  scale  of  prices  to  be  enforced 
during  the  fall,  and  report  to  the  union  at  the  September  meeting." 

Newspaper  printers  also  wanted  authority  to  ask  for  increased 
pay,  and  the  union  on  April  loth  resolved  that  each  chapel  in  that 
branch  of  the  printing  business  "  is  hereby  permitted  to  demand 
an  increase  of  the  price  of  composition,  if  the  majority  of  the  mem- 
bers deem  it  to  their  interest  to  do  so." 

Book  chapels  took  several  months  to  consider  the  advisability  of 
again  regulating  piece  prices,  and  on  September  4th  the  union, 
influenced  by  the  favorable  attitude  of  the  book  compositors  on  the 
subject,  voted  to  place  the  scale  at  40  cents  per  1,000  ems  for  leaded 
matter  and  43  cents  for  solid,  and  charged  the  president  to  name  a 
Committee  of  Arbitration  "  to  confer  with  the  various  employing 
printers  as  to  why  said  scale  shall  not  go  into  force  on  or  about 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER   WAGES.  3II 

the  fifteenth  of  October."  It  was  resolved  at  the  same  meeting  not 
to  fix  a  weekly  rate  for  job  printers.  Success  did  not  attend  the 
labors  of  the  Committee  of  Conference. 

While  activity  in  business  circles  was  restored  at  the  end  of  1878 
and  people  again  became  fairly  prosperous,  this  era  of  good  times 
was  not  of  long  duration,  for  in  1882  another  depres- 
sion came  in  gradually,  without  the  usual  accom-      Renewal  of 
paniment  of  a  financial  panic,  and  lasted  for  several      Hard  Times 
years,  it  having  been  approximated  that,  at  the      ^^  ^^^2. 
height  of  this  depressed  term,  of  the  workers  engaged 
in  agriculture,  trade  and  transportation,  and  the  manufacturing  and 
mining  industries  there  were  998,839  idle  in  the  whole  United  States. 
This  crisis  proved  to  be  a  setback  for  a  time  to  those  who  wanted 
to  raise  the  scale.     By  March  12,  1882,  the  union  had  reconsidered 
the  book  schedule  of  rates  adopted  in  the  previous  September  and 
started  anew,  making  the  price  38  cents  per  1,000  ems  for  leaded  and 
41  cents  for  solid  matter  in  English,  to  go  into  effect  on  March  27th, 
and  provided  for  the  choosing  of  a  committee  to  formulate  a  scale 
upon  such  basis.     That  too  met  with  opposition  from  employers, 
and  the  question  remained  dormant  imtil  September  3d,  when  a 
committee  of  one  from  each  chapel  was  authorized  to  prepare  a 
scale,   which  latter  was  submitted  on  October   ist  and  adopted. 
The  proceedings  of  that  session  of  the  union  do  not  record  the  rates 
that  were  about  to  be  demanded,  but  whatever  they  were  the  prices 
did  not  go  into  force,  as  subsequent  minutes  of  the  union  revealed. 

XVIII. 

Revival  of  Wage  Scale  in  1883. 

A  special  meeting  was  convoked  on  January  18,  1883,  and  the 
Scale  Committee  was  directed  to  apprise  the  employers,  through  the 
chairmen  of  the  several  offices,  that  the  new  schedule 
was  ready  to  go  into  operation.     Another  special   Committee 
session  was  held  by  the  union  on  January   21st   Opposed  to 
"  for  the  purpose  of  taking  into  consideration  and  Adopting  Scale, 
determining  upon  such  action  in  regard  to  our  scale 
that  is  to  go  into  effect  on  Monday,  January  22,  1883,  as  our  union, 
in  view  of  the  gravity  of  the  situation,  shall  for  its  welfare  deem 
imperative  to  adopt."     There  was  also  a  second  call  for  this  meeting, 
evidently  promulgated  by  a  more  radical  element  among  the  member- 
ship, stating  that  the  special  convocation  was  "  for  the  purpose  of 


312  NEW   YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

ordering  a  strike  in  all  offices  where  the  scale  is  not  paid  on  Monday, 
January  22,  1883."  The  latter  call  was  ignored  and  the  union  pro- 
ceeded at  once  to  consider  the  one  first  mentioned.  Fifteen  members 
constituted  the  Scale  Committee,  which  submitted  a  memorial,  citing 
the  fact  that  at  its  first  meeting  on  January  14th  reports  from  the 
offices  represented  by  members  were  generally  favorable  as  to  the 
prospects  of  a  strike  for  the  scale.  *'  But  we  discovered,"  said  the 
committeemen,  "  that  the  scale  as  passed  by  the  union  referred  to 
and  governed  only  bookwork,  and  it  was  found  difficult  to  determine 
the  status  of  weekly  papers  printed  in  book  offices.  It  was  deter- 
mined to  call  a  special  meeting  of  the  union  and  ask  for  instructions 
as  to  the  interpretation  of  the  scale.  A  sub-committee  of  three  was 
also  appointed  to  visit  the  various  book  offices  not  represented,  and 
report  as  to  the  number  of  men  employed,  number  of  union  and  non- 
union men,  disposition  of  such  men  as  to  strike,  and  generally  report 
prospects  as  to  success.  In  view  of  the  general  dissatisfaction  and 
disaffection,  and  the  evident  lack  of  interest  in  the  movement  on  the 
part  of  many  non-union  men  who  are  receiving  as  low  as  30  cents  per 
1,000  ems,  we  regard  any  attempt  to  enforce  the  present  scale  as 
suicidal,  and  believe  will  result  in  a  disastrous  failiire."  This 
report  was  prepared  by  W.  C.  Parker,  chairman,  and  the  views 
expressed  by  him  received  the  unanimous  concurrence  of  the  com- 
mittee, which  presented  the  following  objections,  that  were  likewise 
iirged  by  many  book  printers  in  the  city: 

As  to  the  scale  itself,  the  rule  that  all  work  done  in  book  offices  shall  be  con- 
sidered as  bookwork,  and  paid  for  accordingly,  is  attacked  as  unfair  in  compelling 
a  proprietor  of  a  book  office  who  may  print  a  weekly  paper  to  pay  more  than  his 
rival  who  prints  nothing  but  weekly  papers. 

The  objection  is  made  that  law  work  should  be  considered  as  a  distinct  branch 
with  a  special  rate,  the  present  scale  being  too  high. 

Besides  the  objections  to  the  scale  itself,  your  committee  find  that  union  men 
in  good  standing  constitute  a  minority  of  the  book  employees  in  the  city,  and  we 
do  not  believe  that  more  than  60  per  cent  of  the  union  men  can  be  brought  out. 
We  find  that,  to  the  best  of  our  information  and  belief,  in  a  majority  of  the  offices 
we  will  be  unable  to  bring  out  enough  men  to  seriously  cripple  the  employers 
even  for  a  few  days. 

The  causes  which  lead  to  this  conclusion  are: 

First — In  many  offices  where  the  majority  of  men  are  union  members  there  has 

been  but  a  feeble  effort  made  to  organize;  while  in  those  offices  where  non-union 

men  predominate  there  has  been  no  interest  taken  in  the 

Feeble  matter.     They  have  made  no  effort  to  organize  chapels,  or 

Effort  to  send  promised  reports  to  the  sub-committee,  and  have  in 

rganize.  £^^^  shown  a  decided  disinclination  to  come  into  or  assist 

the  union.     In  one  office,  for  instance,  where  there  are  about 

50  men  on  piecework  at  from  34  cents  to  40  cents  per  1,000,  a  report  was  given 

to  your  committee  that  the  canvass  of  the  office  showed  that   but    12  out  of 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER   WAGES. 


313 


the  50  men  would  come  out  for  the  scale.  In  another  office,  where  9  men 
are  employed  at  35  cents  per  1,000,  not  one  man  would  come  out.  In  another 
office,  where  the  average  earnings  of  the  men  at  case  are  under  $10  per  week, 
but  15  out  of  the  38  compositors  would  attend  a  chapel  meeting  to  consider  the 
scale.  The  same  statement,  with  but  trifling  variations,  will  apply  to  many 
offices  where  no  chapels  exist. 

Second  —  Want  of  unity  of  action  and  harmony  in  the  meeting  on  Thursday 
night  ^  created  confusion  and  had  theeflfect  of  adding  to  the  demoralization. 

Third  —  The  wanton  betrayal  of  the  proceedings  of  the  union  by  men  who  gave 
information  to  employing  printers,  thus  violating  their  obligation  and  thereby 
placing  serious  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  committee,  and  which  enabled  employ- 
ers to  send  out  manifestoes  to  the  trade. 

Fourth  —  The  large  number  outside  of  the  union  and  the  general  impression 
that  no  relief  will  be  given  to  strikers. 

Your  committee  would  recommend  that  the  enforcement  of  the  scale  be  post- 
poned; that  a  committee  be  appointed  to  revise  the  scale,  and  have  it  include  rates 
for  all  classes  of  work  done  in  book,  job  and  weekly  newspaper  offices;  that  the 
Discipline  Committee  be  largely  increased,  and  a  general  and  strong  effort  made 
to  fill  up  the  union  ranks,  and  to  form  chapels  in  all  the  offices  —  and  in  fact 
that  the  union  prepare  itself  to  enforce  a  scale  within  the  year  for  the  whole  trade. 

Your  committee  further  report  that  work  is  very  fair  in  the  city,  and  that  they 
believe  the  greatest  obstacles  in  the  way  of  success  are  in  the  feeling  of  timidity, 
the  lack  of  union  spirit,  and  the  general  disposition  of  every 
man  to  look  to  his  own  personal  interest  without  regard  to  Timidity 

that  of  the  majority,  and  we  believe  that  if  this  lack  of  con-  Prevents 

fidence  were  removed  and  replaced  by  a  belief  in  the  power  Success, 

of  the  union  there  would  be  no  difficulty  in  obtaining  a  material 
advance.     But  at  present  your  committee  believe  that  if  a  strike  is  ordered  in 
the  face  of  the  above  facts,  the  result  will  be  an  overwhelming  defeat  and  a  decided 
injury  to  the  good  and  welfare  of  the  union. 

Lengthy  discussion  followed  the  reading  of  the  report,  but  the  vote 
that  had  ordered  the  enforcement  of  the  scale  was  reconsidered,  and 
the  union  resolved  that  the  time  for  putting  it  into  execution  be 
indefinitely  postponed. 

Indirectly,  however,  the  journeymen's  organization  later  on  recog- 
nized 35  cents  per  1,000  ems  as  the  rate  for  composition  on  book- 
work.     At  a  special  meeting  of  the  union  on  Wednes- 
day, February  7th,  which  had  been  called  to  take    Lockout  Results 
action  in  regard  to  a  projected  lockout  in  a  large    ^  \^^f 
establishment,  the  secretary  stated  that  the  employer    ^3  Cents, 
had  on  the  preceding  Monday  given  notice  to  the 
officers  of  the  association  and  the  men  in  his  office  that  on  the  follow- 
ing day  union  men  would  be  employed  by  him  only  to  a  limited 
extent;  that  on  the  same  evening  at  a  chapel  meeting  of  the  affected 


'  Has  reference  to  a  meeting  of  the  union  on  Thursday,  January  i8,  1883. 


314  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

compositors  a  committee  was  selected  to  confer  with  the  union's 
Executive  Committee,  and  the  latter,  after  a  hearing  in  the  matter, 
ordered  that  the  journeymen  refuse  to  go  to  work  on  the  following 
morning.  Obeying  this  injunction,  71  typographers  declined  to 
begin  composition  on  Tuesday  morning  unless  the  employer  removed 
the  restrictions  he  had  threatened  to  impose.  The  president  had 
several  interviews  with  the  proprietor,  and  at  the  last  one  this  agree- 
ment was  entered  into  by  the  officers  and  the  owner  of  the  estab- 
lishment: 

It  is  hereby  agreed  that  the  difficulty  at  present  existing  in  this  office  be  adjusted 
on  the  following  basis: 

1.  The  former  employees  to  be  re-employed. 

2.  The  price  of  composition  to  remain  at  35  cents  per  1,000  ems  until  after 
the  second  Monday  of  March. 

3.  That  further  negotiations  abide  the  result  of  the  efforts  of  the  union  to 
advance  rates  or  equalize  rates  in  competing  offices. 

By  endorsing  this  action  of  its  officials  the  union  virtually  estab- 
lished the  piece  rate  for  bookwork,  but  on  March  4th  it  made  the 
matter  more  binding  by  resolving  "  that  on  and  after  March  12, 
1883,  no  member  of  the  union  shall  be  allowed  to  work  in  any  book 
and  job  office  for  less  than  35  cents  per  1,000  ems;  that  the  secretary 
be  instructed  to  have  hung  up  in  a  prominent  place  in  his  office  a 
list  of  all  offices  in  the  city  where  less  than  35  cents  per  1,000  is  paid, 
and  that  all  members  of  this  union  be  prohibited  from  working  in 
said  offices."  After  this  action  a  few  skirmishes  occurred,  but  in 
one  office  a  serious  strike  took  place  in  April.  That  dispute  was 
eventually  settled  in  favor  of  the  union. 

All  sorts  of  prices  prevailed  in  the  different  branches  of  the  print- 
ing industry  in  1883.     While  compositors  were  getting  but  little 
remuneration  for  their  labor  fair  employers  were 
Complete         suffering  from  the  unequal  competition  occasioned 
Scale  by  lack  of  regulation  of  wage  rates.     At  last,  on 

Adopted.  August  5th,  the  uniOn,  driven  to  desperation  by 
the  ruinous  decadence  of  trade  conditions,  con- 
cluded to  make  a  determined  stand  for  uniform  prices.  It  appointed 
a  Scale  Committee  of  nine  —  three  from  morning  newspapers,  three 
from  weekly  and  evening  papers,  and  three  from  book  and  job 
offices.  That  committee  labored  assiduously  to  arrange  a  bill  of 
rates  that  would  meet  the  requirements  of  the  times,  and  having 
completed  its  task,  and  reported  the  result  of  its  deliberations  to 
the  association,  the  latter  on  October  14th,  after  making  the  cus- 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER   WAGES.  315 

ternary  verbal  changes  in  the  original  draft,  adopted  the  following 
schedule,  the  most  noteworthy  feature  of  which  is  that  in  bookwork 
the  distinction  between  manuscript  and  reprint  is  eliminated: 

Morning  Newspapers. 

Piecework,  46  cents  per  1,000  ems  for  common  matter;  at  least  seven  hours' 
continuous  composition  between  6  p.  m.  and  2  A.  M.;  after  3  a.  m.  46  cents  per  hour 
in  addition  to  the  matter  set. 

Composition  in  the  daytime  40  cents  per  i  ,000  ems,  or  $19  per  week —  ten  hours 
to  constitute  a  day's  work.  Time  work  35  cents  per  hour.  Hours  of  labor  from 
7  A.  M.  to  6  p.  M. 

Week  work  at  night:  Ten-hour  situations  —  two  hours  between  2  and  6 
p.  M.  and  eight  hours  between  6  P.  M.  and  3  A.  m. —  not  less  than  $25  per  week 
of  six  days;  for  seven  days  $30.  Eight-hour  situations  —  between  6  p.  m.  and  3 
A.  M. —  not  less  than  $21  per  week  of  six  days,  hours  to  be  continuous;  for  seven 
days  $24.     Overtime  40  cents  per  hour. 

Piece  hands  called  from  the  case  to  do  time  work,  or  required  to  remain 
in  the  office  unemployed,  between  the  hours  of  12  m.  and  3  a.  m.,  shall  receive 
not  less  than  46  cents  per  hour. 

When  bogus  copy  is  given  out  in  lieu  of  standing  time  it  shall  not  be  of  such 
a  nature  as  to  preclude  the  compositor  from  making  fair  average  wages,  viz: 
intricate  or  illegible  copy,  or  copy  containing  great  quantities  of  caps,  small 
caps,  italic,  points,  etc.,  running  on  particular  sorts. 

Compositors,  both  piece  and  week,  called  to  work  before  10  A.  M.  shall  receive 
not  less  than  $1  for  such  call  and  shall  be  entitled  to  the  matter  they  set. 

Price  and  a  half  and  double  price  for  tabular  work,  according  to  the  number 
of  columns. 

All  letters  cast  on  a  body  larger  than  the  face  (as  bourgeois  on  long  primer) 
to  be  counted  according  to  the  face;  all  letters  cast  on  a  body  smaller  than  the 
face  (as  minion  on  nonpareil)  to  be  counted  according  to  the  body.  All  fonts, 
the  alphabets  of  which  measure  less  than  thirteen  ems,  shall  be  counted  according 
to  the  next  smaller  size. 

When  a  measure  exceeds  even  ems  in  width  and  is  less  than  a  3-em  space  no 
extra  charge  shall  be  made;  if  a  3-em  space  an  en  shall  be  counted;  if  over  an  en 
an  em  shall  be  counted. 

In  offices  where  both  week  and  piece  hands  are  employed  the  fat  and  lean 
shall  be  equally  distributed  among  them. 

Evening  Newspapers. 

Piecework,  40  cents  per  1,000  ems,  common  matter. 

Week  work,  $18  for  six  days'  work  —  ten  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  labor. 

Seven  hours'  continuous  composition  for  pieceworkers,  between  8  A.  M.  and 
4  p.  M.  All  work  done  before  7  A.  M.  or  after  6  p.  M.  shall  be  paid  for  at  the  rate 
of  40  cents  per  hour  in  addition  to  all  matter  set.     Time  work  35  cents  per  hour. 

Bogus  matter,  fat  and  lean  matter,  tabular  work,  system  of  measurement, 
etc.,  same  as  on  morning  newspapers. 

Weekly,  Semi-Weekly  and  Tri- Weekly  Newspapers. 
Piecework,  40  cents  per  1,000  ems;  not  less  than  40  hours'  composition  during 
the  week.     When  required  to  work  one  or  more  nights  per  week  compositors 
shall  receive  10  cents  an  hour  additional  after  6  P.  M.     Sunday  work  20  cents 
per  hour  in  addition  to  all  matter  set. 


3l6  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

Week  work,  $i8  for  59  hours.  Time  work,  during  the  day  30  cents  per  hour; 
at  night  40  cents  per  hour. 

Compositors  employed  by  the  piece  on  Sunday  or  other  weekly  papers,  requiring 
one  or  more  nights'  composition,  10  cents  an  hour  additional  after  6  P.  M.  When 
employed  by  the  week  $18  for  59  hours. 

Bogus  matter,  fat  and  lean  matter,  tabular  work,  system  of  measurement, 
etc.,  same  as  on  morning  newspapers. 

Book  and  Job  Work. 

Composition  on  works  in  EngHsh,  solid  40  cents  per  i  ,000  ems,  leaded  37  cents; 
foreign  languages,  solid  50  cents  to  $1.80  per  1,000  ems,  leaded  45  cents  to  $1.75. 
Pearl  and  diamond  5  cents  extra  per  1,000  ems.  Extras  5  cents  and  10  cents 
per  1 ,000  ems  additional. 

Type  larger  than  pica  to  be  counted  as  pica.  Matter  leaded  with  thinner 
leads  than  eight-to-pica  shall  rate  as  solid.  In  measuring  the  width  of  a  column 
or  page  any  fraction  of  an  em  less  than  an  en  will  not  be  counted ;  an  en  or  greater 
fraction  to  be  counted  an  em. 

Narrow  measure,  ranging  from  i  cent  extra  per  i  ,000  ems  for  a  width  of  eighteen 
ems  to  44  cents  extra  for  six  ems. 

Time  work  30  cents  per  hour  for  a  portion  of  a  day,  and  10  cents  per  hour 
additional  after  6  p.  M. 

Week  work  $18  for  59  hours. 

Overtime  40  cents  per  hour,  or  10  cents  in  addition  to  matter  set  up.  Sunday 
work  60  cents  per  hour  for  day  and  80  cents  per  hour  for  night  work.  Composi- 
tion by  the  piece  double  the  charges  for  week  days.  Holidays  by  mutual 
agreement. 

Early  in  November  enforcement  of  the  scale  was  begun.     Estab- 
lishments to  the  number  of  126  granted  the  demands  at  once,  but  in 
44  other  offices  —  three  of  which  were  daily  news- 
Successful       papers  —  339  workers  went  on  strike  because  of 
General  refusal  of  the  employers  to  accede  to  the  new  terms. 

Strike.  jj^  j-]^g  three  newspaper  chapels  the  union  met  defeat, 

but  gained  nearly  all  the  book  and  job  offices  in  which 
it  had  contended  for  supremacy.  The  dispute  extended  into  1884, 
when  it  involved  four  book  and  job  firms,  having  107  journeymen, 
and  a  newspaper  with  61  employees.  Satisfactory  settlements  were 
finally  made  in  these  latter  cases.  This  general  strike  cost  the  union 
$14,800.98,  but  it  came  out  of  the  conflict  with  its  scale  intact  and 
its  position  greatly  strengthened. 


XIX. 

Increase  for  Newspaper  Composition  in    1 887. 

Having  passed  through  the  panic  years  of  the  eighties,  and  numer- 
ous of  its  members  having  been  distressed  by  the  stagnation  of 
trade,  the  Typographical  Union  nevertheless  maintained  its  scale  of 


MOVEMENTS    FOR   HIGHER   WAGES.  317 

prices.  With  the  coming  of  1887  there  was  some  improvement  in 
the  times  and  a  sentiment  began  to  develop  in  favor  of  an  increase. 
This  became  manifest  on  April  17th,  when  the  Executive  Committee 
submitted  to  the  association  a  report  in  which  it  was  suggested  "  that 
a  Conference  Committee  be  appointed  to  interview  the  proprietors 
of  morning  papers  with  a  view  to  raising  the  scale  on  such  papers 
to  50  cents  per  1,000  ems."  But  the  union,  deeming  it  inadvisable 
to  advance  wage  rates  at  that  time,  directed  the  officers  and  the 
Executive  Committee  to  enforce  the  existing  list  of  prices. 

Newspaper  workers  remained  in  a  qmescent  state  until  September 
4th.  Then  they  rallied  their  forces  and  put  through  an  amended 
scale,  which  provided  for  the  paymient  of  50  cents  per  1,000  ems  on 
morning  papers,  six  hours'  continuous  composition;  overtime  60 
cents  per  hour  in  addition  to  payment  for  the  type  set;  week  work 
at  night  $27  for  54  hours.  On  evening  newspapers  the  scale  for  week 
hands  was  raised  to  $20  on  November  25th,  50  cents  per  hour  for 
overtime,  but  no  change  was  made  in  the  piece  rate.  At  that  meet- 
ing the  union  adopted  a  rule  defining  an  evening  newspaper  as  one 
regularly  printed  and  issued  between  the  hours  of  7  a.  m.  and  7  p.  m., 
and  employing  a  separate  and  distinct  force.  The  several  amend- 
ments that  were  made  to  the  scale  were  not  opposed  by  the  pro- 
prietors. 

XX. 

Book  and  Job  Controversy  in  1887. 

Book  printers  were  eager  to  advance  their  piece  rates  and  induced 
the  union  at  a  special  meeting  on  August  28,  1887,  to  fix  the  scale 
at  43  cents  per  1,000  ems  for  productions  in  English; 
and  at  prices  ranging  all  the  way  from  53  cents  to    Increased 
$1 .83  for  composition  in  foreign  languages,  the  former        ,  _.     ,  „. 
for  Latin,  Spanish  and  German,  and  the  latter  for    Demanded. 
Hebrew,  kerned  with  vowel  points  and  accents,  the 
intervening  rates  being  for  works  in  other  languages.     It  was  also 
stipulated  that  "  all  publications  issued  at  a  greater  interval  than 
once  a  week  shall  be  classed  as  bookwork."     This  schedule,  however, 
was  short  lived.     At  the  regular  meeting  of  the  union  on  September 
4th  the  presiding  officer  ruled  that  the  scale  had  not  been  legally 
adopted.      His  decision  was  sustained  by  the    association,   which 
ordered  that  "  all  matter  relating  to  the  book  scale,  and  the  vote 
by  which  it  was  adopted,  be  expunged  from  the  minutes."     Then 
it  was  resolved  to  appoint  a  committee  of  three  "  to  draw  up  a  scale 


3l8  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

of  prices  for  the  book  and  job  trade  based  on  $i8  per  week  for  time 
work  and  45  cents  per  i  ,000  ems  for  piecework ;  that  they  be  instructed 
to  confer  with  the  employers  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  the  new 
scale  without  a  strike  if  possible."  A  report  on  the  question  was 
submitted  on  October  2d,  when  the  union  resolved  that  the  book 
scale  of  1883  "  remain,  with  the  exception  that  the  price  be  43  cents 
per  1,000  ems,  and  that  a  clause  be  inserted  providing  for  strictly 
card  offices."®  By  this  amendment  all  distinction  between  leaded 
and  solid  matter  was  dropped.  It  was  also  provided  that  wages 
be  paid  weekly.  Copies  of  the  scale  were  sent  to  employers,  and 
while  some  assented  to  it  as  a  whole  others  answered  that  they 
would  accept  every  provision  excepting  that  relating  to  strictly  card 
offices,  meaning  that  the  employees  should  be  members  of  the  union 
holding  clear  working  certificates.  A  strike  was  declared  on  October 
nth  against  establishments  controlled  by  the  proprietors'  organi- 
zation, and  907  joumejnuen  printers  engaged  in  the  dispute.  Both 
sides  were  strong  and  the  contest  was  a  spirited  one.  Presently, 
other  trades  became  involved  in  the  controversy,  102  pressmen,  156 
press  feeders  and  18  stereotypers  and  electrotypers  going  out  to 
assist  the  compositors  —  making  a  total  of  1,183  workmen  directly 
affected  by  the  controversy. 

On  the  Saturday  prior  to  the  opening  of  hostilities  the  senior  member 

of  the  firm  of  Theodore  L.  DeVinne  &  Co.  solicited  the  services 

of  the  State  Board  of  Mediation  and  Arbitration, 

Employers  Solicit   g^j^^j  ^^  Monday  morning,  October  loth,  the  board 

.  , .,    ,.  met  in  New  York.     Several  representatives  of  the 

Arbitration 

Board.  employers,  among  them  Mr.  DeVinne,  and  Joseph 

Smith  on  behalf  of  the  union  attended  the  hearing. 

Mr.  DeVinne  presented  the  case  of  the  Typothetas,  stating  that  "  on 

last  Thursday  we  were  presented  for  the  first  time  with  a  scale  of 

prices,  and  we  have  been  waited  upon  to  know  whether  we  will 


»  Always  the  union  had  sought  to  establish  strictly  card  offices,  believing  that  it  could  thus 
better  control  trade  prices  and  more  effectively  enforce  its  rules  with  respect  to  other  craft  con- 
ditions. Henry  M.  Failing,  writing  from  New  York  on  Sunday,  July  i8,  1852,  to  Charles  W.  Col- 
bum,  who  was  then  In  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  referred  to  the  subject  as  follows,  showing  some  of  the  benefits 
that  the  union  then  derived  from  the  closed-shop  system:  "  Foreman  Gale  some  time  since  posted 
a  notice  in  the  Times  office  to  the  effect  that  on  and  after  the  seventeenth  of  July  no  compositor 
could  work  on  that  paper  who  could  not  show  a  clear  card  from  the  union.  Consequently  last 
night  over  $100  came  in  from  that  office." 

Again,  on  December  31,  1852,  Mr.  Failing,  in  another  letter  written  to  Mr.  Colbum,  speaking 
about  the  proceedings  of  the  union  meeting  held  on  the  preceding  Saturday,  said:  "  The  meeting 
was  the  largest  and  most  enthusiastic  one  ever  held.  There  is  a  rumor  about  town  that  the  fore- 
man of  the  Herald  is  very  shortly  to  issue  an  order  similar  to  that  issued  by  the  foremen  of  the 
Times  and  Tribune,  viz:  that  no  person  will  be  allowed  to  work  in  that  office  unless  he  is  a  member 
of  the  union,  and  in  good  standing.  God  grant  it  be  true.  A  few  days  will  prove  the  truth  or 
falsity  of  the  report." 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER   WAGES.  319 

accede  to  it.  The  employing  printers  held  a  meeting  on  Thursday- 
afternoon,  and  it  was  unanimously  agreed  to  make  no  objection  to 
the  proposition  except  to  that  special  feature  that  the  office  shall  be 
a  card  office.  The  language  is  ambiguous.  What  is  meant  by  a 
card  office  is  simply  this:  The  employer  who  accepts  that  scale 
agrees  not  to  employ  any  printers  who  do  not  belong  to  the  union, 
and  conversely  he  agrees  to  discharge  all  who  do  not.  We  object 
to  that  item  in  the  scale.  The  question  of  price  is  accepted  through- 
out. The  only  question  is  whether  we  have  a  right  to  employ  persons 
who  do  not  belong  to  the  union,  and  that  is  the  question  we  want 
to  get  before  you  for  a  decision.  The  time  is  very  precious.  At  12 
o'clock  we  are  notified  that  a  strike  will  take  place  unless  that  demand 
is  complied  with.  We  complain  that  we  have  not  had  proper  time 
for  the  consideration  and  discussion  of  this  matter.  If  the  time  were 
extended  to  a  week  we  think  a  strike  might  be  averted.  We  ask 
your  good  offices  to  see  if  a  strike  cannot  be  averted  without  any 
dishonor  to  us  or  unfairness  to  them." 

On  behalf  of  the  Typographical  Union  Mr.  Smith  informed  the 
board  that  "  on  the  second  of  this  month  the  union  adopted  a  scale 
of  prices  which  included  that  particular  clause,  that  they  would 
not  allow  their  members  to  work  with  non-union  men.  The  object 
of  that  decision  was  this:  In  a  great  many  offices  in  this  city  em- 
ployers employ  non-union  men  who  work  under  our  scale  of  wages. 
In  doing  that  they  are  enabled  to  compete  with  fair  employers  who 
pay  the  scale  of  wages.  The  union  claims  that  to  allow  our  members 
to  work  with  these  non-union  men  enables  unfair  employers  to  un- 
justly compete  with  fair  employers,  and  they  claim  it  is  as  much  for 
the  protection  of  the  employing  printers  of  this  city  as  themselves." 

An  adjournment  was  taken  to  allow  both  sides  to  consult  with  their 
respective  organizations  in  reference  to  a  suggestion  of  the  board 
that  the  order  to  strike  at  noon  on  that  day  be  held 
in  abeyance,  that  the  scale  go  into  effect  in  the    Contest  for 
various  offices  at  once,   and   that   the  contending    Strictly  Union 
parties  agree  to  submit  for  arbitrament  the  matter    Offices  Begins, 
of  card  shops.     In  the  interim  the  union's  committee 
decided  to  postpone  the  strike,  and  sent  representatives  to  Mr. 
DeVinne  to  confer  with  him  concerning  a  settlement,  but  their  mis- 
sion was  without  avail.     In  the  afternoon  of  October  loth  the  asso- 
ciated employers  decided  to  accept  the  proposition  of  the  State 
arbitrators,  and  on  the  following  day  the  latter  received  from  the 
committee  of  the  union  a  communication  stating  that  "  tliis  com- 
mittee has  no  authority  to  adopt  the  same  without  the  unanimous 


320  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

consent  of  our  organization."  Then  the  strike  began.  The  Typoth- 
etse  met  on  the  twelfth,  decided  to  advertise  for  new  help,  and  to 
post  in  all  the  offices  a  notice  that  the  employers  absolutely  and  un- 
qualifiedly refused  to  accept  the  revised  price  list  unless  the  card 
clause  were  withdrawn.  Continuing  to  exercise  its  influence  to 
restore  pacific  relations  between  the  belligerents,  the  State  board  on 
October  13  th  induced  the  Typothetas  to  request  that  a  committee  from 
the  journeymen's  association  attend  a  conference  and  discuss  the  situ- 
ation with  a  view  to  adjusting  the  difficulty.  President  Glackin, 
with  other  representatives  of  the  union,  accepted  the  invitation  and 
for  several  hours  argued  the  disputed  point.  At  the  close  of  the 
consultation  the  employers'  committee  submitted  a  proposal  to  the 
effect  that  "  the  committee  on  behalf  of  the  Typothetse  request 
the  committee  on  behalf  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  to  report 
to  the  union  that  it  has  been  for  a  long  time  the  practice  of  the 
members  of  the  Typothetse,  when  engaging  additional  compositors, 
to  engage  union  men  only.  That  they  have  no  disposition  or  inten- 
tion of  changing  that  practice.  Hence  we  request  that  the  union 
strike  out  that  clause  of  the  new  scale  in  regard  to  card  offices.  If 
that  is  done  the  scale  in  all  other  respects  will  be  adopted."  The 
terms  suggested  were  rejected  by  the  Strike  Committee  and  subse- 
quently by  the  men  who  were  involved  in  the  dispute.  Another  effort 
was  made  on  the  morning  of  the  fourteenth  to  adjust  the  difficulty. 
President  Glackin  was  anxious  for  a  settlement  and  the  action  taken 
by  the  book  compositors  in  not  accepting  the  Typothetae's  tender 
appeared  to  be  displeasing  to  him.  When  a  member  of  the  State 
board  suggested  on  October  14th  that  a  final  effort  be  made  to  have 
committees  appointed  by  both  sides  with  full  power  to  effect  a 
settlement,  the  president  agreed  to  ask  his  organization  at  a  special 
meeting  that  day  to  give  it  favorable  consideration. 
Union  The  union  met  the  overture  with  a  resolution  that 

Declines  the  Strike  Committee  be  empowered  to  settle  the 

Arbitration.  dispute  only  upon  the  basis  of  the  scale  already 
adopted.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Typothetse 
unanimously  approved  the  recommendation  and  clothed  a  committee 
of  five  members  with  authority  to  adjust  the  differences.  As  the 
union  committee  did  not  possess  the  necessary  power  to  enter  into 
an  agreement  that  would  exclude  the  card  clause  the  conference 
closed  without  result.  The  situation  was  rendered  more  complex 
by  the  insistence  of  the  Strike  Committee  "  that  the  men  who  have 
been  employed  since  the  strike  started  shall  be  discharged;  that  the 
non-union  help  remaining  in  shall  join  the  union;  that  the  help 


MOVEMENTS    FOR   HIGHER   WAGES. 


321 


which  belonged  to  the  union  and  did  not  strike  shall  be  discharged, 
and  that  hereafter  none  but  union  men  shall  be  employed."  This 
ended  the  negotiations  so  far  as  the  Typothetae  was  concerned. 
Yet,  notwithstanding  the  unfavorable  outcome,  one  of  the  Arbitra- 
tion Commissioners  pursued  the  matter  further  and  persuaded  a  com- 
mittee of  well-known  and  influential  employers  to  hold  an  informal 
conference  with  several  prominent  members  of  the 
imion.  They  assembled  on  October  i6th  and  re-  Proprietors 
viewed  the  situation.  The  proprietors  were  willing  „  ^  .^°^.  °  ^^ 
to  agree  to  the  scale  in  full  with  the  exception  of  oppose  Closed 
the  disputed  card  clause,  but  declared  that  as  new  Shops, 
complications  were  constantly  arising  in  regard  to  the 
employment  of  men  to  fill  the  strikers'  places,  they  felt  it  incumbent 
upon  them  to  retain  these  workmen  if  they  proved  to  be  competent. 
The  union  members  were  confident  that  a  satisfactory  settlement 
would  ensue  if  the  officers  would  withdraw  the  objectionable  card  pro- 
vision. As  an  entering  wedge  for  a  final  disposition  of  the  question, 
this  paper,  drafted  by  the  Arbitration  Commissioner,  was  submitted 
to  and  accepted  by  those  present:  "  The  card  clause  of  the  scale 
to  be  withdrawn.  The  old  employees,  in  all  branches,  to  return  to 
work  without  prejudice  on  the  part  of  the  employer.  No  proscrip- 
tion by  either  side.  The  no-card  manifesto  to  be  removed  from  all 
the  offices."  The  union  members  promised  to  use  their  influence 
to  have  an  agreement  based  thereon  approved  by  their  organization. 
The  conference  adjourned  with  the  understanding  that  if  President 
Glackin  agreed  to  the  above  stipulations  a  meeting  would  be  held 
on  the  seventeenth  and  that  the  Commissioner  be  requested  to  draw  up 
a  proposed  agreement.  The  union's  executive  having  consented  to 
the  proposition  six  members  of  the  Typothetae,  the  officers  and  Strike 
Committee  of  the  compositors'  organization,  together  with  represen- 
tatives of  the  associations  of  pressmen  and  stereotypers  and  electro- 
typers,  assembled  on  the  seventeenth.  Arbitration  Commissioner 
F.  F.  Donovan  was  elected  chairman  and  W.  W.  Pasko,  of  the  Ty- 
pothetae, secretary.  Commissioner  Donovan  offered  for  the  judgment 
of  the  conferees  an  agreement  that  eliminated  the  card  clause,  that 
the  Typothetae  pay  the  union  scale,  that  the  notices  which  had  been 
posted  in  workrooms  signifying  that  they  were  not  card  offices  be  re- 
moved, that  the  master  printers  adhere  to  their  proposition  of  October 
13th  that  the  practice  when  hiring  additional  help  "to  employ  union 
men  only"  would  not  be  changed,  and  that  at  the  resumption  of 
work  there  should  not  be  any  proscription  on  either  side.  To 
President  Glackin's  inquiry  if,  in  case  the  union  yielded  to  the  de- 
II 


322  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

mands  of  the  Typothetae  for  the  striking  out  of  the  objectionable 
card  provision,  the  old  employees  would  be  installed  in  the  situations 

they  had  vacated,  the  members  of  the  employing 
Futility  printers'  committee  replied  that  so  far  as  they  were 

of  Final  personally  concerned  that  would  be  done,  but  that 

Negotiations,     they  had  no  power  to  require  the  other  members  of 

their  association  to  do  so ;  that  the  latter  must  decide 
for  themselves  whether  or  not  to  retain  the  non-union  compositors 
that  had  been  employed  since  the  strike  opened.  The  six  employers 
expressed  satisfaction  with  the  projected  compact,  with  the  exception 
of  the  offer  that  was  made  by  the  Typothetas  on  October  13th. 
From  that  they  receded,  suggesting  that  the  proposal  be  amended 
so  as  to  read:  "  On  the  acceptance  of  this  agreement  the  old  em- 
ployees in  all  branches  of  the  trade  shall  return  to  work  without 
prejudice  to  other  workmen  on  the  part  of  the  employers  or  the 
union."  In  addition  to  this  they  would  not  guarantee  the  re-employ- 
ment of  every  man  in  his  foraier  position.  At  the  same  time  they 
felt  confident  that  all  the  striking  journeymen  would  find  work  in 
one  office  or  another.  Through  President  Glackin  the  union  com- 
mittee responded  to  this:  "  If  that  is  the  case,  why  there  is  no  use 
wasting  any  more  time  conferring  here.  Unless  every  man  goes 
back  to  the  position  he  left  when  the  strike  took  place  we  cannot 
proceed  further.  You  have  all  along  claimed  that  your  only  objec- 
tion was  to  the  card  clause.  Now,  when  that  is  modified  so  as  to 
admit  of  a  compromise,  you  tell  us  that  the  members  of  the  Ty- 
pothetse  have  not  given  you  the  right  to  settle  terms  of  agreement 
in  other  respects."  Replying  to  this  the  employers  declared  that 
they  would  not  agree  to  discharge  the  new  hands. 

Later  in  the  same  day  Vice-President  William  E.  Boselly  and 
Secretary   Theodore   C.    Wildman    of    the    Typographical   Union 

addressed  a  communication  to  President  Glackin 
Defeat  asking  him  if  he  were  willing  to  allow  Commissioner 
for  the  Donovan  to  select  two  members  of  the  union  as  a 
Union.  committee   to   settle   the   dispute.     The   president 

sent  a  negative  answer  to  the  letter.  Committees 
of  the  organization  of  journeymen  afterward  waited  upon  the  employ- 
ers, but  only  in  a  few  instances  were  any  further  concessions  granted. 
On  October  27  th  the  union  permitted  its  members  to  return  to  work, 
and  on  January  i ,  1888,  the  strike  was  formally  declared  off.  During 
its  progress  $20,000  was  expended  in  relief  to  those  who  were  engaged 
in  it. 


MOVEMENTS   FOR   HIGHER   WAGES.  323 

XXI. 

Partial  Reduction  of  Book  Scale  in   1889. 

Following  the  close  of  the  dispute  the  book  scale  fell  into  desuetude, 
and  on  February  3,  1889,  the  Discipline  Committee  recommended  to 
the  union,  which  voted  its  approval  of  the  plan,  "  that  the  officers 
be  instructed  to  confer  with  the  different  employers,  with  a  view  to 
the  improvement  of  the  present  unsatisfactory  condition  of  the  trade." 
A  special  session  of  the  organization  was  called  on  February  loth  to 
give  the  subject  further  deliberation  —  or,  as  President  Boselly  put 
it,  "  the  object  of  the  meeting  is  the  consideration  of  the  difficulties 
surrounding  the  employers  who  are  paying  the  scale  of  the  union, 
and  the  adoption  of  a  rate  that  will  enable  the  fair  employers  to 
compete  with  the  unfair  offices."  A  motion  that  the  book  scale 
be  partially  reduced  and  that  the  distinction  between  leaded  and 
solid  matter  be  restored  was  carried  by  an  overwhelming  majority. 
The  officers  were  empowered  to  enter  into  agreements  with  employers 
for  a  scale  on  works  in  the  English  language  to  be  arranged  on  a 
basis  of  37  cents  per  1,000  ems  for  leaded  reprint,  40  cents  for  solid 
reprint  and  leaded  manuscript,  and  43  cents  for  solid  manuscript, 
with  the  understanding  that  the  proprietors  "  are  to  give  preference 
to  members  of  the  union  in  taking  on  hands."  In  1887  the  scale 
contained  but  a  single  rate  (43  cents  per  1,000  ems)  for  composition 
on  books  in  English,  and  by  dividing  the  1889  schedule  into  three 
grades  there  was  necessarily  a  decrease  in  the  prices  for  leaded  reprint 
and  manuscript  and  solid  reprint.  A  new  section  was  added  to  the 
book  scale  of  1889,  by  which  law  cases  were  separated  from  other 
kinds  of  bookwork,  the  prices  of  composition  being  established  at 
37  cents  per  1,000  ems  for  leaded  matter  and  40  cents  for  solid. 

XXII. 

Brief  Newspaper  Strike  in  1889. 

Compositors  on  the  New  York  Herald,  Sun,  Times  and  World 
found  the  following  notice  posted  on  the  walls  when  they  entered 
their  respective  composing  rooms  on  July  21,  1889: 

July  22,  1889. 

The  following  regulations  will  go  into  effect  in  this  office  at  noon  to-day,  and 
will  be  observed  until  further  notice: 

I .  All  cuts  belong  to  the  office.  Insert  cuts  shall  be  paid  for  as  straight  com- 
position. 


324  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

2.  All  corrections  on  advertisements  on  time,  whether  the  space  is  increased 
or  decreased. 

3.  No  make-evens  allowed. 

4.  Overtime  50  cents  an  hour,  with  or  without  composition. 

5.  No  extra  price  on  fat  display  ads. 

6.  Reading  notices  shall  be  paid  for  according  to  the  type  they  are  set  in. 

7.  All  tables  and  rule  and  figure  work  on  time  at  the  option  of  the  office. 

8.  Composition  50  cents  per  i  ,000. 

9.  Men  employed  by  the  week  shall  be  paid  $4  per  day. 

It  was  calculated  that  this  was  equivalent  to  a  decrease  of  10  per 
cent  in  wages,  and  the  Executive  Committee,  after  due  reflection,  in- 
structed the  workers  to  refuse  to  accept  the  reduc- 
Reduction        tion.     Leading  journeymen  in  the  several  composing 
of  Wages        rooms  with  the  officers  of  the  union  waited  on  the 
Attempted.      business  managers  and  discussed  the  question,  but  as 
there  was  not  any  disposition  on  the  part  of  the  news- 
papers to  compromise,  the  order  to  quit  work  was  promptly  obeyed 
in  all  the  offices  excepting  the  Herald.     At  the  height  of  the  crisis 
a  cable  message  was  received  from  James  Gordon  Bennett,  proprietor 
of  the  Herald,  withdrawing  from  the  publishers'  alliance,  and  as  a 
consequence  the  notice  of  new  prices  and  regulations  was  removed 
from  the  typesetting  department  of  that  newspaper.     This  secession 
was  fatal  to  the  plan  of  the  other  three  journals, 
Form  of  which  after  a  brief  cessation  of  labor  agreed  to  take 

Settlement  down  the  objectionable  placards  and  confer  with  a 
Accepted.  committee  from  the  union,  with  the  object  of  adjust- 
ing the  matter  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  concerned. 
A  form  of  settlement  was  drafted  on  July  28th  and  on  the  succeeding 
day  was  signed  by  the  two  parties  to  the  controversy.  These  terms, 
which  were  embodied  in  the  scale  of  prices  on  August  ist,  were  as 
follows : 

In  general  newspaper  composition  everything  within  the  column  rules  belongs 
to  the  compositor,  except:  (i)  Illustrative  cuts  in  news  matter  one  column  in 
width  or  over.  (2)  Standing  advertisements  without  new  matter  to  the  extent 
of  five  lines  being  added  thereto,  or  alterations  to  the  extent  of  five  lines  in  the 
original  space  of  the  advertisement  or  any  mechanical  change  in  the  advertise- 
ment which  may  increase  its  measurement  in  ems  to  the  extent  of  five  lines  with- 
out increasing  its  length  or  width.     (3)  Diagrams  which  have  been  set  on  time. 

Display  advertisements  and  all  advertising  cuts  shall  be  measured  according 
to  the  regular  advertising  type  of  the  paper.  Reading  notices  shall  be  measured 
according  to  the  type  in  which  they  are  set.  Where  an  advertisement  exceeding 
two  columns  in  width  is  set  in  long  primer  or  any  larger  type  no  extra  price  shall 
be  charged. 

Where  compositors  are  employed  to  do  distribution  the  rate  of  compensation 
shall  be  one-fourth  the  rate  of  composition. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  325 

In  offices  where  the  composition  is  done  by  piecework,  type  or  plates  cannot 
be  used  in  one  publication  and  transferred  to  another,  without  being  charged  in 
both  cases,  provided  that  this  shall  not  apply  to  an  extra  edition  of  a  paper. 

On  every  take  containing  not  more  than  ten  lines  of  type  on  which  the  com- 
positor is  required  to  make  even  lines  100  ems  additional  shall  be  paid  by  the 
office.  Where  the  compositor  is  restricted  to  less  than  an  em  and  a  half  in  making 
even,  the  office  shall  pay  100  ems  additional  on  every  such  take,  regardless  of 
the  number  of  lines. 

For  work  done  in  any  language  foreign  to  the  office  an  advance  of  15  cents 
per  1 ,000  ems  shall  be  paid. 

Where  piece  compositors  are  required  to  cut  leads,  rules,  etc.,  or  otherwise 
prepare  material  for  use  in  composition,  they  shall  charge  extra  for  the  time 
thus  consumed. 

On  morning  newspapers: 

Piecework,  50  cents  per  1,000  ems;  six  hours'  continuous  composition  between 
7  p.  M.  and  2  A.  M.  When  required  to  remain  in  the  office  after  3  A.  M.  50  cents 
per  hour  in  addition  to  matter  set  and  continuous  composition,  or  75  cents  per 
hour  in  lieu  thereof. 

In  offices  where  the  composition  is  done  by  piecework  compositors  holding 
weekly  situations  shall  receive  not  less  than  $27  per  week  of  six  days,  nine  hours 
per  day.     The  hours  to  be  between  3  p.  m.  and  3  A.  M.,  and  to  be  continuous. 

Members  of  the  union  may  be  employed  by  the  week  on  morning  newspapers 
between  the  hours  of  7  A.  M.  and  6  p.  M.  at  not  less  than  $20  per  week,  54  hours 
to  constitute  a  week's  work.  In  cases  where  they  are  required  to  do  composition 
they  shall  receive  50  cents  per  i  ,000  ems  in  addition  to  their  regular  salary. 

Where  no  piecework  is  done  $20  per  week  of  six  days,  nine  hours  per  day, 
between  7  a.  m.  and  6  p.  M.     Overtime  50  cents  per  hour. 

At  night  (where  no  piecework  is  done)  $24  per  week  of  six  days,  eight  hours 
per  day,  between  6  p.  M.  and  3  a.  m.     Overtime  50  cents  per  hour. 

Compositors  employed  between  2  p.  m.  and  12  midnight  in  offices  where  no 
piecework  is  done  shall  receive  not  less  than  $22  per  week  of  48  hours. 

When  display  advertisements  are  set  on  time,  compositors  employed  by  the 
piece  shall  receive  not  less  than  55  cents  per  1,000  ems  for  common  matter. 
When  called  from  the  case  to  do  time  work  55  cents  per  hour.  When  required  to 
remain  in  the  office  after  3  A.  M.  55  cents  per  hour  in  addition  to  matter  set  and 
continuous  composition,  or  82  J  cents  per  hour  in  lieu  thereof. 

Morning  papers  paying  the  scale  in  the  preceding  paragraph  may  employ 
compositors  to  set  display  advertisements  at  the  rate  of  $24  per  week  of  six 
days,  eight  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work;  or  $27  a  week  of  six  days,  nine  hours 
to  constitute  a  day's  work.     Overtime,  50  cents  per  hour. 

No  change  was  made  in  the  rule  regarding  tabular  work.  In  the 
1889  scale  of  prices  it  was  also  provided  that  on  evening  newspapers 
"  compositors  holding  weekly  situations  shall  receive  not  less  than 
$24  per  week  of  six  days,  nine  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work,  the 
hours  to  be  between  7  a.  m.  and  6  p.  m.,  and  to  be  continuous." 

Explaining  its  attitude  in  the  controversy  with  the  union  the 
World  on  August  2d  said: 


3*6  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

The  schedule  for  extras  framed  by  the  Typographical  Union  has  gradually 
increased  during  the  past  six  years  until  it  included  many  charges  for  work  not 
actually  performed.  This  the  World,  in  common  with  other  newspapers,  did 
not  consider  equitable,  an  opinion  shared  as  well  by  the  leading  and  most  con- 
servative members  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6.  Chief  among  these  were 
the  payment  of  the  composing  rate  for  the  space  occupied  by  cuts  which  the  office 
had  once  paid  artists,  engravers  and  elcctrotypers  for  making;  the  charge  of 
fine-type  measurement  for  coarse-type  matter  when  the  latter  was  a  "  reading 
notice;"  price  and  a  half  and  double  rates  for  advertisements  that  were  already 
more  easily  and  quickly  set  than  solid  composition.  To  correct  what  seemed 
to  be  an  unbusinesslike  system  and  establish  a  juster  scale  of  wages  three  morning 
newspapers  agreed  upon  a  new  schedule,  not  touching  upon  the  rate  of  com- 
position, which  in  their  estimation  covered  every  particle  of  work  performed  in 
the  composing-room.  As  this  schedule  was  not  satisfactory  to  the  compositors 
the  regularly  constituted  authorities  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  submitted 
three  new  schedules,  one  of  which  was  accepted  by  the  World. 

As  a  proper  compromise  both  sides  yielded  something.  By  this  new  arrange- 
ment the  World  pays  55  cents  per  1,000  ems  for  all  composition  and  will  be  rid 
of  some  of  the  exactions  which  under  the  old  rule  were  universally  regarded  as 
unjust, 

XXIII. 

General  Introduction  of  Composing  Machines,   1890-1894. 

Very  little  attention  was  given  by  the  Typographical  Union  to 
the  question  of  typesetting  machines  during  the  long  period  that  was 
devoted  by  inventors  in  experimentation.  The  earliest  record  of 
the  union  on  the  subject  was  on  June  3,  1883,  when  it  appointed  a 
committee  of  three  to  visit  the  machine  typesetters  and  endeavor 
to  organize  them.  Perfected  composing  devices  at  that  time  were 
of  the  movable  type  variety.  These  could  not  be  operated  profit- 
ably because  each  machine  had  to  be  manned  by  one  compositor 
to  manipulate  a  keyboard  in  order  to  set  the  type  and  by  another 
to  justify  the  lines  thus  composed.  In  addition  to  that  there  was 
a  distributing  machine  that  had  to  receive  the  attention  of  a  third 
workman,  and  in  this  last  operation  considerable  type  was  broken, 
so  that  their  utility  was  of  a  doubtful  character  and  was  never 
seriously  regarded  by  employers,  neither  was  there  any  apprehension 
among  journeymen  as  to  the  possibility  of  their  general  introduction. 
Again,  on  August  15,  1886,  the  question  came  up  when  the  union 
received  a  communication  from  its  members  who  were  engaged  on 
typesetting  machines,  asldng  that  a  committee  be  appointed  to 
arrange  a  piece  scale  for  work  on  such  appliances  and  adopt  rules  for 
their  government.  Compliance  was  given  to  the  request  and  on 
September  5  th  majority  and  minority  reports  were  submitted,  the 
former  being  as  follows: 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  327 

1.  That  $18  per  week  be  paid  on  all  Burr  machines  in  operation  in  union 
offices. 

2.  That  if  at  any  time  business  becomes  dull  and  it  is  necessary  to  curtail 
work,  instead  of  discharging  men  (as  has  been  recently  done),  men  shall  accept 
a  slide.  10 

3.  That  no  person  shall  be  allowed  to  operate  or  justify  on  the  machines  in 
use  at  the  present  time  in  union  offices  unless  they  are  members  of  No.  6  in  good 
standing. 

As  the  minority  in  its  findings  opposed  the  recommendations  of 
the  majority  the  union  deemed  it  advisable  to  refer  both  reports 
to  a  new  committee.     The  matter  remained  dormant 
imtil  August  28,  1887,  when  at  a  special  meeting  it      Machine 
was  incorporated  in  the  tentative  book  and  job  scale      Scale  of  1887 
that  was  adopted  on  that  date.     It  was  provided      ^°*  Effective, 
that  journeymen  employed  on  machines  as  operators, 
justifiers  or  distributors  should  receive  not  less  than  $18  per  week, 
or  if  the  composition  were  performed  by  the  piece,  the  rate  per 
1,000  ems  should  be  7  cents.      Hours  of  labor  were  fixed  at  nine 
per  day.     Stipulation  was  made  that   "  all  persons  employed  on 
typesetting   machines   in   any   capacity   must  be   compositors   by 
trade  and  members  of  the  union,"  and  that  in  accepting  the  scale 
"  the  proprietor  of  a  printing  office  must  elect  whether  he  shall 
employ  men  by  the  week  or  by  the  thousand  ems.     In  all  offices  where 
piecework  is  chosen  all  composition  must  be  done  by  the  piece,  such 
time  men  only  being  allowed  as  are  sufficient  to  do  the  necessary 
making  up,  imposition  and  proofreading."     But  the  scale  did  not 
become  effective,  as  on  September  4th,  at  a  regular  session,  the  chair 
having  ruled  that  it  had  not  been  lawfully  passed,  the  union  ordered 
that  all  reference  to  it  be  erased  from  the  proceedings. 

Some  eighteen  months  elapsed  before  another  discussion  arose 
over  the  question.     It  was  at  a  meeting  of  the  union  held  on  March 
3,  1889.     The  secretary  stated  that  he  had  received 
a  communication  from  a  morning  newspaper  pub-      Introduction 
Usher  asking  if  there  were  any  opposition  on  the      of  Linotype 
part  of  the  union  to  the  introduction  into  the  news-      Machmes. 
paper  trade  of  typesetting  machines.     An  answer 
to  the  query  was  adopted  in  the  form  of  a  resolution,  to  the  effect 
"  that  it  is  the  sense  of  this  union  where  an  employer  desires  to  intro- 
duce typesetting  machines  the  union  should  merely  insist  on  the 


">  Meaning  that  in  order  that  all  might  share  in  the  work,  the  compositors  should  take  turns 
in  "  laying  off,"  each  group  being  idle  at  alternate  periods  of  one  or  more  days.  By  this  course 
the  organization  of  the  working  force  in  an  establishment  was  kept  intact. 


328  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

payment  of  the  scale  of  the  union  and  the  employment  of  its  mem- 
bers to  do  the  work."  Up  to  1890  printers  were  skeptical  about 
the  successful  development  of  a  mechanical  contrivance  that  would 
displace  hand  labor.  They  felt  confident  that  they  could  successfully 
compete  with  those  that  had  been  constructed  to  compose  movable 
type,  but  they  had  not  taken  into  account  the  linotype,  the  present 
model  of  which  was  in  that  year  perfected  and  placed  upon  the  market. 
As  its  term  denotes,  that  machine  produces  a  solid  line  or  slug,  which 
is  cast  from  brass  matrices  that  at  the  will  of  the  operator  pass 
through  a  channel  from  a  portable  magazine  to  an  assembler,  where 
spacebands  mechanically  wedge  the  line  tightly  and  create  a  perfect 
justification,  after  which  the  metal  enters  the  characters  that  are 
countersunk  in  the  top  of  the  thin  brass  plates,  molding  a  line  that 
solidifies  almost  instantly.  Following  this  process,  the  spacebands 
having  been  separated  from  the  line,  the  matrices  are  automatically 
distributed  in  their  proper  receptacles,  and  the  finished  slug  is  depos- 
ited on  a  specially  provided  galley.  When  the  union  was  apprised 
of  the  fact  that  the  linotype  was  about  to  be  introduced  it  sent  a 
large  committee,  comprising  in  its  make-up  some  of  its  most  thought- 
ful and  conservative  members,  to  examine  the  new  product.  These 
men  saw  at  a  glance  that,  although  a  few  minor  parts  of  the  machine 
were  then  of  rather  crude  construction,  and  which  were  shortly  after- 
ward materially  improved,  the  correct  principle  in  mechanical  com- 
position at  last  had  been  established.  They  were  unanimously  of 
the  opinion  that  the  trade  would  be  revolutionized  in  a  brief  space 
of  time  by  the  invention,  and  they  hastened  to  inform  the  union 
of  that  fact,  urging  that  detached  keyboards  be  obtained  at  once  so 
that  members  could  practice  upon  and  acquire  proficiency  in  operating 
them.  Many  compositors  who  had  not  seen  the  linotype  in  operation 
still  believed  that  it  would  prove  a  failure  like  all  the  other  machines 
that  had  preceded  it.  They  could  not  be  convinced  otherwise,  and 
it  was  this  unbelieving  element  that  opposed  any  movement  that  was 
suggested  to  meet  the  innovation  that  was  already  upon  the  threshold 
of  the  trade.  Despite  this  strong  feeling  of  hostility  sober  judgment 
prevailed  in  the  union  and  it  was  decided  not  to  throw  any  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  the  machines,  but  to  endeavor  to  have  printers  operate 
them  at  fixed  weekly  wages.  Transition  from  hand  to  machine  com- 
position was  gradual,  and  the  precaution  taken  by  the  journeymen 
in  their  association  to  co-operate  with  the  employers  and  the  makers 
of  the  linotype  effected  the  change  without  much  hardship  to  the 
majority  of  the  members. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  329 

It  was  on  September  7,  1890,  that  the  union  began  to  prepare  for 
the  new  order  of  things  by  appointing  a  committee  to  draft  a  scale 
of  prices  for  work  done  on  machines,  with  a  proviso 
that  they  should  be  operated  on  an  entirely  time     Union  Favors 
basis.     Edward  McGovern,  Edward  Meagher,  James     Composing 
Duffy,  James  Ahem  and   J.  W.   McAllister   com-     Devices, 
prised  the  committee,  and  on  October  5th  they  sub- 
mitted a  scale,  accompanied  by  the  following  views  expressive  of  the 
union's  attitude: 

Whereas,  Intelligent  wage  workers  no  longer  view  with  apprehension  the 
introduction  of  labor-saving  machinery  into  their  various  trades,  believing  that 
the  use  of  such  machinery  will  ultimately  accrue  to  the  benefit  of  Labor;  and. 

Whereas,  Such  benefit  will  principally  consist  of  a  reduction  of  the  hours  of 
labor,  the  regulation  of  which  is  the  conceded  function  of  labor  organizations; 
and. 

Whereas,  It  is  apparent  that  inventive  genius  has  at  length  evolved  mechanical 
contrivances  that  will  satisfactorily  perform  in  great  part  the  labor  of  the  human 
typesetter;  therefore, 

Resolved,  That  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  recognizing  these  facts,  welcomes 
the  advent  of  successful  typesetting  machines,  but  maintains  the  right  to  estab- 
lish regulations  for  the  employment  of  its  members  upon  them  that  will  secure 
decreased  hours  of  labor  at  a  fair  rate  of  wages. 


The  union  promptly  adopted  the  foregoing  senti- 
ments, but  decided  to  postpone  action  for  three 
months  on  the  scale  that  the  committee  had  sub- 
mitted and  which  was  as  follows: 


First  Scale 
for  Machine 
Composition. 


Under  this  head  is  included  the  production  of  all  kinds  of  typesetting  or  type- 
casting machines. 

1.  In  machine  composition  all  work  must  be  time  work.  Piecework  cannot 
be  allowed  in  any  case. 

2.  Compositors  employed  on  machines  on  morning  newspapers  shall  receive 
not  less  than  $27  per  week  of  six  days,  eight  continuous  hours  to  constitute  a 
day's  work;  the  hours  to  be  between  6  p.  M.  and  3  A.  M. 

3.  Compositors  employed  on  machines  on  evening  newspapers  shall  receive 
not  less  than  $22  per  week  of  six  days,  eight  continuous  hours  to  constitute  a 
day's  work;  the  hours  to  be  between  8  A.  m.  and  6  p.  M. 

4.  Compositors  employed  on  machines  on  weekly  newspapers,  periodicals, 
book  and  pamphlet  work  shall  receive  not  less  than  $20  per  week  of  six  days, 
nine  continuous  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work;  the  hours  to  be  between  8 
A.  M.  and  6  p.  M. 

5.  Overtime,  which  shall  apply  to  work  done  before,  as  well  as  work  done  after, 
the  hours  specified,  shall  be  charged  at  the  rate  of  one  hour  and  a  half  for  every 
hour  so  employed.  This  section  shall  apply  to  all  branches  of  the  trade  working 
at  machines. 

6.  In  offices  where  both  hand  composition  and  machine  composition  are  done 
there  shall  be  no  culling  of  fat  for  the  machines,  such  as  leaded  matter,  poetry, 


330  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

matter  with  a  great  deal  of  quads  in  it  or  fat  tables.  All  matter  must  be  given 
out  in  a  fair  manner,  without  reference  to  display  advertisements,  which  cannot 
be  set  by  machines. 

7.  Matter  set  by  machines  during  the  daytime  cannot  be  used  on  a  morning 
newspaper  on  which  piecework  is  done,  unless  paid  for  at  morning  newspaper 
machine  rates. 

8.  Matter  set  by  machines  during  the  night  time  cannot  be  used  on  an  evening 
newspaper  or  other  publication  on  which  piecework  is  done,  unless  paid  for  at 
the  machine  scale  for  work  done  in  that  office. 

9.  No  dupes  to  be  taken,  measurements  made,  or  stents  allowed  on  composi- 
tion done  by  the  day  or  week. 

10.  In  no  case  can  a  member  working  on  a  linotype  or  typesetting  machine 
receive  less  than  a  day's  pay. 

11.  No  person  shall  be  allowed  to  operate  a  linotype  or  typesetting  machine 
who  is  not  a  member  in  good  standing  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6. 

General  revision  of  the  wage  scale  having  been  ordered  at  the 
meeting  of  January  4,  1891,  the  machine  schedule  that  had  been 
proposed  in  the  preceding  October  was  referred  to 
Unwisdom  a  committee,  together  with  "  all  pending  amend- 

of  Radical  ments  regarding  piece  and  time  work."     The  revi- 

Wage  Changes,  sionists  reported  on  February  ist  that,  "  after  thor- 
ough consideration  of  the  conditions  of  the  various 
branches  of  the  trade,  the  committee  believes  it  unwise  at  this  time 
to  make  any  radical  changes  in  the  scale.  Its  aim  has  been  to 
remedy  existing  inequalities,  and  to  so  simplify  the  provisions  of  the 
scale  as  to  prevent,  as  far  as  possible,  misconstruction  of  their  mean- 
ing, and  so  obviate  the  necessity  for  frequent  appeals  to  the  Executive 
Committee.  In  the  opinion  of  the  committee  the  time  is  not  ripe 
for  making  a  machine  scale.  It  therefore  recommends  that  for  the 
present  all  compositors  working  on  typesetting  or  typecasting  ma- 
chines shall  be  paid  at  not  less  than  the  regular  time  scale  governing 
the  class  of  work  upon  which  they  are  employed."  Most  important 
of  the  changes  recommended  by  the  committee  was  that  on  evening 
newspapers  where  there  was  not  any  piecework  the  rate  should  be 
established  at  $21  per  week,  making  it  optional  for  the  proprietors 
of  afternoon  journals  to  employ  their  compositors  either  exclusively 
on  time  or  by  the  piece.  That  provision  was  afterward  adopted, 
and  in  March  the  Evening  World,  Evening  Sun  and  Evening  Call 
inaugurated  the  time  system,  the  compositors  working  nine  hours 
daily,  but  on  June  7th  the  union  repealed  the  enactment,  and  in- 
structed its  officers  to  enforce  the  piece  scale  in  the  evening  newspaper 
composing  rooms  at  the  commencement  of  the  next  fiscal  week.  It 
was  also  decided  to  restore  the  weekly  rate  of  $24  for  proofreaders, 
make-ups  and  other  time  employees  on  evening  papers,  which  pro- 


MOVEMENTS   FOR   HIGHER   WAGES. 


331 


vision,  originally  adopted  in  1889,  ^^ad  been  abrogated  when  the  all- 
time  scale  was  passed.  Then  it  was  moved  that  the  machine  scale 
submitted  by  the  special  committee  on  October  5,  1890,  be  read  and 
adopted  as  a  whole.  The  proposition  was  carried  and  the  officers 
were  directed  to  put  it  in  force  at  once. 

Matters  in  relation  to  the  machine  question  proceeded  with  in- 
considerable friction.  The  union,  while  it  was  eager  to  make  the 
conditions  surrounding  their  operation  beneficial 
to  its  membership,  handled  with  precise  judgment  School  of 
the  problem  with  which  it  had  been  so  suddenly  Instruction 
confronted.  It  moved  slowly  and  from  time  to  Proposed. 
time  in  the  first  few  years  of  the  change  in  the  method 
of  composition  it  made  regulations  conformable  to  the  new  situation 
that  were  mutually  satisfactory  to  the  employers  and  to  its  members. 
Upon  the  recommendation  of  its  organizer  on  January  4,  1892,  the 
association  created  a  committee  to  devise  some  plan  whereby  mem- 
bers of  the  union  might  be  afforded  an  opportunity  to  operate  the 
machines,  and  at  the  same  meeting  ordered  "  that  where  members 
do  not  produce  matter  for  use  in  papers  and  books  they  be  not 
considered  as  working  and  need  not  demand  the  scale. ' '  On  February 
7th  the  committee  reported,  recommending  tliat  the  scale  be  amended 
by  striking  out  the  clause  prohibiting  the  measurement  of  matter 
set  on  machines,  that  a  school  of  instruction  be  opened,  and  that  a 
committee  be  appointed  with  power  to  rent  rooms,  lease  machines 
and  determine  the  question  of  priority  of  all  applicants.  That  com- 
mittee, which  was  composed  of  Secretary  William  Ferguson,  Fred- 
erick L.  Fleming,  John  E.  Gladstone  and  Charles  J.  Dumas,  reported 
on  February  14th  that  it  has  been  unable  to  make  much  progress, 
"  as  the  undertaking  is  one  of  considerable  magnitude  and  will  involve 
a  large  expenditure  of  money,  and  the  committee  desires  to  proceed 
with  due  caution.  We  have  secured  a  number  of  lithographs  of 
the  keyboard,  which  may  prove  valuable  in  learning  the  keys.  These 
will  be  distributed  to  those  who  desire  them.  We  are  unable  to 
state  when  we  will  be  able  to  secure  machines."  As  the  required 
number  of  machines  could  not  be  procured  immediately  and  as  a 
school  for  learners  could  not  be  operated,  it  was  estimated 
by  the  committee,  for  less  than  $400  per  month  the  subject 
was  not  pursued  further  at  that  time.  The  matter,  however, 
came  to  the  surface  again  on  June  7,  1896,  when  the  president  re- 
ported that  the  executive  head  of  the  linotype  company  had  tendered 
the  union  the  use  of  two  machines  free  for  one  year  for  the  purpose 
of  instructing  members.      A  committee  that  had  been  appointed 


332  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

to  ascertain  the  practicability  of  the  plan  and  its  probable  cost 
reported  on  November  ist  that  it  had  "carefully  looked  into  the 

matter,  and  while  unable  to  unanimously  agree  as 
Linotype  Concern  ^q  ^j^g  |-,gg^  course  to  follow,  decided  to  present  the 
Offers  Free  different  phases  of  the  question  to  the  union  with- 

Machines  ^^^   recommendation."       The    committee    thought 

that  the  only  course  the  union  could  pursue  was  to 
accept  the  machines,  "  if  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  prevent  the 
establishment  of  some  other  school  of  instruction,  which  we  would 
be  unable  to  control.  To  have  a  place  where  our  members  could 
gain  some  knowledge  of  the  machines  would  seem  to  be  the  duty  of 
the  union  even  at  this  late  day.  Men  employed  in  offices  where 
machines  are  about  to  be  introduced  could  then  be  instructed  in 
the  use  of  the  machines  and  be  competent  to  hold  situations  under 
the  new  conditions.  On  the  other  hand,  the  number  of  men  who  will 
want  to  learn  on  the  machines  and  the  limited  opportunity  at  the 
disposal  of  the  union  will  be  a  hard  question  to  handle."  The  lino- 
type concern,  it  was  pointed  out,  would  object  to  the  union  using 
the  product  where  it  came  into  direct  competition  with  patrons  who 
had  paid  for  the  use  of  machines,  but  would  favor  the  utilization  of 
the  matter  set  in  the  union's  own  work  or  in  any  enterprise  it  might 
create  —  such  as  a  weekly  or  monthly  publication,  circulars,  etc. 
The  committee  stated  that  the  best  method  of  running  the  machines 
would  be  in  connection  with  an  office  already  having  a  plant;  that 
the  cost  of  erecting  a  partition  and  extending  shafting  would  be 
$ioo,  and  that  the  weekly  expenditure  of  conducting  the  institution 
would  be  $2 9.  A  committee  of  three  was  selected  and  ordered  "  to 
wait  on  the  president  of  the  linotype  company  and  ascertain  if  the 
same  privileges  as  are  granted  to  others  cannot  be  secured  for  mem- 
bers of  No.  6."  There  the  matter  rested  until  June  3,  1900,  on  which 
date  the  president  of  the  linotype  company  renewed  his  offer  "  to 
furnish  No.  6,  without  charge,  with  two  or  three  machines  for  use  in 
the  instruction  of  its  members,  provided  they  are  not  used  for  com- 
mercial purposes."  In  his  letter  he  called  attention  to  the  fact  that 
a  school  having  two  machines  was  then  being  successfully  operated 
under  the  auspices  of  the  printers'  union  in  Washington.  A  vote 
of  thanks  was  extended  to  the  concern's  chief  official,  but  action 
on  his  proffer  was  not  at  all  speedy,  for  it  was  not  considered  until 
April  7,  1 90 1.  Then  the  union  concurred  in  a  recommendation  of 
its  Executive  Committee  to  send  out  another  committee  to  obtain 
information  regarding  the  terms  of  the  company  and  the  advisability 
of  establishing  a  linotype  school.    The  investigators  were  thorough 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  333 

in  their  inquiry,  taking  until  June  2d  to  make  known  their  findings. 
They  reported  that  they  had  conferred  with  the  company's  president, 
who  had  informed  them  "  that  almost  daily  he  receives  applications 
from  men  who  wish  linotype  instruction,  most  of  these  applications 
coming  from  members  of  typographical  unions,  and  that  he  prefers 
to  have  union  men  operate  the  machines.  He  proposes  to  place  at 
the  disposal  of  this  union  any  number  of  machines,  placing  no  time 
limit  or  any  other  restrictions  upon  us,  except  that  they  receive  the 
care  of  a  competent  machine-tender,  and  that  we  do  no  commercial 
work."  Mentioning  the  Washington  school  of  instruction,  the  com- 
mittee said  that  "  a  six- weeks'  course  in  operating,  two  hours  a  day 
for  the  first  two  weeks  and  four  hoiirs  a  day  for  the  remaining  four 
weeks,  besides  unlimited  practice  on  dummy  keyboards,  costs  $60;  a 
six-weeks'  course  in  machine-tending,  which  time  may  be  extended 
indefinitely,  $50;  a  combined  course  in  operating  and  machine-tending 
until  proficient,  $85."  Careful  inquiry  by  the  committee  into  the 
probable  weekly  cost  of  maintaining  a  plant  of  four  machines  showed 
this  result:  Machine-tender,  $25;  gas  for  heating  metal,  $4;  rent, 
$10;  waste  metal,  light  and  power,  $5  —  a  total  of  $44.  The  com- 
mittee did  "  not  deem  it  prudent  to  recommend  this  heavy  expend- 
iture. It  seems  impracticable  to  establish  a  free  school,  for  the  reason 
that  perhaps  not  more  than  100  men  could  be  taught  properly  in  a 
year,  and  the  selection  of  those  to  be  given  first  opportunity  is  not  a 
pleasant  matter  to  anticipate  in  itself,  while  on  the  other  hand  a 
great  number  of  otir  members  quite  likely  would  be  opposed  to  pay- 
ing $2,300  each  year  until  all  our  members  became  proficient  opera- 
tors. Nor  does  your  committee  deem  it  wise  to  recommend  that  the 
union  establish  a  school  and  charge  tuition,  for  in  such  a  venture 
there  is  a  considerable  amount  of  risk  and  respon- 
sibility. We  therefore,  being  unable  to  arrive  at  a  institution 
satisfactory  conclusion,  present  the  foregoing  facts  for  Learners 
without  a  recommendation  of  any  kind."  A  motion  N°*  Opened, 
on  July  7  th  that  a  committee  be  appointed  to  estab- 
lish a  school  of  instruction  was  lost,  and  the  subject  never  has  been 
revived  by  the  union  since  that  time. 

Equal  apportionment  of  fat  matter  in  chapels  where  both  machine 
and  hand  composition  was  done  was  a  question  that  created  a  ripple 
at  the  meeting  of  February  14,  1892.  It  was  precipitated  by  the 
Executive  Committee,  which  reported  that  there  having  been  some 
doubt  as  to  what  constituted  an  equitable  division  of  such  matter 
in  the  Recorder  office,  it  had  "  decided  that  a  portion  of  the  matter 
which  was  being  set  on  the  machines  —  viz :  the  stock  table  —  should 


334  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

go  to  the  compositors.  The  officers  enforced  the  decision,  which  was 
complied  with  under  protest,  the  office  continuing  to  set  the  table 
on  machines  and  allowing  the  compositors  to  measure  the  same  as 
though  set  by  hand.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  there  can  be  no  fixed 
rule  whereby  the  fat  can  be  satisfactorily  divided  between  a  mixed 
force,  your  committee  would  earnestly  urge  upon  the  union  the 
necessity  of  some  action  looking  toward  an  entire  time  scale  in  offices 
where  machine  composition  is  done,  and  to  this  end  would  recommend 
the  repeal  of  the  clause  prohibiting  time  work  on  hand  composition 
in  offices  where  machines  are  used."  The  meeting  ordered  "  that 
this  decision  stand  as  the  decision  of  the  union,"  and  it  was  determined 
to  send  to  the  referendum  a  proposition  to  repeal  that  section  of  the 
scale  which  provided  that  "  on  all  newspapers  where  machines  are 
in  use  all  type  set  by  hand  shall  be  paid  for  by  the  piece. ' '  Announce- 
ment was  made  at  the  meeting  of  April  3d  that  the  abrogation  of  the 
provision  had  been  secured  by  a  vote  of  1,873  for,  to  1,130  against. 
A  motion  prevailed  to  again  refer  the  question  to  the  chapels,  on  the 
ground  that  many  members  had  not  understood  it,  and  on  May  ist 
the  secretary  informed  the  meeting  that  the  resolution  had  been 
defeated —  1,100  members  voting  for  repeal  and  1,149  against  it. 
But  the  Executive  Committee  was  persistent  in  its  efforts  to  have  the 
piece  scale  on  hand  composition  in  machine  offices  rescinded,  renew- 
ing its  recommendation  to  that  effect  on  August  14th,  and  proposing 
that  the  schedule  be  so  amended  as  to  allow  a  uniform  time  scale. 
These  suggestions  were  turned  over  to  a  Revision  Committee,  which 
on  September  4th  offered  a  resolution  favoring  the  retention  of  piece 
rates  for  hand  composition  on  newspapers  that  had  installed  machines, 
but  with  these  restrictions: 

1.  Offices  using  five  or  more  machines  shall  have  the  privilege  of  adopting  the 
all-time  scale. 

2.  Any  office  adopting  the  all-time  scale  throughout  shall  be  required  to 
instruct  men  working  at  case  in  the  operation  of  the  machine  at  the  full  machine 
scale. 

3.  Offices  adopting  the  all-time  scale  shall  pay  $27  per  week  of  six  days  — 
eight  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work. 

4.  In  all-time  offices  no  stents  must  be  allowed. 

5.  No  sUdes  to  be  permitted  in  all-time  offices. 

6.  In  all-time  offices  the  number  of  boys  employed  shall  be  one  to  every  fifteen 
journeymen  and  majority  fraction  thereof,  members  of  the  union. 

7.  The  hours  to  be  between  3  p.  M.  and  3  A.  M. 

Action  was  deferred  on  the  foregoing,  and  on  September  4th  the 
meeting  adopted  the  following  after  some  discussion: 


MOVEMENTS   FOR  HIGHER   WAGES.  335 

Whereas,  The  union  has  by  a  large  majority  voted  in  opposition  to  the  adoption 
of  an  all-time  scale  for  the  offices  in  which  machines  are  in  use;  and, 

Whereas,  There  is  at  present  in  existence  a  committee  for  the  revision  of  the 
scale  in  its  entirety;  and, 

Whereas,  The  membership  of  the  union  is  not  fully  informed  as  to  the  full 
bearing  of  the  adoption  of  an  all-time  scale  for  composition  of  the  fat  matter  in 
those  offices  as  compared  with  the  offices  where  the  composition  is  in  part  or 
all  performed  by  hand;  and, 

Whereas,  There  has  been  no  mention  made  of  a  piece  scale  for  the  operation 
of  machines,  which  has  been  favorably  considered  in  other  cities;  and, 

Whereas,  The  adoption  of  an  all-time  scale  would  naturally  result  in  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  present  scale  in  offices  where  machines  are  not  now  in  use,  the  infer- 
ence being  that  the  other  proprietors  would  not  pay  the  present  scale  of  50  cents 
for  setting  their  fat  while  other  offices  are  having  the  same  work  performed  for 
$27  per  week;  and, 

Whereas,  The  adoption  of  an  all-time  scale  in  machine  offices  would  undoubtedly 
encourage  other  employers  in  the  use  of  the  machines;  therefore,  be  it 

Resolved,  That  it  would  be  for  the  best  interests  of  the  union  that  the  members 
have  a  better  opportunity  to  consider  this  change  of  the  scale,  and  that  the  entire 
question  relating  to  the  machines  be  referred  to  a  committee  of  25  representative 
members. 

The  course  pursued  as  indicated  in  the  above  resolve  did  not 
accomphsh  satisfactory  results,  and  on  November  3d  another  com- 
mittee was  selected  and  instructed  "  to  prepare  two  resolutions  to 
be  submitted  to  the  trade  as  to  whether  work  done  in  machine 
offices  shall  be  done  on  time  or  on  piece,  at  the  same  hours  of  labor." 
The  question  was  settled  within  a  fortnight,  the  referendum  vote 
favoring  the  adoption  of  an  all-time  scale  in  machine  offices.  Then 
on  December  3d  a  schedule  to  conform  to  that  decision  was  passed. 
These  were  the  additions  to  the  scale  of  October  5,  1890:  (i)  "  On 
morning  newspapers  where  advertisements  are  set  on  time  eight  hours 
shall  constitute  a  day's  work,  and  all  compositors  shall  receive  the 
same  wages  as  operators. "  ( 2 )  "  Men  may  be  employed  on  machines 
on  morning  newspapers  in  the  daytime  at  night  rates,  said  employ- 
ment to  be  regular  situations."  (3)  "  Evening  newspaper  rate 
raised  from  $22  to  $24  per  week,  all  compositors  to  be  paid  the  same 
rate  as  operators."  (4)  "  In  piece  offices  members  of  Typographical 
Union  No.  6  while  learning  to  operate  machines  shall  be  permitted 
to  work  at  such  rates  as  the  Executive  Committee  may  decide,  the 
time  of  learning  not  to  exceed  two  months."  (5)  "Any  office  adopt- 
ing the  all-time  scale  throughout  shall  be  required  to  instruct  men 
working  at  the  case  in  the  operation  of  the  machines  at  the  full 
machine  scale."  (6)  "All  compositors  employed  in  offices  where 
machines  are  introduced  must  have  the  exclusive  privilege  of  learn- 


336  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

ing  and  becoming  familiar  with  their  operation.  No  obstruction  or 
restriction  whatever  shall  be  placed  upon  or  stand  in  the  way  of 
learners  other  than  that  they  are  not  practical  printers."  (7)  "In 
all-time  offices  no  stents  or  slides  shall  be  allowed."  (8)  "  The 
officers  of  the  union  are  empowered  to  enter  into  a  contract  for  at 
least  one  year  with  offices  adopting  the  all-time  scale." 

A  committee  that  had  been  charged  to  prepare  a  machine  scale  for 
bookwork  and  for  newspapers  other  than  those  issued  daily  sub- 
mitted the  fruits  of  its  labors  on  January  i,  1893. 
Machine  Most  of  its  recommendations  were  accepted  by  the 

Schedule  for  union,  and  the  scale  was  ordered  to  be  put  in  force 
Bookwork.  ^j^g  f^j-g^  week  in  April.  This,  however,  was  not 
done,  and  on  May  7th  the  Executive  Committee 
objected  to  the  enforcement  of  the  proposed  schedule  because  it 
"  would  be  detrimental  to  the  interests  of  the  union,  would  do 
considerable  injury  to  many  members,  and  prove  of  no  benefit 
whatever  in  any  case."  The  matter  was  then  referred  to  a  com- 
mittee of  two  from  each  machine  office,  and  on  June  4th  its  report 
was  presented,  but  action  was  postponed  until  November  12th, 
when  the  following  list  of  prices  was  adopted  and  put  into  effect : 

1.  Compositors  employed  on  typesetting  machines  on  weekly  newspapers, 
periodicals,  book  and  pamphlet  work  shall  receive  not  less  than  $20  per  week 
of  six  days,  nine  continuous  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work,  the  hours  to  be 
between  8  A.  M.  and  6  P.  M. 

2.  In  offices  where  machines  are  used  and  hand  compositors  are  employed 
all  time  hands  shall  receive  not  less  than  $18  per  week  (exclusive  of  machine 
operatives)  —  nine  consecutive  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work. 

3.  Distributors  on  machines,  except  members  of  the  union,  shall  not  be  allowed 
to  distribute  head  lines,  etc.;  neither  shall  they  be  allowed  to  practice  on  the 
keyboard  or  any  other  part  of  the  typesetting  machine,  correct  proof  or  lift 
matter  from  forms. 

4.  Overtime,  which  shall  apply  to  work  done  before,  as  well  as  work  done 
after,  the  hours  specified,  shall  be  charged  at  the  rate  of  one  hour  and  a  half  for 
every  hour  so  employed.  This  section  shall  apply  to  all  hands  on  time  in  machine 
offices. 

5.  All  compositors  employed  in  offices  where  machines  are  introduced  shall 
have  the  privilege  of  learning  and  becoming  familiar  with  their  operation.  Com- 
positors taken  from  the  case  to  learn  to  operate  the  machines  shall  receive  not 
less  than  $20  per  week.  No  obstruction  or  restriction  whatever  shall  be  placed 
upon  or  stand  in  the  way  of  learners  other  than  that  they  are  not  practical  printers. 

6.  When  weekly  or  monthly  newspapers  in  any  form  are  set  partly  by  hand 
and  partly  by  machines,  such  job  shall  be  all  time  work.  Compositors  (except 
those  mentioned  in  Section  i )  shall  receive  not  lessthan$i8  per  week  of  six  days — 
nine  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work. 

7.  In  no  case  can  a  member  working  on  a  linotype  or  typesetting  machine 
receive  less  than  a  day's  pay. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR   HIGHER   WAGES.  337 

That  the  machine  problem  had  reached  a  solution  by  the  union 
at  the  end  of  1893  i^a^y  be  inferred  from  the  report,  on  November 
5th,  of  a  committee  that  had  been  appointed  to  devise  ways  whereby 
members  might  learn  to  operate  the  mechanical  composers.  That 
committee  stated  "  that  in  nearly  all  the  offices  ample  opportunity 
is  given  employees  to  become  operators,  and  they  recommend  that 
in  offices  where  there  are  no  machinists  on  hand  for  office  work 
chapels  make  arrangements  whereby  compositors  who  have  the 
privilege  to  practice  on  machines  recompense  machinists  in  the  same 
manner  as  is  now  done  by  the  World  chapel;"  which  recommendation 
received  the  approval  of  the  union. 

A  special  price  for  extras  put  on  by  foremen  in  machine  offices, 
either  day  or  night,  was  passed  November  3,  1893,  requiring  that 
such  temporary  employees  should  receive  $5  for  a  day's  work  of 
eight  hours.  Provision  was  also  made  that  "  where  an  office  intro- 
duces machines  they  shall  not  discharge  men  and  replace  them  by 
new  operators,  but  shall  take  operators  from  those  already  members 
of  the  chapel,  and  instruct  them."  This  latter  rule  referred  to  men 
who  had  been  members  of  a  chapel  at  least  three  months  before  the 
introduction  of  the  first  machine  in  such  shop,  and  applied  "  only 
to  offices  during  the  period  of  transition,  the  end  of  such  period  to 
be  determined  by  the  Executive  Committee,  on  the  recommendation 
of  the  chairman." 

Although  the  union  sought  to  standardize  the  qualification  of 
machine  operators  it  did  not  attempt  to  restrict  production.     On 
June  3,  1894,  it  decreed  that  "  the  minimum  amount 
of  ems  by  which  the  degree  of  competency  shall  be      Opposed  to 
established  be  placed  at   18,000  ems  for  a  day's      Restriction 
work  of  eight  hours,  and  any  operator  attaining  the      °^  Output. 
ability  to  set  that  amount  shall  be  eligible  to  sub 
or  hold  a  situation  in  any  office  working  under  the  trade  regulations 
of  Typographical  Union  No.  6."     In  truth,  it  was  opposed  to  any 
proposition  looking  to  a  limitation  of  the  output,  which  fact  was 
accentuated  on  November  i,  1896,  when  it  signally  defeated  this 
proposed  amendment  to  the  schedule  of  rates  for  machine  work: 
"  No  operator  shall  be  allowed  to  set  over  36,000  ems  per  day  of 
eight  hours.     Any  member  of  the  union  exceeding  this  maximum 
output  shall  be  fined  $15  for  the  first  offense,  $20  for  the  second 
offense,  and  on  satisfactory  proof  of  a  third  violation  said  member 
shall  forfeit  his  membership  in  Typographical  Union  No.  6." 


338  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

XXIV. 

Effect  of  the  1  893  Panic  on  Wages. 

The  panic  that  began  in  1893  depressed  the  industrial  world  for 

several  years,  and  its  effect  upon  the  printing  trade  halted  any 

attempt  at  increases  in  the  scale.      On  the  other  hand, 

Reduction  for     there  were  not  any  general  reductions  in  wage  rates. 

Three  Months    One  of  the  leading  morning  newspapers  was  still  hav- 

on  Novels.  jj^g  j^g  type  set  by  hand  on  April  i,  1894,  and  on 

that  date  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  union 
reported  adversely  on  a  proposition  to  reduce  the  piece  scale  10  per 
cent  for  such  composition.  The  union  concurred  and  thereafter  as 
long  as  the  prices  for  hand  work  were  retained  in  the  schedule — and 
they  were  not  eliminated  until  all  the  newspaper  composing  rooms 
had  been  equipped  with  machines  —  pieceworkers'  rates  remained 
stationary.  Toward  the  end  of  1896  a  special  committee  was 
charged  by  the  union  to  confer  with  a  like  body  from  the  Typothetae 
"in  relation  to  readjusting  the  piece  scale  on  straight  book  matter." 
A  report  was  submitted  on  January  3,  1896,  the  committee  stating 
to  the  associated  journeymen  that  so  far  as  book  composition  was 
concerned  the  trade  was  in  a  bad  condition.  It  was  found  that  the 
majority  of  plain  print  novel  works,  which  previously  had  been  pro- 
duced in  New  York,  were  then  being  done  outside  of  the  city  and 
in  some  unfair  offices  in  town.  "  We  also  find  it  to  be  impossible," 
said  the  committee,  "  for  contracting  printers  who  are  paying  our 
scale  in  its  entirety  to  compete  with  these  unfair  offices,  which  are 
paying  30  and  35  cents  per  1,000  ems  for  plain  reprint  novel  works. 
Consequently  the  large  book  offices  get  very  little,  if  any,  of  this 
class  of  work,  and  many  of  our  members  are  idle.  Representatives 
of  the  various  book  offices  appeared  before  your  committee,  and, 
although  many  expressed  themselves  openly  in  favor  of  a  reduction 
in  the  book  scale  for  straight  reprint  novel  works  only,  yet  the  majority 
seemed  to  be  opposed  to  any  attempt  to  reduce  at  the  present 
time.  Your  committee,  after  taking  into  consideration  everything 
in  relation  to  our  membership,  are  unanimous  in  oiu*  opinion  that 
it  would  be  unwise  to  make  any  reduction  in  the  book  scale  as  it 
now  stands."  A  recommendation  was  made  by  the  committee  that 
the  officers  make  special  agreements  with  contracting  printers  for 
straight  reprint  novel  works  "so  as  to  prevent,  as  far  as  possible, 
said  works  from  leaving  the  city,  said  special  agreements  not  to  call 
for  any  reduction  over  5  cents  per  1,000  ems."     This  was  accepted 


MOVEMENTS   FOR   HIGHER  WAGES.  339 

by  the  union,  which  ordered  that  it  be  put  in  force  for  three 
months,  and  required  the  organizer  to  keep  an  account  of  all  work 
gained  by  such  reduction. 

XXV. 

Scale  Amendments  in  1897  and  1898. 

Some  important  additions  were  made  to  the  scale  of  prices  that 
became  operative  on  June  i,  1895,  although  the  regular  rates  were 
not  changed.     The  rule  regarding  the  employment 
of  operators  was  greatly  modified,  permitting  offices       Borrowing 
that  had  installed  at  least  three  machines  to  per-       Matrices 
manently  engage  one  experienced  operator  from       Prohibited, 
outside  the  chapel.     And  the  following,  which  was 
adopted  by  the  Executive  Committee  on  November  22,  1896,  was 
incorporated  in  the  revised  general  newspaper  schedule:     "  The 
practice  of  loaning  and  borrowing  matter  or  matrices  of  advertise- 
ments or  news  matter  between  the  different  morning  newspapers 
or  morning  and  evening  papers  is  repugnant  to  union  principles 
and  contrary  to  law.     That  the  same  be  prohibited.     That  hereafter 
no  office  shall  use  in  local  advertising  matter  any  matrices,  blocks, 
or  type  set  in  any  other  office." 

Regulation  of  overtime  work  was  undertaken  on  May  2,  1897, 
the  union  decreeing  "  that  when  a  regular  on  a  morning  or  evening 
newspaper  has  five  and  one-half  hours'  overtime  he  shall  put  on  a 
sub  during  the  week  or  weeks  in  which  the  overtime  occurs."  This 
rule  was  amended  on  November  19,  1898,  expanding  the  limitation 
so  that  "  eight  hours  shall  constitute  a  day  of  overtime  instead  of 
five  and  one-half  hours  as  at  present;  that  overtime  may  be  an- 
ticipated for  the  purpose  of  computation  under  this  law,  but 
not  for  a  longer  period  than  four  weeks.  Penalty  for  violation: 
First  offense,  $5;  second  offense,  $10;  third  offense,  union  to 
decide." 

Wages  of  learners  on  machines  in  weekly  newspaper  and  book 
offices  were  rearranged  in  the  1897  scale,  so  that  compositors  taken 
from  the  case  were  required  to  be  paid  during  the  period  of  instruction 
$15  for  each  of  the  first  two  weeks,  $18  for  the  third  week,  and  there- 
after the  full  scale.  It  was  also  determined  that  a  member  should 
not  be  allowed  to  act  both  as  machinist  and  operator  on  any  plant 
consisting  of  more  than  three  machines.  Piecework  was  permissible 
under  prescribed  conditions  as  follows:     "  In  offices  where  the  num- 


340  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

ber  of  piece  compositors  exceeds  the  number  of  machines  in  the  ratio 
of  three  to  one,  or  more,  jobs  may  be  set  partly  on  the  machines 
and  partly  by  piece,  hand  composition,  provided  (i)  that  the  copy 
be  run  without  discrimination,  with  no  culling  of  fat  for  the  ma- 
chines; (2)  that  the  piece  compositors  be  given  at  least  40  hours' 
composition  during  the  week  of  59  hours,  or  time  work  at  the 
rate  of  35  cents  per  hour  in  lieu  thereof;  (3)  that  all  time  work  on 
the  job  (except  as  above  mentioned)  shall  be  paid  at  the  rate 
of  $18  per  week  of  six  days — nine  hours  to  constitute  a  day's 
work." 

New  matter  contained  in  the  job  scale  related  exclusively  to 
overtime  and  provided  for  additional  compensation,  thus:     "  When 
required  to  work  two  or  more  hours'  overtime  one- 
Overtime  Rates  half  hour  shall  be  allowed  for  meals  and  charged  by 
Readjusted  for    both  time  and  piece  hands.     Piece  hands  to  receive 
Job  Printers.       ^^^  ^^^  of  23  cents.     If  detained  ten  minutes  after 
the  regular  time  one-half  hour  overtime  shall  be 
charged;  if  detained  40  minutes  one  hour  overtime  shall  be  charged. 
If  required  to  work  after  the  hour  of  12  o'clock  midnight  Saturday 
until  midnight  Sunday  the  following  prices  shall  be  paid:     From 
12  o'clock  midnight  Saturday  to  7  a.  m.,  the  sum  of  90  cents  per  hour; 
from  7  A.  M.  to  6  p.  m.,  60  cents  per  hour;  from  6  p.  m.  to  midnight 
Sunday,  90  cents  per  hour.     Piece  hands,  double  price  during  Sunday 
from  7  A.  M.  to  6  p.  m.,  and  from  12  midnight  Saturday  to  7  a.  m. 
Sunday  60  cents  per  hour  in  addition  to  the  matter  set,  and  after 
6  pm.  Sunday  to  12  midnight  Sunday,  also  60  cents  in  addition  to 
the  matter  set.      Piece  hands  detained  after  the  regular  hours  of 
composition  shall  be  paid  standing  time  at  the  rate  of  45  cents  per 
hour." 

While  the  union  had  for  a  number  of  years  insisted  upon  a  mini- 
mum number  of  hours  for  piece  composition  on  newspapers  it  did 
not  apply  a  similar  rule  to  pieceworkers  in  book  offices  until  1898, 
when  it  passed  a  resolve  requiring  that  compositors  should  receive 
at  least  four  and  one-half  hours'  work  setting  type  any  day  that 
they  were  obliged  to  be  in  the  office,  or  to  be  paid  waiting  time  at 
the  regular  time  scale. 

Issuance  of  newspapers  between  6  o'clock  a.  m.  and  12  o'clock 
noon  caused  the  establishment  by  the  union  of  a  new  rule  applicable 
to  morning  newspaper  offices,  creating  on  March  6,  1898,  an  especial 
working  force  called  the  **  third  shift,"  the  labor  hours  being  fixed 
at  seven  daily,  "  from  2  a.  m.  to  9  a.  m.,  at  the  rate  of  $30  per  week; 
overtime  at  the  rate  of  85  cents  per  hoiir." 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER   WAGES.  34I 

Legislation  of  the  Executive  Council  of  the  International  Typo- 
graphical Union  having  on  June  28,  1898,  required  the  New  York 
subordinate  organization  to  maintain  a  machine- 
tenders'  branch,  composed  of  machinists,  this  wage        Scale  for 
scale  governing  the  work  of  these  mechanicians  in        Machine- 
both  newspaper  and  book  offices  was  soon  after        Tenders, 
adopted  by  Typographical  Union  No.  6 : 

Wages 

Machines.  per  week. 

For  I  or  2 $19 .  50 

For  3  or  4 2 1 .  00 

For  5  to  8 25  .  00 

For  9  to  12 28.00 

For  13  or  more 30.00 

Machine-tenders  working  at  night  shall  receive  $5  per  week  in  addition  to 
the  above  day  scale.  The  regular  working  time  shall  be  six  days  or  nights  per 
week  of  as  many  hours  each  as  are  the  regular  hours  of  operators.  Work  above 
these  hours  shall  be  considered  as  overtime  and  shall  be  charged  at  the  rate  of 
one  hour  and  a  half  for  every  hour  so  employed,  based  on  the  regular  scale  for 
the  specified  hours. 

Discussion  of  the  question  of  piecework  for  hand  composition  in 

book  establishments  where  both  typesetters  and  operators  were 

engaged  was  indulged  in  on  October  i,  1899,  on  a 

proposed   amendment   to   the  constitution,   which    Stnvmg  to 

provided  that  in  such  offices  piecework  could  be    o  °.'^    •  ^^^^ 
1  ,..,...,  .  ,         ,     System  in 

done  on  condition  (i)      that  compositors  employed    bqqj^  offices. 

by  the  piece  shall  be  guaranteed  at  least  six  hours' 
composition,  or  be  paid  for  waiting,  if  any,  within  that  time,  at  the 
regular  time  charge  of  the  office  in  case  the  office  does  not  give  time 
work;"  (2)  "  that  the  office  shall  have  the  privilege  of  sliding  in 
regular  order  men  not  needed,  such  slide  being  for  the  whole  day, 
and  announced  the  night  previous."  The  subject  was  referred  to 
the  Executive  Committee,  which  reported  adversely  on  November 
5th,  the  union  sustaining  its  views  that  regarding  the  first  proposi- 
tion "  the  establishment  of  a  sliding  list  in  offices  where  piecework 
is  permitted  would  only  be  gained  at  the  expense  of  a  large  number 
of  members  who  are  distinctly  piece  hands  —  that  is,  a  law  com- 
pelling the  office  to  guarantee  their  piece  hands  time  work  when  in 
the  office  would  result  in  the  discharge  of  those  men  who,  on  account 
of  the  infirmities  of  age  or  other  reasons,  are  now  given  nothing  but 
piecework.  As  to  the  second  section,  the  introduction  of  piecework 
into  offices  that  are  now  all-time  offices,  we  believe  that  it  has  been 
the  policy  of  our  union  for  many  years  to  strive  for  the  abolition  of 


342  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

piecework  in  all  book  and  job  offices,  because  we  have  learned  that 
from  the  necessarily  complicated  provisions  of  a  piece  scale  have 
arisen  the  large  majority  of  our  conflicts  with  employers,  and  the 
miserable  conditions  which  now  prevail  in  piecework  offices  would 
be  perpetuated  and  extended  to  other  offices  by  this  proposed  law." 
Rates  for  extra  work  were  readjusted  on  December  8,  1899,  for 
book,  job  and  weekly  newspaper  offices  at  a  conference  between 
President  John  H.  Delaney,  on  behalf  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6, 
and  President  Joseph  J.  Little,  representing  the  Typothetae,  as 
follows : 

Overtime  in  all-time  machine  offices:  Operators,  55  cents  per  hour;  hand  com- 
positors and  proofreaders,  50  cents  per  hour.  Overtime  in  part-time  and  part- 
piece  offices:  Operators,  55  cents  per  hour;  hand  compositors  and  proofreaders, 
45  cents  per  hour.  In  the  event  of  any  piece  office  going  out  of  the  transitory 
state  the  machine  scale  shall  prevail.  These  rates  shall  continue  until  April  1, 
1900.  Beginning  with  that  date  overtime  shall  be  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  55  cents 
per  hour  for  machine  operators  and  50  cents  per  hour  for  hand  compositors  and 
proofreaders  in  all  book,  job  and  weekly  newspaper  offices.  The  above  shall  in 
no  way  be  construed  so  as  to  interfere  with  the  overtime  rates  for  special  and 
legal  holidays  provided  for  in  the  scale  of  prices. 


XXVI. 

Increases  for  Book  and  Job  Compositors  in  1902. 

Through  an  agreement  entered  into  by  the  Typographical  Union 
and  the  Typothetae  on  December  9,  1901,  book  and  job  printers 
not  only  received  an  increase  of  wages,  but  peace  was  assured  in 
those  branches  of  the  trade  for  a  period  of  three  years.  On  July 
7  th  a  committee  of  five  that  had  been  appointed  to  confer  with  a 
like  committee  from  the  employers'  association  in  regard  to  a  revised 
scale  reported  that  a  meeting  had  been  held  on  June  26th  and  that 
the  progress  then  made  was  satisfactory.  Other  sessions,  however, 
did  not  bring  about  desired  results,  and  in  the  succeeding  November 
President  Marsden  G.  Scott  and  Secretary  Jerome  F.  Healy  on 
behalf  of  the  union  addressed  the  following  circular  letter  to  all 
employers : 

For  many  years  the  members  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  employed  in  the 
book  and  job  branch  of  the  printing  trade  have  received  but  $3  per  day  of  nine 
hours  for  their  services.  Regardless  of  the  general  wave  of  prosperity  which 
has  been  felt  in  all  lines  of  business,  the  book  and  job  printer  has  been  called 
upon  to  pay  an  increased  price  for  the  necessaries  of  life  despite  the  fact  that  his 
income  has  remained  at  a  figure  ridiculously  low  when  compared  with  the  wages 
received  in  other  skilled  trades. 


MOVEMENTS   FOR   HIGHER   WAGES. 


343 


In  order  that  the  book  and  job  printers  of  this  city  may  provide  the  necessary 
comforts  for  their  families,  more  properly  educate  their  children,  and  be  of 
greater  service  to  their  fellow-men,  the  members  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6 
have  instructed  their  officers  to  present  to  the  employing  printers  of  the  City 
of  New  York  the  following  proposed  changes  in  their  scale  of  prices: 

First —  An  increase  in  the  price  of  piece  composition  of  5  cents  per  1,000  ems. 

Second —  An  increase  of  $2  per  week  in  the  wages  of  book  and  job  compositors; 
making  the  rate  $20  per  week  instead  of  $18  as  at  present. 

Third —  An  increase  of  $2  per  week  in  the  wages  of  machine  operators  in  book 
and  job  offices,  making  the  rate  $22  per  week  instead  of  $20  as  at  present. 

Fourth —  Eight  hours  to  constitute  a  day's  work  on  all  State,  county  and 
municipal  printing,  to  be  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  $20  per  week  for  hand  compositors 
and  $22  per  week  for  machine  operators. 

An  effort  to  better  the  condition  of  the  piece  compositors  will,  we  believe, 
meet  with  the  hearty  co-operation  of  most  employers.  The  average  earnings 
of  these  men  are  not  sufficient  to  provide  the  bare  necessaries  of  life. 

The  increase  asked  for  in  the  time  scale  is  less  than  4  cents  per  hour  and  the 
increase  for  machine  operators  is  the  same. 

The  request  for  eight  hours  on  State,  county  and  municipal  printing  is  in  con- 
formity with  the  present  New  York  State  Labor  Law. 

With  the  sincere  desire  of  bringing  about  the  proposed  changes  in  our  scale 
without  inconvenience  to  our  employers,  representatives  of  this  organization 
will  call  upon  you  to  receive  such  suggestions  as  you  may  be  pleased  to  offer. 

Concession  to  the  demands  was  immediately  made  by  a  number 
of  concerns  not  connected  with  the  master  printers*  organization, 
but  the  Typothetae  demurred  and  a  Joint  Conference 
Committee,  composed  of  leading  representatives  of      Agreement 
the  two  associations,  met  on  December  gth  and      with 
decided  upon  terms  that  were  subsequently  ratified      Typothetae. 
by  both  bodies.     The  agreement,  taking  effect  on 
January  6,  1902,  and  remaining  in  force  until  January  i,  1905,  pro- 
vided for  a  raise  in  the  piece  scale  of  2  cents  per  1,000  ems  —  from 
37  cents  to  39  cents  for  leaded  reprint  and  law  cases,  40  cents  to 
42  cents  for  solid  reprint  and  law  cases  and  leaded  manuscript,  43 
cents  to  45  cents  for  solid  manuscript,  and  from  50  cents  and  $1.80 
to  52  cents  and  $1.82  for  works  done  in  foreign  languages.     There 
was  an  advance  of  $1  per  week  provided  for  time  hands  on  Jan- 
uary 6,  1902,  raising  the  wage  of  job  printers  to  $19  per  week 
and  that  of  machine  operators  to  $21,  with  a  further  increase  of  50 
cents  per  week  for  both  classes  of  workers  on  October  i,  1902.     It 
was  verbally  agreed  that  compositors  engaged  on  public  work  should 
be  employed  eight  hours  daily  and  receive  the  same  compensation 
as  that  provided  for  a  nine-hour  day.     Overtime  was  fixed  at  price 
and  one-half  on  the  minimum  scale;  on  Sundays  and  legal  holidays, 
double  price.     The  conferees  decided  that  all  points  in  dispute  on 


344  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

and  after  March  i,  1902,  should  be  referred  to  a  mutually  chosen 
arbitrator,  "  excepting  such  points  as  conflict  with  the  present 
International  Typographical  Union  laws,  which  shall  be  referred 
to  the  International  bodies  for  arbitration." 


XXVII. 

Proceedings  Under  First  Newspaper  Arbitration  Plan  in  1901. 

Industrial  peace  superseded  strife  in  the  newspaper  branch  of 
the  printing  trade  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century. 
Theretofore  there  had  been  numerous  strikes  to  enforce  demands 
for  increased  wages  or  to  prevent  reductions.  Such  conflicts  had 
caused  heavy  losses  to  both  employers  and  employed,  whom  experi- 
ence had  taught  that  a  get-together  policy  would  promote  their 
interests  far  better  than  periodical  warfare.  Proprietors  took  the 
initiative  in  establishing  permanent  peaceful  relations  with  their 
organized  workers.  In  February,  1900,  the  American  Newspaper 
Publishers'  Association  convened  in  New  York  City  and  authorized 
a  national  committee,  composed  of  Alfred  Cowles,  of  the  Chicago 
Tribune,  Plerman  Ridder,of  the  New  York  Staats-Zeitung,  and  M.  J. 
Lowenstein,  of  the  St.  Louis  Star,  to  negotiate  with  each  of  the 
general  allied  printing  trades  organizations  for  the  creation  of  Joint 
Arbitration  Committees  to  adjust  labor  disputes  between  pubUshers 
and  local  unions.  This  association  of  newspaper  owners  represented 
200  daily  journals  in  the  principal  cities  of  the  United  States,  with 
some  $20,000,000  invested  in  the  plants  of  their  business,  and 
employed  in  their  mechanical  departments  20,000  persons,  three- 
fifths  of  whom  were  members  of  trade  unions.  Frederick  Driscoll, 
who  had  been  selected  by  the  committee  early  in  April  to  look  after 
the  publishers'  interests,  addressed  in  the  following  August  the 
convention  of  the  International  Typographical  Union  in  Milwaukee, 
Wis.,  on  the  topic  of  arbitration  and  urged  that  body  to  enter  into 
an  arrangement  with  the  employers'  organization  whereby  all 
principal  causes  of  friction  would  be  removed  and  that  provision 
be  made  for  the  adjustment  by  pacific  methods  of  any  differences 
that  might  arise  in  the  trade.  The  Executive  Council  of  the  Inter- 
national, comprising  President  James  M.  Lynch,  First  Vice-President 
Charles  E.  Hawkes  and  Secretary-Treasurer  John  W.  Bramwood, 
was  instructed  to  confer  with  the  committee  of  publishers,  with  the 
object  of  arriving  at  an  agreement  providing  for  the  settlement  of 
disagreements  between  any  members  of  the  publishers'  organization 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER   WAGES.  345 

and  the  International  or  its  subordinate  bodies,  and  that,  "  if  the 
American  Newspaper  Publishers'  Association  shall  agree  to  submit 
to  arbitration  all  disputes,  pending  and  future,  between  the  members 
of  said  association  and  the  Typographical  Union  and  its  affiliated 
bodies,  then  the  council  is  instructed  to  prepare  laws  governing  such 
agreement,  submit  them  to  a  referendum  vote  of  the  membership, 
and  use  its  influence  to  the  end  that  they  may  be  adopted  by  popular 
vote  of  the  members  of  the  International  Union."  The  joint  com- 
mittee met  and  devised  a  plan  of  arbitration  that  the  members  of 
the  two  organizations  subsequently  ratified,  the  agreement  going 
into  effect  on  May  i,  1901.  It  stipulated  that  in  case  a  grievance 
could  not  be  settled  by  conciliation  between  publishers  and  a  sub- 
ordinate union  "  then  provision  must  be  made  for  local  arbitration. 
If  local  arbitration  or  arbitrators  cannot  be  agreed  upon  all  differences 
shall  be  referred,  upon  application  of  either  party,  to  the  National 
Board  of  Arbitration.  In  case  a  local  Board  of  Arbitration  is  formed, 
and  a  decision  rendered  which  is  unsatisfactory  to  either  side,  then 
an  appeal  may  be  taken  to  the  National  Board  of  Arbitration  by 
the  dissatisfied  party.  *  *  *  The  National  Board  of  Arbitration 
shall  consist  of  the  president  of  the  International  Typographical  Union 
and  the  commissioner  of  the  American  Newspaper  Publishers' 
Association,  or  their  proxies,  and  in  the  event  of  failure  to  reach 
an  agreement  these  two  shall  select  a  third  member  in  each  dispute. 
The  finding  of  the  majority  of  the  board  shall  be  final  and  shall  be 
accepted  as  such  by  the  parties  to  the  dispute  under  consideration." 
Prior  to  the  adoption  of  the  above  general  plan  Typographical 
Union  No.  6  had  submitted  several  individual  cases  to  arbitration. 
On  June  2,  1874,  the  secretary  reported  to  the  union 
"  that  the  strike  at  Ammerman's  was  settled  by  Recourse  to 
submitting  the  matter  in  dispute  to  Theodore  L.  Arbitration  in 
DeVinne,  another  employing  printer,  as  arbitrator,  Previous  Cases. 
who  decided  in  favor  of  the  union."  A  more 
important  case  was  that  involving  the  Typographical  Union  and  the 
Typothetae  as  to  matters  in  dispute  in  the  office  of  J.  J.  Little  &  Co. 
in  1896.  The  employees  in  the  book  and  job  rooms  of  the  latter 
concern  on  April  9th  of  that  year  presented  to  the  firm  seven  demands, 
which  thereupon  became  the  subject  of  controversy  between  the  two 
parties,  and  a  strike  resulted  on  April  24th,  but  the  men  returned  to 
work  on  April  30th,  under  an  agreement  to  refer  all  the  differences 
at  issue  to  a  joint  committee  of  ten,  five  from  each  of  the  associa- 
tions named.  These  arbitrators  settled  some  of  the  points  in  dis- 
pute, but  those  upon  which  they  could  not  agree  were  submitted  to 


346  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

Hon.  Seth  Low  as  umpire.  The  principal  question  that  was  referred 
to  him  was  the  seventh  demand,  which  required  that  the  book  and 
job  rooms  should  be  recognized  as  card  offices.  "  If  my  functions 
as  arbitrator  permit  me  to  pass  upon  this  demand  only  categorically," 
was  the  judgment  of  the  umpire  on  the  point  at  issue,  "  I  am  obliged 
to  find  that  the  demand  that  the  book  and  job  rooms  of  J.  J.  Little 
&  Co.  be  declared  card  offices  should  be  denied.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  I  am  at  liberty  to  say,  with  hope  of  its  acceptance,  what  I 
think  is  fair  in  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  my  finding  would 
be  this:  That  J.  J.  Little  &  Co.  recognize  Typographical  Union  No. 
6  as  the  accredited  representative  of  the  union  men  in  their  employ 
in  their  book  and  job  rooms,  and  that  permanent  arrangements  be 
made  for  the  arbitration  of  all  differences  between  the  firm  and  the 
union  upon  the  general  lines  of  the  present  arbitration."  Since  that 
decision  was  rendered  on  July  9, 1896,  the  relations  between  the  firm 
and  the  union  have  been  most  cordial. 

Typographical  Union  No.  6  in  1903  asked  for  a  weekly  increase 
of  $3  in  the  wages  of  daily  newspaper  compositors,  proofreaders  and 
composing  machine  operators,  as  follows: 

An  advance  in  the  rate  per  week  on  — 
Evening  newspapers  from  $24  to  $27. 
Morning  newspapers  from  $27  to  $30. 
Third  shift  from  $30  to  I33. 

Efforts  at  conciliation  and  local  arbitration  having  proved  futile 
the  matter  was  referred  to  the  National  Board  of  Arbitration,  con- 
sisting   of    Frederick    Driscoll,    for  the  publishers, 
Arbitrating        James   M.    Lynch,    for  the  union,  and  the  Right 
Demand  for      Reverend  Frederick  Burgess,  Bishop  of  the  Episco- 
an  Advance,      ^q^  Diocese  of  Long  Island,  as  the  third  member  or 
umpire.     This  tribunal  met  in  New  York  City  on 
June  18  and  19,  1903,  and  heard  arguments  pro  and  con  relative  to 
the  demand.     At  the  opening  of  the  proceedings  the  employers 
insisted  that,  in  addition  to  the  matter  of  wages,  the  board  should 
also  pass  upon  the  question  as  to  the  rearrangement  of  labor  hours 
on  Saturday.     This  was  objected  to  by  the  union  because  the  local 
pubUshers'  association  had  been  notified  of  the  withdrawal  of  that 
point  from  the  controversy,  and  as  the  latter  had  made  its  request 
respecting  a  readjustment  of  the  working  time  on  Saturday  after 
it  had  informed  the  journeymen's  association  that  the  question  of 
changing  the  wage  scale  had  been  referred  for  arbitration  to  the 
labor   commissioner  of  the  proprietors'   organization,   the  dispute 
concerning  compensation  should  be  the  only  one  considered,  while 


MOVEMENTS   FOR   HIGHER   WAGES.  347 

the  subsequent  demand  of  the  publishers  should  be  passed  upon  by 
the  union  as  provided  for  in  the  arbitration  agreement  —  first  by 
conciliation,  and  in  the  event  of  failure  to  thus  effect  a  settlement, 
then  arbitration  should  be  invoked.  It  was  ruled  by  the  board  that 
the  question  to  be  decided  related  exclusively  to  an  increase  or 
decrease  of  wages,  but  it  consented  to  the  introduction  of  all  evidence, 
including  that  pertaining  to  hoiu-s,  having  any  bearing  on  the  case. 
Marsden  G.  Scott,  the  union's  spokesman,  sought  a  favorable 
decision  chiefly  on  the  claim  of  an  increased  product  through  the 
introduction  of  machines,  maintaining  that  the 
scale  for  compositors  was  the  same  as  it  was  when  Union's  Reasons 
these  devices  were  generally  installed  in  the  early  for  Advance 
nineties.  He  said  the  existing  schedule  was  practi-  ^^  Wages, 
cally  similar  to  that  of  a  decade  previously,  when 
hand  compositors,  for  $4.50  in  eight  hours'  labor,  produced  from 
8,000  to  10,000  ems,  while  machine  operators,  who  received  $4.50 
for  a  like  amount  of  working  time,  set  from  30,000  to  35,000  ordinarily, 
and  in  many  instances  40,000,  50,000,  and  even  as  high  as  60,000  ems. 
"  We  contend,"  said  the  representative  of  the  printers,  "  that  the 
compositor  has  received  no  benefit  whatever  from  the  introduction 
of  typesetting  machines.  Under  the  hand  piece  scale  the  average 
cost  for  1,000  ems  was  not  less  than  70  cents.  That  included  the 
proofreading,  the  make-up,  and  everything.  The  flat  price  was 
50  cents  per  1,000  ems  to  the  compositor.  Then  the  other  expenses 
in  the  composing  room  brought  the  cost  up  to  70  cents.  Since  the 
introduction  of  machines  it  is  an  actual  fact  that  composition  is 
being  done  in  union  newspaper  offices  in  this  city  for  less  than  35 
cents  per  1,000  ems,  and  can  be  done  by  offices  which  pay  more  than 
on  present  scale."  Statistics  were  submitted  to  show  that  on  morning 
newspapers  50  per  cent  of  the  printers  were  paid  more  than  the 
minimum  price  —  442  receiving  $30  per  week,  ten  $29  and  four  $28. 
"  Those  who  are  now  receiving  the  minimum  scale  have  no  desire 
to  profit  at  the  expense  of  those  who  are  receiving  the  maximum," 
said  Mr.  Scott.  "  We  want  to  bring  out  the  fact  that  those  receiving 
the  maximum  have  no  guarantee  that  they  will  be  getting  $30 
to-morrow,  but  can  be  and  have  been  reduced  and  put  back  for 
personal  reasons,  in  some  cases,  and  we  believe  they  should  be  pro- 
tected by  an  agreed-upon  scale.  They  are  recognized  as  being  worth 
$30  and  they  should  be  protected  in  securing  it."  It  was  moreover 
declared  that  $4. 50  a  day  was  not  an  exorbitant  rate  to  charge  for 
the  services  of  a  compositor  on  an  evening  paper,  and  that  $5  per 
night  was  little  enough  for  a  worker  whose  task  began  at  6  or  7 
o'clock  in  the  evening  and  ended  at  2  or  3  o'clock  in  the  morning, 


348  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

for  he  had  but  one  evening  in  each  week  to  devote  to  social  inter- 
course, and  his  domestic  Hfe  was  far  different  from  that  of  the  wage- 
earner  who  was  employed  in  the  daytime,  the  night  employee  seeing 
less  of  his  home,  less  of  his  children,  and  lived  to  a  great  extent 
apart  from  the  rest  of  the  world.  The  hours  of  those  who  were 
employed  on  the  third  shift  were  even  more  unnatural,  for  they 
commenced  work  at  2  o'clock  a.  m.  and  finished  at  9  a.  m.  The 
attention  of  the  arbitrators  was  also  called  to  wage  increases  in 
nearly  100  other  trades  in  New  York  City  in  the  preceding  five  years. 
Another  reason  advanced  for  a  higher  wage  scale  was  the  increased 
cost  'of  living.  "  There  can  be  no  question  as  to  the  truth  of  the 
statement  that  a  wave  of  general  prosperity  has  swept  over  the 
country  in  the  past  few  years,"  observed  the  speaker  in  concluding 
his  argument.  "  Practically  every  newspaper  in  the  land  has 
admitted  the  truth  of  this  contention,  and  in  most  of  them  we  see 
from  time  to  time  statements  of  their  own  prosperity  in  the  way  of 
increased  circulation  and  increased  advertising  patronage.  And 
while  we  all  rejoice  in  the  general  prosperity  of  the  country,  and  in 
the  prosperity  of  the  printing  trade  in  particular,  the  newspaper 
printer  is  confronted  with  the  fact  that  his  wages,  based  on  the  scale 
of  twelve  years  ago,  have  lost  a  part  of  their  purchasing  power,  and 
because  of  that  fact  he  is  at  the  present  time  working  for  practically 
25  per  cent  less  than  he  was  at  the  time  the  present  scale  of  prices 
was  adopted.  An  adverse  decision  will  mean  to  the  newspaper 
printers  of  this  city  that  they  have  reached  —  or  rather  did  reach 
twelve  years  ago  —  the  point  beyond  which  there  is  absolutely  no 
hope  of  increasing  their  earnings  or  even  keeping  abreast  of  the 
increased  cost  of  living;  that  there  is  no  incentive  to  improve  in 
their  workmanship,  and  that  those  who  are  ambitious  for  themselves 
or  their  children  must  seek  other  fields.  We  ask  for  a  favorable  award 
on  our  request  for  an  increase  of  50  cents  per  day  for  each  shift, 
which  is  practically  11  per  cent  on  the  present  scale,  and  in  reality 
not  more  than  6  per  cent,  because  it  only  applies  to  one-half  of  the 
men  affected." 

Ervin  Wardman,   for  the   publishers,   declared   "  not  only  that 

Typographical  Union  No.  6  ought  not  to  have  an  increase  of  $3 

in  the  scale,  but  that  the  scale  is  already  too  high  and 

Argument  of       should  be  decreased."     He  stated  that  the  morning 

D    r  a    d  newspaper  schedule  called  for  eight  hours  at  $4.50 

Rates.  P^^  night.     Supper  time  was  taken  out  of  the  eight 

hours,  regular  wages  being  paid  for  such  absence, 

thus  making  the  rate  about  60  cents  an  hour,  or  $4.80  for  every 

eight  hours  of  actual  work.     "  The  proposed  scale  of  $5  a  day,  or 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER   WAGES.  349 

$30  for  six  days,"  said  the  employers'  representative,  "  is  for  an 
actual  working  day  of  seven  and  one-half  hours,  one-half  hour  with 
pay  being  taken  out  for  supper,  making  it  at  the  rate  of  66  g-io  cents 
an  hour,  or  $5.35  for  every  eight  hours  of  actual  work.  In  the  job 
printing  business  of  this  city  the  scale  for  the  same  kind  of  services 
is  only  $21  a  week  for  a  day  of  nine  hours,  or  38  9-10  cents  an  hour. 
In  other  words,  for  the  same  kind  of  work,  with  the  single  exception 
that  the  morning  newspaper  work  is  night  work,  and  the  job  office 
work  is  day  work,  the  present  morning  newspaper  scale  is  60  per 
cent  higher  than  the  scale  in  the  job  offices  for  doing  the  same  kind 
of  work,  and  the  proposed  scale  is  pretty  nearly  75  per  cent  higher 
than  the  job  office  scale  on  the  same  kind  of  work.  That  single  point 
answers  the  contention  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  as  to  the  need 
of  raising  the  wages  to  meet  the  increased  cost  of  living.  If  the 
increased  cost  of  living  can  be  met  by  one  printer  who  does  the 
same  kind  of  work  as  another  printer,  but  spends  more  hours  in  doing 
it  every  day  of  his  life,  with  60  per  cent  less  wages,  it  seems  to  me 
it  could  be  met  by  ow:  printers  with  60  per  cent  more  wages.  In 
other  cities  not  only  are  the  scales  lower  than  in  New  York,  but  the 
newspapers  are  free  from  other  exactions  which  greatly  increase  the 
cost  of  production  in  this  city."  He  asserted  that  the  New  York 
papers  found  it  difficult  to  get  advertisements,  "  because  our  cost 
of  production  per  page  is  so  much  higher  than  the  cost  of  production 
of  any  other  newspaper  elsewhere  that  we  cannot  afford  to  print 
the  advertising  for  less  than  a  certain  rate.  But  that  certain  rate, 
which  is  fixed  by  the  cost  of  production,  plus  what  we  think  we  ought 
to  get  out  of  it,  is  competing  with  Philadelphia,  which  is  only  90 
miles  away  from  New  York,  and  because  Philadelphia's  cost  of  pro- 
duction on  equal  papers  is  less,  they  can  make  a  lower  rate,  and  they 
can  get  advertising  which  we  cannot  get  when  we  are  competing 
with  Philadelphia  in  the  same  field.  We  circulate  in  New  Jersey 
more  largely  than  the  Philadelphia  papers  do.  The  Philadelphia 
papers  circulate  in  Western  New  York  as  largely  as  we  do.  In 
Delaware  the  Philadelphia  papers  circulate  as  largely  as  we  do. 
We  go  into  the  Philadelphia  paper  territory  in  Pennsylvania  and 
Ohio.  We  circulate  in  some  instances  more  largely  than  they  do 
in  their  own  territory.  But  Philadelphia,  because  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction is  so  much  lower  than  our  cost  of  production,  can  make  the 
advertiser  a  cut  rate.  That  takes  the  business  away  from  us.  And 
the  results  of  this  discrimination  against  the  New  York  newspapers, 
not  only  by  newspapers  of  other  cities,  but  by  newspapers  in  our  own 
city  which  do  not  have  to  pay  these  higher  rates,  and  by  billboard 


3 so  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

advertising,  which  has  sprung  up  on  account  of  these  large  labor 
charges,  from  which  they  are  entirely  free;  by  street-car  advertising, 
and  in  the  Washington  papers,  and  in  every  other  paper  in  the  United 
States  —  the  result  is  that  they  do  not  come  into  the  New  York 
newspapers  because  they  say  our  rates  for  advertising  are  too  high. 
Our  rates  for  advertising  are  based  on  the  cost  of  production  and  on 
nothing  else,  and  we  maintain  that  for  a  labor  organization  to  impose 
such  irregularities  upon  the  New  York  newspapers  puts  us  at  a 
disadvantage."  Referring  to  the  Saturday  hours  of  labor,  Mr. 
Wardman  averred  that  "  in  New  York  City  the  scale  says  we  must 
put  the  men  to  work  at  6  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  that  they  shall 
work  from  6  o'clock  in  the  evening  until  2  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
constituting  a  day's  work.  Three  newspapers  at  least  are  compelled 
by  the  exigencies  of  the  New  York  situation  to  put  their  men  to 
work  as  early  as  i  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  Some  of  them  put  their 
men  to  work  at  2  o'clock,  some  at  3  o'clock,  some  at  4  o'clock,  and 
some  at  5  o'clock."  He  then  declared  that  if  the  men  began  work 
before  6  o'clock  p.  m.  they  received  overtime  pay,  and  that  "  the  man 
who  goes  to  work  on  the  overtime  system  five  hours  before  6  o'clock 
has  earned  a  night's  pay  by  6  o'clock.  His  regular  pay  is  coming 
to  him  from  6  o'clock  in  the  evening  to  2  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
Every  paper  in  New  York  is  virtually  set  by  12  o'clock  at  night. 
The  scale  says  that  he  is  needed  from  6  o'clock  at  night  until  2  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  and  that  he  must  be  paid  from  12  o'clock  to  2  o'clock; 
that  he  cannot  be  paid  the  regular  scale  from  4  o'clock  to  12  o'clock, 
or  from  5  o'clock  to  i  o'clock,  or  from  3  o'clock  to  1 1  o'clock,  when 
he  is  most  needed.  In  other  cities  that  is  granted,  and  there  is  no 
other  city  which  is  so  much  in  need  of  the  slide  as  New  York  City 
is.  If  we  were  permitted  to  avoid  the  overtime  business  on  Satur- 
days —  put  one  crowd  of  men  at  work  at  i  o'clock  and  let  them  off 
at  9  o'clock,  put  another  crowd  on  at  2  o'clock  and  knock  them  off 
at  10  o'clock,  and  another  at  3  o'clock  and  knock  them  off  at  11 
o'clock,  that  would  give  more  work  regularly  to  the  men  and  it 
would  relieve  the  newspapers  of  a  hardship."  The  employers' 
representative  was  of  the  opinion  that  the  machine  had  proved  a 
benefit  to  the  compositor,  shortening  his  working  hours  and  increasing 
his  compensation.  "As  to  the  fact  that  the  newspaper  gets  a  much 
larger  product  of  matter  set  for  $4.50  than  it  did  formerly,  that  is 
true,"  said  he,  "  but  that  is  not  the  point.  The  newspaper  pays 
larger  composition  bills  than  it  ever  did  before.  When  compo- 
sition cost  three  times  as  much  as  now  the  newspapers  printed 
two,  four  and  six  pages,  and  they  charged  2,  3,  4  and  s  cents  a 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER   WAGES.  351 

copy.  The  change  of  the  cost  of  production  involved  the  newspapers 
in  as  much  expense  as  it  saved  for  them.  The  papers  jumped  at 
once  from  4  pages  and  6  pages,  and  in  rare  exceptions  8  pages,  to 
10,  12,  14,  16,  18,  42-page  daily  issues.  We  set  just  as  much  more 
type  in  order  to  make  up  the  difference,  and  in  addition  we  had 
to  consume  more  paper  to  put  the  type  on ;  and  we  had  to  pay  much 
larger  bills  for  press  hire  and  for  stereotyping  and  for  all  the  mechan- 
ical departments  in  order  to  take  care  of  this  increased  product." 
Regarding  the  point  made  by  the  union's  representative  about  the 
prosperity  of  newspapers,  Mr.  Wardman  declared  that  "  with  one 
rare  exception  there  is  not  in  New  York  City  a  newspaper  which 
has  received  more  than  a  modicum  of  the  prosperity  of  the  last  four 
or  five  years.  Mr.  Scott  has  told  you  about  the  increased  cost  of 
living.  There  is  nobody  who  knows  what  increased  cost  of  living 
is  more  than  a  newspaper  knows  it,  because  there  is  nobody's  cost 
of  living  which  has  increased  as  the  newspaper's  cost  of  living  has 
increased.  Paper  has  gone  up,  ink  has  gone  up,  labor  has  gone  up, 
fuel  has  gone  up,  light  has  gone  up,  rents  have  gone  up  —  every- 
thing that  goes  to  make  up  the  cost  of  living  of  a  newspaper  has 
gone  up,  but  the  prices  of  the  newspapers  have  not  gone  up,  and  the 
price  of  advertising  has  not  gone  up." 

i  Mr.  Scott  named  several  Western  cities  where  the  scales  of  prices 
were  higher  than  in  New  York,  and  he  protested  that  the  arguments 
advanced  by  the  publishers  were  not  germane  to  the  question  before 
the  board;  that  none  of  the  papers  published  in  the  cities  mentioned 
by  the  opposing  side  competed  in  any  marked  degree  with  the  New 
York  journals  for  circulation,  and  few  of  them  for  advertising.  "As 
for  the  Satvirday  proposition  of  making  men  come  down  at  i  o'clock," 
said  he,  "  in  a  good  many  cases  it  takes  a  man  who  is  engaged  on  a 
daily  newspaper  in  this  city  at  least  an  hour  to  reach  his  home  from 
the  office.  Now,  imagine  a  man  being  kept  in  the  office  until  4  or 
5  o'clock  Saturday  morning  and  then  being  obliged  to  report  at  i 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  again.  He  leaves  the  office  at  4  or  5  o'clock 
Saturday  morning.  He  goes  home  and  gets  there  at  6  o'clock,  has 
two  or  three  hours*  sleep,  and  has  to  get  a  train  and  get  back  to 
the  office.  Is  that  just?  To  penalize  the  office  for  bringing  him 
down  we  make  it  pay  the  overtime  before  6  o'clock  because  the  man 
when  he  works  that  overtime  can  afford  to  take  a  day  off  and  get 
even  with  his  sleep."  The  speaker  informed  the  board  that  on 
March  i8th  the  union  submitted  to  the  employers  a  proposition 
conceding  two  hours  for  the  men  employed  on  morning  papers  and 
one  hour  on  evening  papers.     This  was  not  acceptable  to  the  pro- 


352  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

prietors  and  the  union  withdrew  it.  He  cited  the  fact  that  in  book 
and  job  offices  machine  operators  received  $21.50  per  week,  instead 
of  $21,  as  stated  by  Mr.  Wardman,  who  acknowledged  the  error, 
but  allowed  that  such  fact  only  slightly  reduced  the  percentage  he 
had  given. 

Answering  Mr.  Scott's  asseveration,  the  publishers'  representative, 
while  granting  that  the  New  York  newspapers  were  not  in  competition 
with  those  in  San  Francisco,  yet  they  had  to  cope  with  those  in  Phila- 
delphia, Baltimore,  Chicago,  Buffalo  and  New  England.  A  cent  was 
unknown  in  California,  he  declared,  5  cents  being  the  lowest  denom- 
ination of  coin  current  there,  and  that  amount  was  charged  for  a 
newspaper.  Owing  to  the  inequalities  imposed  upon  the  New  York 
publishers  that  were  not  in  force  elsewhere  he  claimed  that  the  cost 
of  production  ranged  from  20  to  50  per  cent  higher  than  in  those 
localities  with  which  New  York  competed.  He  conceded  that  wages 
had  advanced  in  many  other  trades,  but  said  that  they  were  not 
nearly  so  high  as  they  were  in  the  newspaper  business.  As  to  Satur- 
day, he  stated  that  the  publishers  wanted  a  shift  that  would  be  of 
use  to  them,  and  on  that  day  they  should  be  enabled  to  put  men  at 
work  when  they  were  needed. 

Convening  on  June  24th  the  arbitrators  thoroughly  discussed  th© 
questions  at  issue.     Mr.  Lynch  moved  that  the  request  of  the  union 
for    an   increase   be   granted,    while    Mr.    Driscoll 
Decision         moved  that  the  request  of  the  employers  for  a 
Against  decrease  be  denied.     The  chairman  then  decided 

the  Union.  -f^j^at  there  be  no  increase,  and  the  decision  was 
placed  in  this  form:  "  The  National  Board  of 
Arbitration  decides  that  no  change  shall  be  made  in  the  present 
scale.  The  board  also  directs  that  no  decrease  shall  be  made  in 
the  wages  now  paid  employees  in  composing  rooms  affected  by  this 
decision,  where  such  employees  are  paid  in  excess  of  the  scale." 
President  P.  H.  McCormick  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  sub- 
sequently requested  the  chairman  to  state  the  reasons  for  his  decision, 
and  on  July  ist  Bishop  Burgess  responded  as  follows: 

When,  at  the  earnest  solicitation  of  representatives  both  of  the  Typographical 
Union  No.  6  and  of  the  Publishers'  Association,  I  finally  consented  to  be  the 
chairman  of  the  National  Board  of  Arbitration,  I  understood  my  duties  to  be 
only  those  of  a  judge.  I  attended  the  hearing  for  two  days  and  then  gave  the 
matter  my  careful  consideration,  endeavoring  to  look  at  it  with  entire  impar- 
tiality. I  read  and  re-read  the  able  arguments  made  by  both  sides  in  the  con- 
troversy, and  finally  formed  my  decision  deliberately  after  three  hours'  consider- 
ation of  the  case  in  the  private  meeting  of  the  court. 

It  would  hardly  be  reasonable  to  ask  me  now  to  enter  into  an  argument  of 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  353 

the  case,  or  to  show  you  the  course  of  reasoning  which  determined  my  decision. 
At  the  same  time,  lest  I  should  seem  to  be  discourteous  to  the  union  which  did 
me  the  honor  of  entrusting  its  interest  to  my  judgment,  I  will  mention  a  few 
reasons  which  influenced  me,  distinctly  stating,  however,  that  they  are  not  in- 
tended to  be  exhaustive  and  they  may  not  even  have  been  the  most  determinative. 

First  —  The  fact  was  granted  that  in  no  other  city  east  of  the  Mississippi  is 
the  rate  of  payment  for  similar  work  higher  than  in  New  York. 

Second  —  The  fact  was  granted  that  about  50  per  cent  of  the  union  men  work- 
ing in  this  branch  of  labor  are  paid  well  above  the  minimum  scale  at  the  present 
time.  This  higher  rate  is  presumably  paid  for  more  skillful  and  intelligent  men. 
To  raise  the  less  skilled  man  up  to  this  level  would  be  an  injustice  to  the  more 
talented  workman,  unless  his  rate  was  also  increased. 

Third  —  It  seems  almost  inevitable  that  this  higher  rate  of  pay  demanded 
would  work  hardship  to  the  older  and  less  skillful  men;  they  must  largely  be 
thrown  aside  and  no  encouragement  wovild  be  given  to  the  employer  to  show 
generosity  toward  old  and  faithful  employees. 

Fourth  —  The  publishers  seem  to  show  conclusively  that  the  present  arrange- 
ment of  vSaturday  hours  forms  a  legitimate  consideration  when  the  question  of  in- 
creasing the  wages  is  to  be  debated.  It  seemed  to  me  a  matter  of  regret  that  this 
subject, and  indeed  the  wholequestion  of  time  schedule  and  other  grievances,  could 
not  have  been  discussed  in  committee  between  the  two  parties,  so  that  a  question 
capable  of  compromise  could  have  been  brought  before  the  Court  of  Arbitration. 
It  did  not  seem  fair  to  the  side  of  the  publishers,  nor  did  it  seem  to  the  best  in- 
terests of  theunion,to  decide  the  question  of  wages  apart  from  the  other  questions. 

Fifth  —  The  claim  that  the  scale  should  be  increased  because  of  the  larger 
products  made  possible  by  the  machine  seemed  plausible,  but  the  answer  of 
the  publishers  was  convincing,  namely,  that  the  public  reaps  the  benefit  of  the 
machine.  This  is  almost  always  the  result  of  inventions,  except  where  the  ma- 
chinery increases  the  danger  of  the  men.  After  the  inventor  and  the  promoter 
have  been  satisfied  the  public,  whether  rightly  or  wrongly,  claims  the  reward. 
The  bank  clerk,  for  instance,  does  not  receive  any  higher  salary  because  the  adding 
machine  has  been  introduced  into  almost  every  bank;  it  lessens  the  chances  of 
mistake  and  probably  decreases  the  number  of  clerks,  but  I  doubt  if  it  increases 
the  pay.  Many  similar  illustrations  could,  I  think,  be  made  by  a  survey  of 
the  telegraph,  the  railroad  or  the  telephone  industries. 

Sixth  —  The  argument  of  the  increased  cost  of  living  was  certainly  cogent, 
and  yet  it  did  not  convince  me  that  in  view  of  other  considerations  the  admittedly 
high  rate  of  pay  should  be  further  increased.  If  living  had  become  cheaper 
instead  of  more  expensive  during  the  past  four  years  I  should  not  necessarily, 
on  that  ground  alone,  have  been  in  favor  of  lowering  the  scale. 

These  are  only  a  few  of  the  reasons  influencing  me  in  my  decision.  They  may 
not  be  the  most  convincing.  Without  more  time  and  labor  than  I  feel  called 
upon  to  give  it  would  be  impossible  for  me  to  frame  an  exhaustive  summary 
or  to  show  to  you  the  reasoning  which  brought  me  to  my  determination,  after 
many  hours  spent  in  carefully  balancing  the  strong  and  clearly  put  arguments 
presented  by  the  representatives  of  the  two  sides. 

Let  me  add  that  I  very  gladly  sacrificed  my  time  and  undertook  a  necessarily 
unpopular  task  because  I  believe  that  the  cause  of  arbitration  which  your  union 
has  adopted  has  in  it  the  true  solution  of  labor  problems,  and  that  it  therefore 
deserves  the  sympathy  of  the  public  and  of  public  men. 

12 


354  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

XXVIII. 

Revision  of  Newspaper  Scale  in  1 907. 

It  was  resolved  by  the  union  on  June  3,  1906,  that  a  committee 
of  one  member  from  each  chapel  be  appointed  to  revise  the  news- 
paper scale  of  prices.  Later  in  the  year  the  corn- 
Demands  mittee  reported  the  result  of  its  labors,  and  on  March 
Made  by  3,  1907,  the  amended  schedule  was  adopted  and 
the  ITnion,  ordered  to  go  into  effect  on  May  ist.  This  scale 
called  for  the  payment  of  $6  a  day  to  members 
employed  either  in  the  daytime  or  at  night  on  morning  newspapers 
and  $5.50  per  diem  to  those  engaged  on  evening  newspapers.  Mini- 
mum rates  per  day  were  then,  respectively,  $4.50  and  $4.  For  the 
third  shift,  the  seven  hours'  working  time  for  which  was  between  2 
o'clock  A.  M.  and  10  o'clock  a.  m.,  $6.25  daily  was  demanded,  being 
an  advance  of  25  cents,  while  for  members  employed  on  evening 
newspapers  publishing  vSunday  editions  not  less  than  $5.70  per  day 
was  demanded,  and  for  Saturday  night  the  price  was  fixed  at  $6.50. 
Under  the  bill  of  rates  that  prevailed  at  that  period  for  the  latter 
class  of  employment  the  wages  were  $4.3 3 i  and  $5,  respectively. 
In  addition  to  overtime  for  compositors  called  to  work  at  or  before 
5  o'clock  A.  M.  a  charge  of  $2  extra  was  ordered,  and  when  beginning 
operations  at  or  before  7  o'clock  a.  m.  $i  extra.  Members  called 
to  work  on  Sundays  or  holidays  between  8  o'clock  a.  m.  and  6  o'clock 
p.  M.  on  evening  newspapers  with  Sunday  issues  to  be  paid  $1  per 
hour,  but  in  no  case  to  receive  less  than  a  day's  compensation. 
Wages  of  extras  in  machine  offices  to  be  50  cents  above  the  regular 
daily  scales.  The  minimum  of  competency  of  linotype  and  other 
machine  operators  was  established  at  22,500  ems  per  day  of  eight 
hours.  It  was  further  required  that  on  all  matter  set  for  daily 
newspapers  proof  should  be  read  and  copy  held  by  members  of  the 
union.  An  advance  of  from  $1.50  to  $2  per  week  was  also  proposed 
for  machine- tenders. 

On  April  7  th  the  union  directed  its  president  to  proceed  with  the 
scale  under  the  revised  arbitration  agreement  with  the  local  asso- 
ciation of  publishers.  This  amended  plan,  which  had  been  scheduled 
to  become  operative  on  May  ist,  differed  somewhat  from  the  previous 
arbitration  methods  in  the  printing  industry  in  that  it  eliminated 
the  provision  regarding  an  umpire  in  both  local  and  national  boards. 
Objection  had  been  urged  against  this  additional  member,  or  chair- 
man of  the  arbitration  tribunal.     Repeatedly  it  had  been  pointed 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  355 

out  that  this  arbiter  was  usually  "  taken  from  walks  of  life  where 
there  was  little  knowledge  of  newspaper  management  and  composing- 
room  conditions  that  are  essential  to  a  fair  adjustment  of  a  proposed 
wage  scale  in  controversy." 

After  the  presentation  of  the  new  schedule  of  prices  to  the  local 
publishers'  organization  several  informal  conferences  were  held  by 
the  officials  of  both  associations,  and  on  April  29th 
a  formal  detailed  counter-proposition  for  a  continua-    Counter- 
tion  of  the  prevalent  scale,  hours,  working  conditions    Proposition  of 
and  regulations,  excepting  in  several  specified  in-    Publishers, 
stances,  was  submitted  by  the  proprietors.     They 
asked  that  all  work  done  between  6  o'clock  p.  m.  and  6  o'clock  a.  m. 
(subject  to  the  third  shift)  be  classed  as  night  work,  and  that  labor 
performed  between  6  a.  m.  and  6  p.  m.  (subject  to  the  third  shift) 
be  considered  day  work;  that  the  rate  for  night  work  be  not  less 
than  $27  per  week  and  for  day  work  at  least  $24  weekly,  eight  con- 
tinuous hours  to  constitute  a  working  day  or  night.     Workers  em- 
ployed on  evening  newspapers  publishing  Sunday  editions  to  receive 
$24  per  week  (exclusive  of  Saturday  night)  for  eight  hours'  contin- 
uous service  daily,  and  on  Saturday  night  $5  for  eight  consecutive 
hours.     Overtime  to  be  paid  for  at  price  and  one-half  per  hour  on 
all  newspapers.     The  scale  for  third-shift  men  to  remain  at  $30  per 
week,  but  their  daily  hours  to  be  increased  from  seven  to  eight. 
Offices  to  have  the  privilege  of  using  (without  reproduction  in  type) 
plates,   matrices  or   cuts  furnished  by   general  advertisers  under 
contract. 

As  an  agreement  could  not  be  reached  in  the  conciliation  proceed- 
ings the  disputed  points  were  referred  to  a  local  Board  of  Arbitration 
composed  of  Don  C.  Seitz  (as  chairman)  and  S.  S. 
Carvalho,  for  the  Newspaper  Publishers'  Associa-       Recourse 
tion,   and   President  James  J.    Murphy  and   Sec-       to  Local 
retary-Treasurer  Charles  M.  Maxwell  (as  secretary),        Arbitration, 
for  Typographical  Union  No.  6.     Ervin  Wardman 
represented  the  employers  and  Marsden  G.  Scott  the  union  at  the 
board's  hearings,  which  began  on  Jime  3d.     The  union's  demand  for 
increased  prices  was  based  on  three  principal  counts:     (i)  "  That  our 
members  never  have  received  their  fair  share  of  the  profits  derived 
from  the  enormous  product  of  the  typesetting  machines;"  (2)  "  that 
the  demand  is  justified  because  of  the  greatly  increased  cost  of  living 
expenses,  such  as  higher  rentals,  increased  prices  for  all  meats  and 
provisions,  and  the  greater  cost  of  clothing,  fuel,  etc.;"  (3)  "that  it 
is  justified  because  of  the  fact  that  the  newspaper  scale  of  prices 


3S6  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

has  remained  at  a  standstill  for  more  than  fifteen  years,  while  other 
wage-earners  in  practically  every  other  skilled  trade  have  secured 
shorter  hours  and  increased  wages  because  of  increased  production 
in  some  instances,  but  in  most  cases  because  of  the  universally  recog- 
nized fact  that  the  cost  of  living  has  greatly  increased  since  the 
adoption  of  the  existing  scale  of  prices  for  newspaper  compositors." 
As  proof  of  his  contention  Mr.  Scott  introduced  a  mass  of  docu- 
mentary evidence.  He  presented  a  lengthy  argument  favorable  to 
the  union's  side  of  the  controversy.  In  regard  to  the  difference 
between  the  wage  scale  of  newspaper  printers  and  job  compositors 
he  explained  that  "  the  newspaper  proprietor  enjoys  privileges  not 
open  to  the  job  proprietor,  and  if  we  are  to  accept  the  contention 
of  the  publishers  that  the  value  of  the  services  rendered  is  the  only 
thing  to  be  considered,  then  we  feel  justified  in  discriminating  against 
the  newspaper,  especially  in  favor  of  the  jobber.  Any  one  with  a 
few  hundred  dollars  can  start  a  job  office,  and  the  swann  of  garret 
rookeries  is  the  best  evidence  of  that  fact.  A  concern  investing  a 
large  capital  must  take  into  consideration  the  vastness  of  the  mighty 
competition  to  which  it  is  subjected.  On  the  other  hand,  the  huge 
amount  of  money  required  to  engage  in  daily  newspaper  publication 
tends  to  limit  possible  competition."  He  discussed  each  counter- 
proposition  of  the  publishers,  and  gave  his  reasons  why  the  changes 
demanded  of  them  should  not  be  sanctioned  by  the  board.  In  con- 
clusion he  argued  that  the  employers  were  well  able  to  grant  the 
advance  asked  for  by  the  union,  and  quoted  statements  printed  in  a 
number  of  local  newspapers  detailing  large  increases  in  advertising 
patronage,  as  well  as  in  circulation. 

Mr.  Wardman  opened  the  case  of  the  publishers  with  the  declara- 
tion that  they  "  do  not  concede  that  the  cost  of  living  establishes 
the  value  of  labor  in  the  markets  of  the  world.  We  do  not  believe 
that  the  members  of  the  skilled  trades  are  any  more  anxious  to  prove 
and  enforce  any  such  principle  than  we  are,  because  they  would 
shatter  in  that  way  the  whole  theory  of  the  high  wages  that  are  paid 
to  skilled  labor.  The  fundamental  and  natural  law  that  is  invio- 
lable, that  establishes  the  value  of  a  man's  labor  in  the  markets  of 
the  world,  is  the  value  of  the  services  rendered.  If  it  is  not,  then  we 
have  got  to  revise  the  whole  scheme,  and  the  man  earning  a  dollar  a 
day  can  claim  that  he  is  entitled  to  the  same  pay  as  the  man  who  earns 
$5  a  day,  because  his  cost  of  living  goes  up  just  the  same  as  the  other 
man's  does.  In  fact,  it  goes  up  relatively  much  higher,  because  it 
consumes  a  vastly  larger  percentage  of  his  income."  He  discussed 
seriatim  the  various  sections  of  the  union's  projected  scale  and  the 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER   WAGES.  357 

publishers'  counter-proposition.  Relative  to  the  proposed  increase 
to  $6  per  night  and  that  men  employed  in  the  daytime  on  morning 
papers  should  receive  the  same  rate,  he  argued  that  it  was  "  the 
desire  of  the  publishers  to  have  the  compositors  meet  us  in  wiping 
out  this  illogical,  absolutely  indefensible,  from  the  point  of  view  of 
logic,  provision  by  which  a  man  is  paid  an  extra  compensation  for 
doing  work  in  the  night  time,  because  it  is  more  difficult  to  work 
at  night  or  less  pleasurable  to  work  at  night,  but  that  if  the  same  man 
shifts  in  the  same  office  where  he  works  in  the  daytime,  that  he  gets 
the  same  excess  compensation.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  thing  is 
perfectly  obvious  as  an  injustice.  The  publishers  are  very  insistent 
that  full  and  due  deliberation  shall  be  given  to  the  question  of  30 
minutes  for  lunch.  We  are  convinced  that  this  does  not  work  out 
on  the  whole  to  the  interest  of  the  newspapers.  We  want  to  wipe 
out  that  provision  of  paying  men  for  30  minutes  for  lunch."  He 
concluded  with  this  statement:  "  Mr.  Scott  has  tried  to  show  how 
we  are  better  able  now  to  pay  these  unreasonable  exactions,  and  to 
meet  these  economic  extortions  than  we  were  before.  We  have 
shown  you  that  there  is  a  loss  in  the  circulation  that  he  presented 
as  an  evidence  of  increased  net  income.  We  have  shown  you  that 
the  enormous  volume  of  increase  in  the  volume  of  advertising  does 
not  represent  profit.  We  submit  to  you  that  the  thing  for  this  board 
to  do  is  to  work  out  some  kind  of  a  scheme  by  which  we  can  all 
benefit." 

Five  days  were  consumed  by  the  board  in  hearing  both  sides,  the 
final  arguments  being  put  in  on  June  14th.     On  June  17  th  the  local 
arbitrators    held    their    initial    executive    session. 
They  met  several  times  thereafter,  but  all  efforts  to     Local 
effect  a  settlement  proved  futile.     Thereupon  the     Tribunal 
national  officials  were  apprised  of  the  disagreement     "^  Deadlock. 
and  on  July  i6th  a  meeting  of  the  National  Board 
of  Arbitration  —  Herman  Ridder  of  New  York,  H.  N.  Kellogg  of 
Chicago,  and  Bruce  Haldeman  of  Louisville,  for  the  publishers,  and 
James  M.  Lynch,  Hugo  Miller  and  John  W.  Bramwood  for  the 
journeymen  printers  —  was  held  in  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  to  adjudicate 
the  scale  contention.     After  sessions  extending  over  three  days  the 
national  board  rendered  a  decision  on  all  but  two 
points  in  dispute.     By  the  terms  of  this  judgment     National 
wages  were  raised  66f  cents  per  day,  making  the  rate     Arbitrators 
$4.66f  for  day  work  and  $5.i6f  for  night  work.     It     Raise  Rates, 
was  decided  by   the  arbitrators  that  "  men  em- 
ployed at  day  work  for  morning  newspapers  shall  receive  day  rates, 
subject  to  the  third-shift  provision.     Men  employed  at  night  work 


358  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

for  evening  newspapers  shall  receive  night  rates,  subject  to  the  third- 
shift  provision."  The  rate  for  workers  on  the  third  shift  was  fixed 
at  $5.66f  per  day,  but  their  daily  hours  were  increased  from  seven 
to  eight.  In  all  grades  of  newspaper  work  it  was  determined  that 
the  eight-hour  day  should  include  30  minutes  for  meals.  Operators, 
compositors,  proofreaders,  etc.,  on  evening  newspapers  printing 
Sunday  editions  were  advanced  to  $4.83^  per  day  of  eight  hours 
during  the  first  five  working  days  of  the  week  and  on  Saturday  night 
to  $5.66|  for  seven  hours.  In  all  grades  of  newspaper  work  it  was 
determined  that  the  stipulated  daily  working  time  must  include  30 
minutes  for  meals.  Rates  of  machine-tenders  remained  stationary. 
The  board  established  at  24,000  ems  per  day  of  eight  hours  the  mini- 
mum of  competency  for  machine  operators. 

To  Messrs.  Ridder,  Wardman  and  Murphy  were  referred  the  two 
disputed  sections  of  the  proposed  scale  mentioned  above.  The  first 
of  these  provided  that  "  when  men  called  to  work  at  or  before  5 
A.  M.  $2  extra  shall  be  charged  in  addition  to  the  overtime,  and  when 
called  to  work  at  or  before  7  a.  m.  $1  extra  shall  be  charged  in  addition 
to  overtime."  The  decision  of  the  special  board  was  that  $2  extra 
in  addition  to  compensation  for  overtime  should  be  paid  to  compos- 
itors called  to  work  at  or  prior  to  6:30  a.  m.,  and  after  that  time  until 
7  A.  M.  $1  extra  with  overtime  pay.  On  the  other  disputed  para- 
graph, that  "  on  all  matter  set  in  daily  newspapers  proofs  shall  be 
read  and  copy  held  by  a  member  of  the  union,"  the  special  arbitrators 
were  unable  to  reach  an  agreement,  and  it  was  recommitted  to  the 
national  board,  which  on  October  loth  handed  down  a  decision  "  that 
the  section  in  question  shall  be  interpreted  to  mean  that  none  but 
union  men  shall  be  employed  as  proofreaders  or  copyholders,  but 
proofreaders  shall  not  be  held  responsible  for  errors  when  no  copy- 
holder is  furnished." 

XXIX. 

Newspaper  Workers  Secure  Increased  Wages  in  1910. 

When  Typographical  Union  No.  6  convened  on  March  7,  1909, 
President  James  Tole  announced  that  the  agreement  with  the  local 
branch    of    the   American    Newspaper   Publishers' 
Local  Association  would  expire  on  May  ist  and  that  it 

Arbitration        would  be  necessary  to  appoint  a  Committee  on  Scale. 
Unsuccessful,    fhis  was  ordered,  and  it  was  directed  that  in  the 
revised  schedule  a  clause  be  inserted  renewing  the 
seven-hour  day  on  the  third  shift,  and  that  the  rates  of  the  journey- 
men be  made   to  conform  to  the  increased  cost  of  living.      Early 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  359 

in  1 910  the  union  adopted  the  new  scale,  which  called  for  increases 
in  weekly  wages  of  $4  for  morning  and  evening  newspaper  print- 
ers and  of  $1.50  and  upward  for  machine-tenders  in  newspaper 
offices,  with  a  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor  from  eight  to  seven 
per  day  for  men  engaged  on  third-shift  work,  besides  several  changes 
in  trade  regulations.  Futile  attempts  at  conciliation  under  the  arbi- 
tration plan  having  been  made,  the  question  was  referred  to  a  local 
Board  of  Arbitrators.  The  revised  agreement  between  the  pub- 
lishers' association  and  the  International  Typographical  Union  pro- 
vided that  "  within  ten  days  after  the  questions  to  be  arbitrated 
have  been  fully  determined  a  local  Board  of  Arbitration  must  be 
formed,  composed  of  residents  of  the  locality  in  which  the  contest 
arises,  two  members  thereof  to  be  named  by  each  side,  one  such 
representative  of  each  contending  party  to  be  free  from  personal 
connection  with  or  direct  interest  in  newspaper  or  local  union." 
John  Mitchell,  former  president  of  the  United  Mine  Workers  of 
America  and  at  that  time  chairman  of  the  Trade  Agreement  Depart- 
ment of  the  National  Civic  Federation,  and  President  James  Tole 
acted  as  arbitrators  for  the  union,  while  Abraham  Stein,  a  leather 
merchant,  and  S.  S.  Carvalho,  of  the  New  York  American,  were  the 
publishers'  representatives  on  the  board.  This  industrial  court  held 
sessions  on  May  5th,  6th,  9th  and  loth  and  listened  to  the  arguments 
presented  for  the  employers  by  Don  C.  Seitz,  of  the  New  York  World, 
and  for  the  Typographical  Union  by  Charles  M.  Maxwell,  its  secretary- 
treasurer,  and  Robert  M.  Campbell,  foreman  of  the  Brooklyn  Eagle 
proof  department.  In  the  course  of  these  proceedings  the  proprietors 
made  a  counter-demand,  maintaining  that  offices  should  be  per- 
mitted to  operate  under  either  of  two  systems  —  (i)  to  pay  the  then 
existing  time  scale,  and  in  addition  a  bonus  of  10  cents  per  1,000  ems 
corrected  matter  on  machine  composition  in  excess  of  5,000  per 
hour;  or  (2)  that  machine  operators  be  paid  15  cents  per  1,000  ems 
corrected  matter  on  straight  composition;  tabular  and  advertising 
work  to  be  paid  for  on  an  hotu-ly  basis,  computed  in  accordance 
with  the  weekly  scale.  They  also  demanded  that  eight  hours  should 
constitute  a  day's  work,  the  time  for  meals  to  be  at  the  expense 
of  employees.  This  meant  an  increase  of  actual  working  time,  as 
under  the  rule  then  in  force  the  workers  were  entitled  to  one-half 
hour,  without  a  corresponding  deduction  in  pay,  for  luncheon  or 
supper.  The  arbitrators  for  the  union  rejected  these  propositions. 
A  proposal  on  the  part  of  the  publishers  that  there  should  be  "no 
departments;  men  to  be  competent  must  be  able  to  do  any  work 
claimed  by  the  union,"  was  agreed  to  by  both  parties  in  this  amended 
form  suggested  by  the  union  side :     "  No  departments  shall  be  recog- 


360  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

nized  except  by  agreement  between  the  office  and  the  chapel."  This 
section,  recommended  by  the  employers,  was  acceptable  to  the  jour- 
neymen and  was  adopted:  "  The  office  is  entitled  to  all  '  pick-ups  ' 
of  any  character  whatsoever.  Matter  once  paid  for  shall  always 
remain  the  property  of  the  office.  *  Kill  '  marks  shall  not  deprive 
the  office  of  '  pick-ups.'  "  While  several  provisions  of  the  previous 
scale  were  re-enacted  by  the  board,  all  proposed  wage  increases 
were  objected  to  by  the  newspaper  managers,  and  only  a  few  new 
sections  of  the  schedule  in  other  respects  received  favorable  con- 
sideration. In  one  particular  the  union  endeavored  to  have  this 
paragraph  embodied  in  the  scale:  "  The  practice  of  interchanging, 
exchanging,  borrowing,  lending  or  buying  of  matter  previously  used, 
either  in  form  of  type,  matrices  or  photo-engraved  plates,  between 
newspapers  or  job  offices  not  owned  by  the  same  individual,  firm  or 
corporation,  and  published  in  the  same  establishment,  is  unlawful 
and  shall  not  be  allowed;  provided,  that  the  production  of  the  original 
of  such  type,  matrices  or  plates  in  type  on  the  day  of  publication 
shall  be  deemed  a  compliance  with  this  law."  From  the  foregoing 
the  arbitrators  eliminated  the  words  "  photo-engraved  plates,"  and 
in  lieu  of  "on  the  day"  they  incorporated  the  phrase  "  within  four 
days."  In  the  section  stipulating  that  "  twelve  hours  must  inter- 
vene between  the  time  of  quitting  and  starting  work,  but  no  member 
of  the  union  shall  be  allowed  to  work  more  than  twelve  hours  in  any 
24,"  the  union's  representatives  succeeded  in  having  this  sentence 
incorporated:  "  Substitutes  accepting  work  on  the  third  shift  shall 
not  be  subject  to  the  twelve-hour  limit,  providing  they  do  not  work 
two  consecutive  shifts." 

Not  being  able  to  adjust  the  important  questions  in  dispute  the 
local  arbitrators  so  reported  to  the  national  authorities,  causing  a 
reference  of  the  unsettled  points  to  the  National 
Rates  Board  of  Arbitration,  which  was  composed  of  James 

Nationlf  ^^  ^-  Lynch,  Hugo  Miller  and  J.  W.  Hays,  president, 
Arbitrators.  second  vice-president  and  secretary-treasurer,  re- 
spectively, of  the  International  Typographical  Union, 
and  H.  N.  Kellogg,  Charles  H.  Taylor,  Jr.,  and  Bruce  Haldeman,  of 
the  American  Newspaper  Publishers'  Association.  Decision  was 
rendered  by  the  latter  in  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  on  June  13th,  awarding, 
among  other  things,  an  advance  of  $1  per  week  in  the  wages  of  type- 
setters, machine  operators,  proofreaders,  etc.,  a  substantial  increase 
in  the  scale  for  machine  tenders,  and  a  reduction  of  one-half  hour 
per  day  in  the  working  time  of  third-shift  employees.  The  board 
disregarded  the  employers'  proposal  for  the  introduction  of  the  piece 
system  on  machine  composition. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES. 


361 


The  most  important  demands  made  by  the  union  and  the  decisions 
thereon  by  the  National  Board  of  Arbitration  appear  in  the  parallel 
columns  that  follow: 


Union's  Demands. 

1.  All  members  of  the  union  em- 
ployed on  morning  newspapers,  except 
as  hereinafter  provided  for,  shall  re- 
ceive not  less  than  $35  per  week. 
Eight  continuous  hours  (including 
30  minutes  for  lunch)  shall  constitute 
a  night's  work,  the  hours  to  be  be- 
tween 6  p.  M.  and  3  A.  m.,  except  on 
Memorial  Day,  July  4,  Labor  Day, 
Thanksgiving  Day,  Christmas  and 
New  Year's,  when  the  hours  shall  be 
between  8  P.  M.  and  3  A.  M.  (Over- 
time per  hour,  double  price.) 

2.  All  members  of  the  union  em- 
ployed on  evening  newspapers,  except 
as  hereinafter  provided  for,  shall  re- 
ceive not  less  than  $32  per  week. 
Eight  continuous  hours  (including 
30  minutes  for  lunch)  shall  constitute 
a  day's  work,  the  hours  to  be  between 
8  A.  M.  and  6  P.  M.,  except  on  Memorial 
Day,  July  4,  Labor  Day,  Thanks- 
giving Day ,  Christmas  and  New  Year's, 
when  the  hours  shall  be  between  8 
A.  M.  and  4  P.  M.  (Overtime  per  hour, 
double  price.)  When  called  to  work 
at  or  before  5  A.  M.  $2  extra  shall  be 
charged  in  addition  to  the  overtime; 
and  when  called  to  work  at  or  before 
7:30  A.  M.,  $1  extra  shall  be  charged 
in  addition  to  the  overtime.  On  even- 
ing newspapers  publishing  six  days, 
Sunday  work  shall  be  double  price. 

3.  Members  of  the  union  employed 
on  evening  newspapers  pubUshing  Sun- 
day editions,  except  as  hereinafter 
provided  for,  shall  receive  not  less 
than  $33.80  per  week.  Eight  con- 
tinuous hours  (including  30  minutes 
for  lunch)  shall  constitute  a  day's 
work,  the  hours  to  be  between  8  A.  M. 
and  6  P.  M.,  except  on  Memorial  Day, 
July  4,  Labor  Day,  Thanksgiving  Day, 
Christmas  and  New  Year's,  when  the 
hours  shall  be  between  8  A.  M.  and  4 


Nabonal  Arbitrators*  Awards. 

I.  All  members  of  the  union  em- 
ployed on  morning  newspapers,  except 
as  hereinafter  provided  for,  shall  re- 
ceive not  less  than  $32  per  week. 
Eight  continuous  hours  (including 
30  minutes  for  lunch)  shall  constitute 
a  night's  work,  the  hours  to  be  be- 
tween 6  P.  M.  and  3  a.  m. 


2.  All  members  of  the  union  em- 
ployed on  evening  newspapers,  except 
as  hereinafter  provided  for,  shall  re- 
ceive not  less  than  $29  per  week. 
Eight  continuous  hours  (including  30 
minutes  for  lunch)  shall  constitute  a 
day's  work,  the  hours  to  be  between 
8  A.  M.  and  6  p.  m.  When  called  to 
work  at  or  before  5  a.  m.  $2  extra  shall 
be  charged  in  addition  to  the  overtime; 
and  when  called  to  work  at  or  before 
7:30  A.  M.  $1  extra  shall  be  charged 
in  addition  to  the  overtime.  On 
evening  newspapers  publishing  six 
days,  Sunday  work  shall  be  double 
price. 


3.  Members  of  the  union  employed 
on  evening  newspapers  publishing 
Sunday  editions,  except  as  hereinafter 
provided  for,  shall  receive  not  less 
than  $5  per  day.  Eight  continuous 
hours  (including  30  minutes  for  lunch) 
shall  constitute  a  day's  work,  the 
hours  to  be  between  8  A.  M.  and  6  P.  M. 
The  rate  for  Saturday  night  shall  be 
not  less  than  $6,035  per  night  of 
seven  continuous  hours,  including  30 
minutes  for  lunch,   the  hours  to  be 


2,62 


NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 


P.  M.  (Overtime  per  hour,  double 
price.)  The  rate  for  Saturday  night 
shall  be  not  less  than  $6.13!  per  night 
of  seven  continuous  hours,  including 
30  minutes  for  lunch,  the  hours  to 
be  between  6  P.  M.  and  3  A.  M.,  ex- 
cept Memorial  Day,  July  4,  Labor  Day, 
Thanksgiving  Day,  Christmas  and 
New  Year's,  when  the  hours  shall  be 
between  8  p.  M.  and  3  a.  m.  (Over- 
time per  hour,  double  price.)  Extras 
to  receive  50  cents  per  day  or  night 
in  addition  to  the  above  scale.  When 
called  to  work  on  Sundays  between 
8  A.  M.  and  6  p.  M.  shall  be  paid  double 
price;  but  in  no  case  shall  a  member 
receive  less  than  a  day's  pay.  Over- 
time shall  be  paid  for  at  the  rate  of 
double  price.  When  called  at  or  be- 
fore 5  A.  M.  $2  extra  shall  be  charged 
in  addition  to  the  overtime,  and  when 
called  at  or  before  7:30  A.  m.  $1  extra 
shall  be  charged  in  addition  to  the 
overtime. 

4.  The  scale  for  a  "  third  shift  " 
shall  be  $35  per  week.  Seven  con- 
tinuous hours  (including  30  minutes 
for  lunch)  shall  constitute  a  day's 
work,  the  hours  to  be  between  3  a.  m. 
and  10  A.  M.  (Overtime  per  hour, 
double  price.) 

5.  Newspaper  offices  using  a  third 
force  are  privileged  to  put  on  one 
make-up  between  the  hours  of  5  A.  M. 
and  2  p.  M.  at  the  rate  of  $35  per  week. 

6.  Overtime,  which  shall  apply  to 
work  done  before  as  well  as  after  the 
hours  specified,  shall  be  charged  at  the 
rate  of  two  hours,  based  on  the  regular 
scale  for  the  specified  hours,  for  every 
hour  so  employed. 


7.  Where  an  office  introduces  ma- 
chines it  shall  take  compositors  from 
those  already  members  of  the  chapel 
and  instruct  them.  The  minimum  of 
competency  shall  be  24,000  ems  per 
day  or  night  of  eight  hours. 


between  6  p.  M.  and  3  A.  M.  Extras 
to  receive  50  cents  per  day  or  night 
in  addition  to  the  above  scale.  When 
called  to  work  on  Sundays  between 
8  A.  M.  and  6  p.  M.  shall  be  paid  double 
price;  but  in  no  case  shall  a  member 
receive  less  than  a  day's  pay.  When 
called  at  or  before  5  A.  M.  $2  extra 
shall  be  charged  in  addition  to  the 
overtime,  and  when  called  at  or  before 
7:30  A.  M.  $1  extra  shall  be  charged 
in  addition  to  overtime. 


4.  The  scale  for  a  "third  shift" 
shall  be  $35  per  week.  Seven  and 
one-half  continuous  hours  (including 
30  minutes  for  lunch)  shall  constitute 
a  day's  work,  the  hours  to  be  between 
2  A.  M.  and  10  A.  M. 

5.  Newspaper  offices  using  a  third 
force  are  privileged  to  put  on  one 
make-up  between  the  hours  of  6  A.  M. 
and  2  p.  M.  at  the  rate  of  $35  per  week. 

6.  Overtime,  which  shall  apply  to 
work  done  before  as  well  as  after  the 
hours  specified,  shall  be  charged  at  the 
rate  of  price  and  one-half  based  on 
the  regular  scale  for  the  specified 
hours,  for  time  worked  computed  in 
five-minute  periods,  unless  otherwise 
arranged  between  the  office  and  the 
chapel.  Rotation  in  overtime  to  be 
at  discretion  of  the  office. 

7.  Where  an  office  introduces  ma- 
chines it  shall  take  compositors  from 
those  already  members  of  the  chapel 
and  instruct  them. 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES. 


3^3 


8.  Chapels  may  provide  for  the 
time  to  go  to  lunch,  but  the  foreman 
cannot  keep  an  employee  more  than 
four  hours  before  allowing  lunch,  ex- 
cept in  cases  of  emergency.  A  second 
lunch  time  shall  be  allowed  when  more 
than  one  hour  overtime  is  required. 

9.  The  scale  for  machine-tenders 
shall  be: 

Per  week. 


From  I  to  4  machines 

I2S.00 
26.50 

From  9  to  12  machines 

For  13  or  more  machines 

29.50 
31SO 

Machine-tenders  working  at  night 
shall  receive  $5  per  week  in  addition 
to  the  above  day  scale. 

10.  The  regular  working  time  of  a 
machine-tender  shall  be  six  days  or 
nights  per  week  of  as  many  hours  each 
as  are  the  regular  hours  of  the  opera- 
tors in  the  office  employed  in  operating 
the  machines.  All  time  worked  over 
and  above  these  hours  shall  be  con- 
sidered as  overtime,  and  shall  be 
charged  at  the  rate  of  two  hours  for 
every  hour  so  employed,  based  on  the 
regular  machine- tenders'  scale  for  the 
specified  hours. 


8.  Chapels  may  provide  for  the 
time  to  go  to  lunch,  but  the  foreman 
cannot  keep  an  employee  more  than 
four  hours  before  allowing  lunch,  ex- 
cept in  cases  of  emergency.  A  second 
lunch  time  shall  be  allowed  when  more 
than  one  hour  overtime  is  required. 

9.  The  scale  for  machine-tenders 
shall  be: 

Per  week. 

From  I  to  4  machines $25 .  00 

From  5  to  8  machines 26 .  00 

From  9  to  12  machines 29.00 

For  13  or  more  machines 31.00 

Machine-tenders  working  at  night 
shall  receive  $5  per  week  in  addition 
to  the  above  day  scale. 

10.  The  regular  working  time  of  a 
machine-tender  shall  be  six  days  or 
nights  per  week  of  as  many  hours  each 
as  are  the  regular  hours  of  the  opera- 
tors in  the  oflSce  employed  in  operating 
the  machines.  All  time  worked  over 
and  above  these  hours  shall  be  con- 
sidered as  overtime,  and  shall  be 
charged  at  the  rate  of  price  and  one- 
half  for  every  hour  so  employed,  based 
on  the  regular  machine-tenders*  scale 
for  the  specified  hours,  computed  in 
five-minute  periods,  unless  otherwise 
arranged  between  the  office  and  the 
chapel. 


Demands  of  the  publishers  that  were  acted  upon  by  the  national 
board  are  given  below,  with  the  decision  in  each  case: 


Publishers*  Demands. 
I.  Situations  not  to  be  "  plugged  " 
indefinitely  by  subs.  Men  now  hold 
places  in  this  way  while  engaging  in 
other  and  more  profitable  occupations. 
Except  for  sickness,  an  absence  of 
one  month  should  close  the  "  situa- 
tion," at  the  option  of  the  office. 


National  Board's  Awards. 
I.  Any  situation  holder  absenting 
himself  from  work  for  a  period  of  90 
days  shall  forthwith  be  notified  by  the 
foreman,  through  the  chairman,  that 
failing  to  return  to  work  within  ten 
days  from  date  of  such  notice  the  situa- 
tion shall  be  declared  vacant.  Return- 
ing to  work  for  any  period  of  time  less 
than  sixteen  regular  working  days  in 
any  calendar  month  shall  not  release 
a  situation  holder  from  liability  of 
loss  of  situation  in  accordance  with  this 
law.  Provided,  that  this  section  does 
not  apply  if  absence  is  due  to  illness  or 
the  performance  of  work  for  the  union. 


364  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

2.  Repeal    section    31,     which     re-  2.  Conceded.     [Section    31     of    the 

quires  that  a  substitute  or  regular  scale  provided:  "Any  member  may 
taking  the  place  of  a  man  receiving  be  assigned  work  in  any  position  in 
more  than  the  scale  shall  receive  the  the  composing  room  other  than  the 
same  pay.  Extra  pay  is  given  for  position  for  which  he  was  engaged  in 
extra  ability,  not  for  the  job.  case  of  emergency,  and  if  such  emer- 

gency position  carries  with  it  a  higher 
rate  of  wages  than  the  scale  he  must 
receive  while  filling  that  position  the 
rate  paid  for  the  same.  This  section 
shall  not  apply  to  the  foreman."] 


XXX. 

Advances  in  Wage  Scale  of  Book  and  Job  Printers,  Adopted  in  1910, 

Severance  of  relations  between  the  International  Typographical 
Union  and  the  United  Typothetas  of  America  in  1906  prompted  the 
formation  of  a  new  association  of  employing  book 
Formation  of        and  job  printers  in  New  York  City  for  the  express 
Printers'  League  purpose  of  entering  into  agreements  with  various 
of  America.  unions  in  the  printing  industry  for  the  peaceful 

solution  of  labor  troubles.  This  organization  is 
The  Printers'  League  of  America,  the  views  of  which  are  that  "  in 
times  past,  before  organization  of  any  kind  was  in  force,  the  employees 
had  a  particularly  hard  time,  being  compelled  to  work  for  a  bare 
pittance,  owing  to  the  selfishness  of  employers,  but  gradually  the 
development  of  the  union  has  placed  the  shoe  on  the  other  foot,  and 
in  consequence  there  has  grown  up  between  the  organizations  of  the 
employees  and  employer  a  feeling  of  antagonism  which  is  inimical 
to  the  true  interests  of  both  parties.  When  looked  upon  from  a  busi- 
ness standpoint,  the  interests  of  the  employee  and  employer  are 
mutual,  and  anything  adversely  affecting  one  applies  equally  to  the 
other,  whether  it  is  so  willed  or  not.  Therefore,  when  differences 
occur,  the  sane  and  just  method  would  be  to  get  together  and  come 
to  an  agreement  on  the  matter  at  issue,  thus  avoiding  a  show  of 
force  by  either  side.  The  practice  until  recently  has  been  to  accu- 
mulate money  from  the  earnings  of  both  parties  with  the  view  to 
fighting  it  out,  and  this  method  has  resulted  in  inordinate  assess- 
ments on  the  wages  of  the  employees,  and  has  placed  the  profits 
of  the  employers  in  a  fund  from  which  they  have  received  no  benefit 
whatsoever,  except  that  recalcitrant  and  unjust  employers  were 
thereby  brought  to  a  consideration  of  the  interests  of  the  employees. 
If,  theiefore,  any  other  means  can  be  found  to  avoid  the  hardship 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER   WAGES.  365 

entailed  in  preparing  for  a  fight,  and  also  in  fighting  one  another, 
it  must  redound  to  the  financial  welfare  of  both  parties  and  save 
much  suffering  in  the  home.  The  only  way  in  which  this  can  be 
accomplished  is  by  a  calm  discussion  of  the  situation  by  represen- 
tatives of  the  employer  and  employee,  with  a  single  eye  to  mutual 
interest.  *  *  *  Consultation,  conciliation  and  arbitration,  by 
means  of  trade  courts  or  other  plans  in  which  each  shall  have  an 
equal  voice  in  the  settlement  of  all  difficulties,  is  the  way  suggested 
to  overcome  the  present  uncivilized  methods."  Primarily  the  object 
of  the  League,  according  to  its  by-laws,  adopted  in  February,  1907, 
"  is  to  abolish  in  the  printing  and  allied  trades  the  system  of  making 
individual  labor  contracts  and  to  introduce  the  more  equitable  system 
of  forming  collective  labor  contracts;  *  *  *  to  establish,  in 
conjunction  with  the  representatives  of  the  employees'  unions,  the 
necessary  organisms  for  collective  negotiations ;  *  *  *  to  prevent 
by  mutual  consultation  and  conciliation  all  strikes  or  strife  between 
employer  and  employee,  *  *  *  and  finally  to  do  whatsoever 
is  possible  to  establish  local  and  national  common  trade  courts  for 
the  adjustment  of  points  in  dispute  under  existing  collective  con- 
tracts." 

Typographical  Union  No.  6  at  the  start  was  favorably  impressed 
with  the  aims  of  the  newly-organized  association  of  master  printers, 
as  indicated  by  the  minutes  of  the  union's  meeting 
of  June  2,  1907,  when  it  was  thus  recorded:     "  Pres-    ^'V^"  Accepts 
ident  Francis  of  the  Printers'  League  was  introduced,    ^^  Printers' 
and  after  a  cordial  reception  delivered  an  address    League, 
on  the  objects  of  the  League.     He  was  followed  by 
Messrs.  Oswald  Maune  and  B.  P.  Willett,  who  were  Hstened  to  with 
close   attention."     Conferences   were   subsequently   held   by    com- 
mittees of  the  two  organizations,  and  finally,  on  March  i,  1908,  an 
agreement  with  the  League  was  ratified  by  the  union,  among  other 
things  it  being  stipulated  "  that  the  laws,  regulations  and  decisions 
of  the  International  Typographical  Union  and  Typographical  Union 
No.  6  governing  the  employment  of  members  and  working  conditions 
at  present  in  force  shall  be  part  of  this  agreement."     It  was  also 
provided  that  the  union's  wage  scale  should  be  paid  by  all  members 
of  the  League.     By  the  compact  the  imion  agreed  to  protect  the 
employers  against  walkouts,  strikes,  boycotts  or  any  form  of  con- 
certed interferences,  and  both  parties  pledged  themselves  "  to  arbi- 
trate all  differences  affecting  wages,  hours  and  working  conditions 
that  may  arise  under  this  contract,"  the  life  of  which  extended  to 
October  i,  19 10,  when  it  was  renewed. 


366  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Shortly    after    the    newspaper    printers   obtained    their    increase 
through  arbitration  proceedings  in  1910  Typographical  Union  No. 
6  created  a  committee  to  revise  the  list  of  prices 
Gradual  for  book  and  job  workers.      An  elaborate  report, 

Advances  recommending  an  increase  in  wages  and  changes  in 
in  Wages.  trade  rules,  was  presented  to  the  union  by  the  com- 
mittee in  July.  At  sessions  covering  a  period  of 
two  months  the  subject  was  quite  thoroughly  debated  by  the  mem- 
bers, and  on  September  nth  the  committee's  revision  of  the  scale 
was  adopted.  It  provided  for  a  total  increase  of  $3  a  week  and  6 
cents  per  1,000  ems,  the  advances  to  be  gradual,  the  first  raise  taking 
place  on  October  10,  19 10,  the  second  and  third  to  go  into  effect 
October  i,  191 1,  and  19 12,  respectively.  The  principal  changes 
are  noted  in  this  table: 

New  Scale  in  Effect  — 


Old  Oct.  10,  Oct.  I,         Oct.  I. 

Class  of  Work.  scale.  1910.  191 1.           1912. 

Book  and  job  compositors,  time  hands,  per  week ..  .  $21.00  $23.00  $23.00         $24.00 

Machine  operators,  per  week 23.00  24.00  25.00            26.00 

Book  compositors  (on  productions  in  English),  piece- 
work, per  1,000  ems: 

Leaded  reprint o .  44  o .  48              0.50        

Solid  reprint  and  leaded  manuscript 0.47  0.51             0.53        

Solid  manuscript 0.50  0.54              0.56        

Law  cases,  leaded o .  44  o .  46       

Law  cases,  solid 0.47  o .  49       


In  arranging  the  new  prices  for  machine-tenders,  which  scale 
became  operative  on  October  lo,  1910,  the  imion,  as  it  previously 
had  done  in  the  newspaper  schedule,  placed  itself  on  record  against 
any  restriction  of  output  by  combining  the  first  two  grades  of  work, 
as  will  be  noted  by  comparing,  in  the  parallel  statements  below,  the 
previous  and  existing  figiires  relating  to  the  number  of  machines  to  be 
cared  for  by  these  mechanicians: 

Old  Scale.  New  Scale. 

Per  week.  Per  week. 

For  I  or  2  machines $21.00  For  i  to  4  machines $25.00 

For  3  or  4  machines 23 .  00  For  5  to  8  machines 26 .  50 

For  5  to  8  machines 26.50  For  9  to  12  machines 29.50 

For  9  to  1 2  machines 29 .  50  For  13  or  more  machines 3 1 .  50 

For  13  or  more  machines 31 .  SO 


The  union  approved  the  recommendation  of  the  Scale  Committee 
"  that  overtime  be  double  price,  with  the  exceptions  you  will  find 
noted.  It  is  our  expectation  that  if  these  provisions  are  adopted 
it  will  result  in  the  practical  abolition  of  overtime  and  the  establish- 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    HIGHER    WAGES.  367 

ment  of  night  forces,  thus  destroying  a  gross  inequaHty  of  earnings 
that  has  heretofore  existed  and  providing  employment  for  many  men 
now  idle.  The  scale  for  night  forces  is  left  unchanged  as  a  further 
inducement  for  employers  to  distribute  the  work  in  two  shifts  rather 
than  to  work  the  day  shift  fourteen  or  fifteen  hours  a  day." 

President  Tole,  with  a  committee  of  eight  members,  immediately 
succeeding  the  adoption  of  the  amended  scale  of  prices,  opened 
negotiations  with  the  New  York  Branch  of  the  Printers'  League  of 
America,  the  conferences  resulting  in  the  renewal  of  the  written 
agreement  between  the  two  organizations  and  the  acceptance  of  the 
new  wage  schedule  and  trade  regulations  by  the  associated  proprietors. 
Numerous  other  concerns  also  subscribed  to  the  demands  of  the 
journeymen,  and  in  the  aggregate  269  establishments  complied  with 
the  terms  of  the  union,  more  than  4,000  members  of  which  received 
the  initial  increase  in  wages  on  October  10,  19 10,  and  the  same 
number  shared  in  the  second  advance  a  year  later. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 
MOVEMENTS  FOR  SHORTENING  HOURS  OF  LABOR. 

UNDER  its  first  scale,  which  was  put  into  force  in  185 1,  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  6  required  that  on  morning  newspapers 
twelve  hours  should  constitute  a  day's  work  for  all  printers 
engaged  by  the  week  as  stone  hands,  proofreaders,  etc.,  and  nine  hours 
for  those  employed  on  time  at  typesetting.  The  wages  of  these  two 
classes  of  workers,  however,  differed,  the  former  receiving  $3  per  week 
more  than  the  latter.  Ten  hours  were  recognized  as  a  day's  labor 
on  evening,  weekly,  semi-weekly  and  tri-weekly  newspapers  and 
also  in  book  and  job  offices.  In  1864  the  working  time  of  men 
employed  by  the  week  on  morning  papers  was  reduced  one  hour  per 
day.  The  Workingmen's  Union  of  New  York  (the  central  associa- 
tion of  the  organized  mechanics)  in  the  summer  of  that  year  began 
an  agitation  for  the  eight-hour  day,  and  at  a  meeting  of  that  body  on 
August  5th  Francis  Freckelton,  the  delegate  of  the  printers,  stated 
that  as  his  union  had  just  reduced  the  hours  of  night  workers  engaged 
by  the  week  to  eleven  daily,  it  could  not  at  that  period  consistently 
take  part  in  the  eight-hour  movement.  But  in  1867  the  union  felt 
that  the  time  had  arrived  when  it  could  with  propriety  join  with 
other  labor  forces  in  the  endeavor  to  secure  the  general  adoption 
of  the  eight-hour  working  day.  Theodore  S.  Conklin,  one  of  its 
representatives  at  the  Memphis  (Tenn.)  convention  of  the  National 
Typographical  Union  in  June,  that  year,  offered  a  resolution,  which 
was  unanimously  adopted,  that  "  the  workingmen  of  this  country 
are  at  present  agitating  for  the  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor  to 
eight  per  day,  and  have  succeeded  in  having  laws  passed  in  four  of 
the  States;  that  this  body  sympathizes  with  the  movement,  and  will 
use  every  honorable  means  within  its  power  to  give  the  eight-hour 
system  a  fair  trial,  and  it  requests  the  subordinate  unions  in  those 
States  where  the  law  has  already  passed  to  aid  and  assist  other 
associations  of  workingmen  in  putting  the  law  into  practical 
operation." 

[368] 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    SHORTENING    HOURS    OF    LABOR.  369 

I. 

Eight-Hour  Demonstration  in  1871. 

A  large  demonstration  of  workingmen  was  made  in  New  York  City 
on  September  13,  187 1,  for  the  purpose  of  forwarding  the  eight-hour 
cause,  and  the  Typographical  Union  was  well  represented  in  that 
parade,  the  principal  banner  in  which  explained  its  object  in  these 
terse  clauses:  "Eight  hours  for  labor,  eight  hours  for  recreation 
and  cultivation  of  mind,  eight  hours  for  rest  and  food."  The  Herald 
of  September  14th  graphically  described  the  event.  "  There  is  but 
one  opinion  about  the  trades  unions'  display  of  yesterday,"  it  said. 
"  It  was  the  most  respectable  and  significant  demonstration  that  New 
York  has  witnessed  since  the  close  of  the  War  for  the  Union.  Care- 
fully planned,  and  carried  out  with  the  same  wonderful  executive 
skill  that  so  strikingly  distinguishes  these  associations  as  well  here 
as  in  Eiurope,  it  was  an  immense  and  imposing  success,  in  spite  of 
the  cheerless  influence  of  a  darkened  sky  and  a  drizzUng  rain.  Per- 
haps, indeed,  fair  weather  would  have  added  but  little  to  the  meaning 
of  a  parade  which,  like  this,  depended  for  its  meaning  more  upon 
the  numbers  of  its  participants  and  the  preservation  of  good  order 
in  its  ranks  than  upon  gaudy  flags  and  richly  embroidered  regalia. 
As  might  naturally  be  expected  from  men  who  had  cheerfully  sac- 
rificed a  day's  pay  to  show  the  earnestness  of  their  demand  for  justice, 
the  members  of  the  various  societies  mustered  at  their  several  head- 
quarters in  good  season.  It  was  an  instructive  glimpse  into  the 
character  of  American  workmen  to  watch  this  *  gathering  of  the 
clans,'  and  to  note  how  quietly  and  in  what  perfect  order  the  various 
organizations  formed  in  line  so  soon  as  there  was  a  quorum  sufficient 
to  constitute  a  respectable  nucleus;  and  then  how  patiently  they 
waited  in  the  rain  until  the  word  was  given  for  the  start."  It  was 
estimated  that  25,000  members  of  organized  labor  were  in  line. 

11. 

Movement  for  Eight-Hour  Day  in   1872. 

Among  many  trades  in  the  Metropolis,  particularly  in  the  building 
industry,  there  was  a  general  strike  in  1872  for  the  eight-hour  work- 
ing day,  and  while  the  union  of  printers  did  not  participate  in  that 
movement  it  nevertheless  extended  its  sympathy  to  those  who  were 
engaged  in  it.     A  poll  of  the  various  offices  was  taken  by  a  com- 


370  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

mittee  of  the  union  to  ascertain  the  feeling  of  the  members  in  regard 
to  the  subject.  A  report  was  submitted  on  June  4th  showing  that 
nearly  all  the  chapels  were  in  favor  of  eight  hours  for  a  day's  work, 
but  some  of  them  considered  it  injudicious  to  then  make  the  demand, 
yet  a  resolve  was  passed  "  that  it  is  the  sense  of  this  meetmg  that 
eight  hours  should  constitute  a  day's  work  and  that  20  per  cent  should 
be  added  to  the  piece  prices."  The  matter  went  to  a  committee  of 
seven  to  confer  with  employers  and  to  present  a  scale  of  prices  in 
accordance  with  the  expression  of  the  meeting.  It  was  also  decided 
to  co-operate  with  the  pressmen,  stereotypers  and  German  printers. 
Conferences  were  held  with  the  employing  book  and  job  printers, 
who  on  July  8th  unanimously  preambled  that  "  the  request  of  the 
journeymen  printers  for  a  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor,  or  an  ad- 
vance in  the  present  rate  of  wages,  has  received  our  careful  consider- 
ation, the  result  of  which  is  embodied  in  a  full  and  able  report  on  the 
state  of  trade,  prepared  by  our  secretary,  Theodore  L.  DeVinne,  and 
which  we  are  satisfied  will  convince  every  intelligent  journeyman  that 
any  advance  in  prices  at  the  present  time  would  be  alike  injurious 
to  Capital  and  Labor;"  so  they  resolved  "  that  as  the  present  de- 
pressed condition  of  the  trade  will  not  justify  any  reduction  in  the 
hours  of  labor  or  advance  in  wages  we  cannot  accede  to  the  request 
of  the  journeymen."  Statistics  as  to  employment,  wages,  etc., 
covering  a  period  of  three  years  were  ordered  by  the  union  to  be 
gathered,  and  chairmen  of  the  various  offices  were  instructed  to 
obtain  definitely  the  views  of  the  members  concerning  a  reduction 
of  labor  hours.  Pursuance  of  the  matter  by  the  printers  soon  after- 
ward ceased,  and  the  working  time  remained  unchanged.  But  in 
quite  a  number  of  other  trades  the  eight-hour  rule  prevailed  for 
awhile.  In  fine,  only  the  stone  cutters  succeeded  in  retaining  it, 
although  the  Federal  Government  and  the  State  of  New  York  had 
already  recognized  the  eight-hour  principle  through  legislative 
enactments. 

III. 

Discussion  of  the  Question  in  the  Eighties. 

Pieceworkers  on  newspapers  continued  to  labor  excessive  hours 
30  years  after  the  foundation  of  the  Typographical  Union.  So 
noticeable  was  this  fact  and  so  great  was  the  abuse  that  the  Inter- 
national Typographical  Union  in  June,  1881,  took  up  the  question 
and  gave  it  serious  thought.  "  It  is  customary  in  a  large  number  of 
morning  newspaper  offices  to  compel  employees  to  work  twelve, 
fifteen  and  eighteen  hours  per  day,"  said  the  International  in  its 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    SHORTENING    HOURS    OF    LABOR.  37 1 

notification  to  the  New  York  organization  and  other  subordinate 
unions  as  to  its  attitude,  "  and  such  excessive  labor  is  detrimental 
to  the  best  interests  of  the  craft,  physically,  morally  and  socially, 
in  that  it  is  conducive  to  dissipation  and  irregular  habits.  If  the 
hours  of  labor  were  reduced  within  reasonable  limits  it  would  result 
not  only  in  giving  regular  employment  to  a  large  number  of  printers 
now  necessarily  idle,  but  wotild  in  a  great  measure  tend  to  check 
professional  tramping,  which  practice  is  decidedly  injuring  the  good 
name  of  our  profession.  In  order  to  secure  a  reasonable  number 
of  hours  for  the  greatest  number  of  printers  this  International  body 
earnestly  urges  subordinate  unions  to  secure,  whenever  practicable, 
a  maximum  of  ten  hours  per  day  on  morning  as  well  as  evening 
newspapers." 

The  New  York  union  again  resumed  discussion  of  the  question 
in  1885,  on  May  3d  instructing  its  delegates  to  the  International 
to  use  their  best  efforts  for  the  enactment  of  laws  favorable  to  the 
general  establishment  of  the  eight-hour  system.  Continuing  its 
agitation,  the  union,  through  its  Board  of  Delegates,  on  March  7, 
1886,  took  further  steps  to  promote  the  cause  of  shortening  the  day 
of  labor  to  eight  hours,  giving  this  expression  in  its  favor;  "  It  is 
the  general  opinion  among  the  members  of  labor  unions  in  the  United 
States  that  an  effort  will  be  made  to  enforce  the  eight-hour  day  on 
May  I,  1886.  Trade  unions  in  all  principal  cities  in  the  United 
States  have  expressed  their  willingness  and  determination  to  take 
upon  themselves  the  burden  of  their  share  in  the  effort  to  shorten 
the  hours  of  labor  and  in  enforcing  the  law  in  regard  to  it;  that  we 
place  ourselves  upon  record  as  in  favor  of  this  great  movement,  and 
that  the  chairman  appoint  a  committee  of  seven  members  to  confer 
with  other  organizations  in  order  to  further  the  object  of  this  pre- 
amble and  resolution."  On  April  4th  German  Typographia  No.  7 
informed  the  English-speaking  compositors'  organization  that  it 
had  resolved  to  demand  the  eight-hoiu*  day  on  May  ist  and  asked 
for  its  co-operation,  and  on  April  17th  it  was  resolved  that  "  No.  6 
men  employed  in  German  offices  on  strike  for  eight  hours  are  ordered 
to  come  out  in  support  of  No.  7." 

IV. 

Machines  Decrease  Working  Time  on  Daily  Newspapers, 

Morning  newspaper  printers  benefited  more  from  the  general 
introduction  of  composing  devices  in  the  way  of  shorter  working 
time  than  employees  in  the  other  branches  of  the  printing  industr\-. 


372  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Pieceworkers  at  night  had  been  accustomed  for  many  years  to  work 
exceedingly  long  hours.  They  had  to  devote  several  hours  each 
afternoon  in  the  distribution  of  type  in  their  cases.  Finishing  this 
work  they  spent  the  brief  time  before  the  beginning  of  composition, 
which  was  usually  at  7  o'clock  p.  m.,  in  getting  such  recreation  as 
was  possible,  and  it  was  often  near  dawn  of  the  succeeding  day  before 
they  reached  their  homes.  Between  the  hours  of  actual  labor  and 
the  time  consumed  in  traveling  back  and  forth  from  residence  to 
office  these  compositors  were  practically  engaged  sixteen  hours  out 
of  the  24  daily.  The  machine  changed  this  condition.  Time  work 
displaced  the  piece  system.  Hours  at  first  were  fixed  at  eight  per 
day,  with  no  work  in  the  afternoon.  In  1905  a  lunch  recess  of  20 
minutes  was  included  in  the  eight  hours.  Later  this  was  extended  to 
a  half  hoiu",  making  the  exact  time  of  labor  seven  and  one-half  hours, 
and  the  rule  was  also  applied  to  evening  newspapers.  Efforts  were 
made  in  1893  to  reduce  the  working  day  to  seven  hours  on  morning 
papers,  and  the  Board  of  Delegates  on  December  3d  of  that  twelve- 
month received  from  the  secretary  a  report  that  the  membership 
had  declared  for  the  proposition,  which  received  1,481  votes,  to 
576  against  it.  It  was  then  ordered  that  the  plan  go  into  effect 
on  April  15,  1894.  But  it  was  not  put  in  force  on  that  date,  the 
union  having  ordered  on  April  8th  that  it  become  effective  on  October 
15th,  in  which  month  its  enforcement  was  deferred  until  June  3, 
1895.  It  was  not,  however,  put  into  operation  on  that  date.  The 
question  was  again  discussed  on  November  i,  1896,  when  President 
Donnelly  explained  to  the  union  that  the  officers  and  Executive 
Committee  had  found  such  an  unfavorable  condition  of  affairs  that 
it  had  been  deemed  unwise  to  enforce  the  law  until  the  matter 
could  be  laid  before  the  organization  for  further  instructions. 
This  action  was  endorsed,  and  there  the  matter  rested. 


V. 

Book  and  Job  Printers  Move  for  the  Nine-Hour  Day. 

While  the  membership  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  was  out- 
spoken in  its  adherence  to  the  eight-hour  principle  it  evidently 
foresaw  that  it  would  be  a  fruitless  task  to  demand  it  for  book  and 
job  compositors.  This  was  made  plain  on  May  2,  1886,  by  the 
passage  of  a  resolve  "  that  the  New  York  delegates  to  the  Interna- 
tional Union  be  instructed  to  ask  that  body  to  recommend  an  equali- 
zation of  the  hours  of  a  day's  work  in  all  towns  and  cities  under  its 
jurisdiction  with  a  view  to  the  early  adoption  of  the  nine-hour  day 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    SHORTENING    HOURS    OF    LABOR.  373 

throughout  the  trade."  A  referendum  vote  was  taken  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  at  the  general  meeting  of  the  union  on  April  3,  1887,  it 
was  announced  that  a  majority  of  members  in  the  chapels  had  re- 
corded themselves  in  favor  of  the  nine-hour  day —  1,476  declaring 
for  it,  while  544  opposed  the  proposition.  An  adjourned  regular 
meeting  shortly  afterward  fixed  55  hours  "  as  the  limit  of  a  week's 
work  in  aU  offices  except  morning,  evening  and  Sunday  newspapers." 
Then  on  April  28th  the  Executive  Committee  recommended  "that 
the  enforcement  of  the  55-hotir  law  be  laid  over  until  the  first  week 
in  October,  and  in  the  meantime  the  proprietors  of  the  different  book 
and  job  offices  be  interviewed  for  the  purpose  of  finding  out  how 
they  stand  in  the  matter,  the  result  of  said  interview  to  be  reported 
to  the  union."  The  question  of  55  hours  as  a  week's  working  time 
was  submitted  to  a  general  vote,  the  result  of  which  was  reported  on 
May  ist,  there  being  1,183  ayes,  to  508  nays.  Before  the  formula- 
tion of  the  machine  scale  of  1891,  under  which  the  newspaper 
printers  had  their  labor  hours  reduced  to  eight  per  day  and  machine 
operators  on  bookwork  to  nine  daily,  the  union,  on  November  2, 
1890,  approved  a  recommendation  of  the  Executive  Committee  to 
amend  the  book  and  job  schedule  so  "as  to  make  53  hours  a  week's 
work  instead  of  59."  Book  and  job  compositors  believed  that  the 
better  course  would  be  to  seek  to  attain  the  eight-hour  day  gradually, 
and  thus  avoid  a  possible  conflict  that  would  entail  heavy  loss  and 
might  have  a  disastrous  ending,  so  they  proceeded  along  that  Hne 
of  effort  for  nearly  a  decade  before  the  employers  took  cognizance 
of  their  demand  to  abbreviate  the  working  day. 

From  year  to  year  the  discussion  went  on,  until  in  October,  1896, 
the  International  Typographical  Union,  in  convention  in  Colorado 
Springs,  Col.,  decided  to  submit  this  proposition  to  subordinate 
urJons,  with  the  stipulation  that  if  the  legislation  were  passed  by  a 
majority  vote  of  the  referendum,  a  special  committee  of  five  should 
be  appointed  for  its  enforcement: 

That  the  maximum  hours  of  labor  in  book  and  job  oflfices  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  International  Typographical  Union  be  fixed  at  nine  per  day,  or  54  per 
week. 

That  subordinate  unions  be  requested  to  levy  an  assessment,  which  shall  be 
under  such  union's  entire  charge,  for  the  purpose  of  local  disbursement  only. 

That  the  co-operation  of  the  different  affiliated  organizations  be  requested, 
with  the  intention  of  securing  the  same  hours  of  labor  for  the  pressmen,  stereo- 
typers,  mailers,  bookbinders  and  photo-engravers. 

The  proposition  was  carried  by  a  vote  of  8,332  in  favor,  to  2,364 
against,  and  former  President  James  J.  Murphy  of  the  New  York 


374  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

union  was  chosen  chairman  of  the  committee  of  five,  the  other 
members  being  C.  E.  Hawkes,  David  Hastings,  R.  B.  Prendergast 
and  G.  H.  Russell. 

But  in  the  meanwhile  Typographical  Union  No.  6  decided,  through 

its  president,  Samuel  B.  Donnelly,  and  a  committee,  to  enter  into 

negotiations  with  the  local  branch  of  the  Typoth- 

Daily  Hours         etae,  the  proceedings  terminating  in  an  agreement, 

Reduced  to  Nine  signed  on  December  15,  1897,  by  Joseph  J.  Little, 

and  One-Half,      chairman    of   the    employers'  committee,  and  Mr. 

Donnelly  for  the  union,   by  which    compact   nine 

and  one-half  hours,  with  nine  on  Saturday,  should  constitute  a  day's 

work  from  January  i,   1898,  until  such  time  as  the  International 

might  fix  upon  the  general  adoption  of  the  nine-hour  system.     The 

agreement,  which  was  ratified  by  the  union  on  December  19th,  was 

as  follows: 

That  on  and  after  January  1,  1898,  New  York  Typothetas  will  concede  and 
pay  $18  per  week  of  56I  hours  (nine  and  one-half  hours  per  day  and  nine  on  Sat- 
urday), until  the  date  on  which  the  International  Typographical  Union  announces 
that  the  nine-hour  day  will  go  into  effect  in  the  competitive  district  (meaning 
east  of  the  Alleghenies  and  north  of  Richmond).  The  New  York  Typothetae  will 
on  that  day  concede  the  nine-hour  day,  54  hours  per  week,  at  $18,  and  adhere 
to  the  same,  allotting  a  reasonable  time  to  enforce  that  rule  in  at  least  75  per  cent 
of  the  outside  offices  affected.  The  present  arrangement  of  the  machine  seale 
not  to  be  changed  during  the  year  1898. 

Three  days  prior  to  the  signing  of  the  foregoing  this  open  letter 
addressed  by  Henry  Cherouny,  an  employing  printer,  to  E.  P.  Coby, 
secretary  of  the  Typothetse,  and  dated  December  10,  1897,  was 
read  at  a  meeting  of  the  union  and  spread  upon  its  minutes: 

A  resolution  of  the  employing  printers  was  published  in  to-day's  papers  which 
asserts  "  that  it  would  be  disastrous  to  both  employers  and  employees  to  reduce 
the  hours  of  labor." 

As  none  of  the  employing  printers'  association  have  ever  tried  the  nine-hour 
day  the  above  statement  is,  to  say  the  least,  nothing  more  than  an  opinion, 
without  experience  to  rest  on;  and,  therefore,  my  opinion,  which  is  based  on  facts, 
may  have  some  value  with  the  contending  parties  and  the  public  at  large. 

Up  to  three  years  ago  we  worked  on  the  ten-hour  system.  Being  engaged  in 
the  study  of  certain  economic  works,  I  made  a  special  study  of  the  ebb  and  flood 
of  energy  in  a  given  number  of  men,  and  I  noticed  a  regular  decline  of  each  man's 
work  after  3  o'clock  each  day.  The  lack  of  energy  grew  as  the  days  of  the  week 
passed  on.  The  quantity  of  each  Saturday's  work  was  far  less  than  that  of  each 
Monday  and  Tuesday. 

I  took  some  of  my  best  and  most  trusted  compositors  to  account.  Their 
answer  was  simply:  "  We  are  getting  tired  out.  Make  a  shorter  day  and  you 
will  have  no  cause  to  complain."     Then  we  introduced  for  the  machines  the 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    SHORTENING    HOURS    OF    LABOR.  375 

eight-hour  day,  and  for  the  job  and  press  rooms  the  nine-hour  system.  The 
result  was  satisfactory  —  nay,  it  was  surprising.  The  record  books  show  a 
considerable  increase  in  the  product  of  each  man.  Indeed,  I  daresay  that  if 
the  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor  means  disaster,  the  Cherouny  Company  and 
its  crew  prosper  in  disaster.  They  set  300,000  ems  per  day  on  our  nineteen 
regular  weekly,  semi-monthly  and  monthly  publications  —  a  sufficient  quantity 
of  work  to  experiment  with  in  order  to  arrive  in  disaster. 

Instead  of  spending  $50,000  in  warring  for  a  hypothesis,  let  the  Typotheta; 
appoint  a  committee  of  observation.  I  will  show  them  my  records  of  work,  to  be 
compared  with  those  of  any  ten-hour  office  in  the  city. 

The  action  taken  in  New  York  had  a  salutary  effect  upon  the 
national  situation.  It  showed  that  the  associations  of  employers 
and  employed  could  meet  upon  common  ground  and 
reach  a  satisfactory  conclusion  with  regard  to  work-  ational 
ing  hours.  Influenced  by  the  course  ptirsued  in  ^j^^  shorter 
the  Metropolis  the  United  Typothetas  of  America  Working  Day. 
in  its  convention  in  Milwaukee,  Wis.,  on  August 
25,  1898,  appointed  a  committee  of  five,  to  whom  was  referred  "  the 
question  as  to  what  measure,  if  any,  can  be  adopted  by  the  employ- 
ing printers  which  will  make  a  shorter  working  day  practicable  without 
entailing  undue  loss  upon  the  employers,  and  that  this  committee 
be  authorized  to  confer  with  the  representatives  of  the  International 
Printing  Pressmen  and  Assistants'  Union,  the  International  Typo- 
graphical Union,  and  such  other  similar  organizations  as  they  may 
deem  proper."  The  adoption  of  this  resolution  brought  about  a 
conference,  which  began  in  Syracuse  on  October  lo,  1898,  between 
the  representatives  of  the  Typothetas,  the  International  Typo- 
graphical Union,  International  Printing  Pressmen  and  Assistants' 
Union,  and  the  International  Brotherhood  of  Bookbinders.  The 
assemblage  was  opened  by  Joseph  J.  Little,  of  New  York,  who  on 
behalf  of  the  employers  spoke  words  of  encouragement  to  the  union 
delegates.  "  Gentlemen,  we  are  assembled  here  at  the  request  of 
delegates  of  the  International  Typographical  and  Pressmen's  Unions 
representing  the  different  parts  of  America,"  said  he;  "  we  are  meet- 
ing you  to  discuss  the  question  of  shorter  hours  which  was  laid  before 
our  convention.  On  our  part  I  would  like  to  say  —  I  believe  I 
speak  for  the  whole  committee  —  that  we  meet  for  the  purpose  of 
trying  to  determine  some  way  to  shorten  the  hours  of  labor,  if  pos- 
sible, without  a  strike.  We  meet  in  the  interest  of  the  trade  at  large, 
no  particular  class  or  individual,  and  hope  that  you  will  meet  us  in 
the  same  broad  spirit  and  discuss  the  matter  in  the  light  of  past 
experience,  and  what  we  may  hope  to  accomplish  in  the  future 
without  disturbance  of  our  relations."     The  joint  conference  con- 


376  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

tinued  in  session  until  October  12th,  on  which  date  a  compromise 
agreement  was  effected  —  nine  and  one-half  hours  to  constitute  a 
day's  work  from  November  21,  1898,  to  November  21,  1899,  when 
the   Typothetae   contracted   to   inaugurate   the   nine-hour    system. 
The  representatives  of  the  three  international  trade 
Nine-Hour  Law    unions  pledged  the  latter  to  "  endeavor  in  the  mean- 
Successfully         while  to  equalize  the  scale  of  wages  in  the  com- 
Instituted.  petitive  districts  where  at  present  there  are  serious 

inequalities."  Upon  the  conclusion  of  the  work  in 
hand  "  mutual  congratulations  were  indulged,"  to  quote  from  the 
proceedings,  "  and  the  hope  expressed  that  a  new  era  had  been  inau- 
gurated for  the  settlement  of  differences  between  the  allied  print- 
ing trades  and  the  employers."  So  far  as  New  York  was  concerned 
President  Delaney  on  December  3,  1899,  informed  the  imion  that 
the  nine-hour  law  had  been  successfully  instituted  without  any 
trouble. 

VI. 

Eight-Hour  System  in  Book  and  Job  Offices. 

The  nine-hour  system  had  been  in  successful  operation  throughout 

the  country  for  nearly  three  years  when  at  the  forty-eighth  session  of 

the   International   Typographical    Union,    held   in 

International        Cincinnati,    O.,    in    August,    1902,    the    Executive 

r  ^^?^   ^^  tl^^    Council  and  the  first  vice-president  were  directed 
for  the  Eight-  ,  ^ .  . 

Hour  Day.  ^^  ^^^  ^^  ^  committee  to  devise  and  put  into  effect 

plans  for  the  establishment  of  an  eight-hour  day 
at  as  early  a  date  as  practicable.  Local  unions  were  required  to 
act  in  conjunction  with  that  committee  in  furthering  its  plans,  and 
they  were  enjoined  from  making  contracts  extending  beyond  October 
I,  1905,  which  obliged  their  members  to  work  more  than  eight  hours 
per  day.  The  committee  was  instructed  to  bring  the  matter  before 
the  United  Typothetae  of  America  to  the  end  that  the  eight-hour 
day  might  be  put  into  operation  without  friction.  President  Lynch 
had  already  addressed  the  convention  on  the  subject  of  the  eight- 
hour  day.  "  Various  methods  have  been  suggested  whereby  the 
eight-hour  day  can  be  generally  put  into  effect  in  book  and  job 
rooms,"  he  observed,  "  and  all  of  these  have  merit.  One  of  these 
suggestions,  which  particularly  appeals  to  our  members  as  feasible 
and  also  just  to  the  employers,  is  that  the  working  time  shall  be 
reduced  fifteen  minutes  each  year  for  four  years,  or  until  the  eight- 
hour  day  is  an  accomplished  fact."    At  the  1903  convention,  held 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    SHORTENING    HOURS    OF    LABOR.  377 

in  Washington,  D.  C,  the  International  instructed  the  committee 

to  notify  subordinate  unions  that  had  not  already  obtained  the 

eight-hour  day,  or  made  contracts  binding  them  to  its  provisional 

institution,  to  make  an  effort  on  January  i,  1905,  "to  obtain  the 

eight-hour  day  according  to  plans  deemed  most  expedient  by  such 

local  unions  in  their  several  localities."     Then  in  St.  Louis  in  1904 

the  International  resolved  "  that  on  January  i,  1906,  the  eight-hour 

day  shall  become  effective  in  all  union  establishments."     Later  this 

action  was  approved  by  a  majority  of  14,085  in  the  referendum. 

On  June  23,  1904,  while  in  session  in  St.  Louis  the  United  Typothetas 

was  apprised  by  the  union  of  the  above  action,  and  the  employers' 

association  declared  its  opposition  to  any  reduction 

of   the  54-hour  week,  determining  to    "resist  any     Opposition  of 

attempt  on  the  part  of  the   International  Typo-     ^7^°    e  ae  to 

,  .     ,    TT   •  1  1  i  r     Shorter 

graphical   Union  to  reduce  the  present  hours  of     Working-Dav 

labor."     The  International's  Eight-Hour  Committee 

held  a  conference  with  a  committee  representing  the  United  Typoth- 

etae  on  August  14,  1905,  and  the  latter  suggested  that  the  union 

committee  recommend  to  the  International  "  that  it  vote  in  favor 

of  a  reconsideration  of  the  referendimi  vote  taken  last  fall  on  the 

eight-hour  day,  and  authorize  a  new  referendum  vote  to  be  taken 

with  the  object  of  rescinding  the  resolution  to  make  the  eight-hour 

day  effective  January  i,  1906;  or  if  the  convention  is  unwilling  to 

vote  affirmatively  on  the  above,  that  the  convention  shall  empower 

the  Executive  Council  to  call  for  such  referendum  vote  if  at  any 

time  between  now  and  January  i,  1906,  the  Executive  Council  shall 

consider  it  advisable."     That  ended  negotiations  with  the  Typoth- 

etae,  but  the  International  continued  its  agitation  for  the  eight-hour 

rule,  in  which  it  was  ultimately  successful  in  a  large  degree. 

In  New  York  City  the  movement  to  establish  the  eight-hour  day 

for  book  and  job  compositors  was  formally  opened  on  November 

5,  1905,  when  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  in  answer 

to  a    communication   from   the    local   Typothetae,  New  York  Union 

relative  to  a  renewal  on  the  first  of  January,  1906,  Active  in  the 

of   the   agreement   between   the   two   associations,  Movement. 

passed  a  resolve  declining  to  "  renew  the  present 

agreement  in  its  entirety  for  a  term  of  three  years,"  and  directed  its 

officers  to  present  the  following  at  the  joint  conference  of  November 

9th :     "  That  on  and  after  January  i ,  1906,  eight  hours  (at  the  present 

scale  of  prices)  shall  constitute  a  day's  work  in  all  book  and  job 

composing  rooms  in  the  jvirisdiction  of  Typographical  Union  No. 

6  and  the  Typothetas  of  the  City  of  New  York."      At  that  meeting 


378  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

the  representatives  of  the  associated  employers  refused  to  accede 
to  the  union's  terms,  which  action  brought  to  a  close  the  pacific  rela- 
tions that  since  1901  had  existed  between  the  master  printers  and  their 
journeymen.  Endeavors  were  then  made  by  the  union's  officials 
to  obtain  agreements  from  individual  concerns  to  concede  the  eight- 
hour  day  at  the  commencement  of  the  new  year.  Early  in  November 
among  other  establishments  visited  was  the  Butterick  Publishing 
Company,  Limited,  which  was  not  enrolled  with  the  Typothetae. 
That  concern,  it  was  reported  by  the  officers  of  the  journeymen's 
organization,  made  a  proposition  to  sign  an  agreement  for  one,  two 
or  three  years  at  the  rate  of  $21  a  week,  which  was  an  advance  of 
$1.50,  and  nine  hours  per  day.  This  was  not  satisfactory  to  the 
union,  which  insisted  upon  the  eight-hour  day,  and  on  November 
24th,  when  several  non-union  compositors  were  placed  at  work  by 
the  company,  95  members  of  the  union  and  eleven  unorganized  com- 
posing-room employees  ceased  operations,  the  union  considering 
that  the  men  virtually  had  been  locked  out,  while  the  company,  on 
the  other  hand,  claimed  that  they  had  struck.  Union  workmen  in 
other  departments  of  the  establishment  soon  afterward  stopped  work 
in  sympathy  with  the  compositors.  The  positions  of  those  who  had 
qmt  work  were  filled  by  non-unionists. 

Immediately  prior  to  the  opening  of  the  year  1906  the  officials  of 
the  typographers'  organization  obtained  agreements  from  226  em- 
ployers in  the  book  and  job  branch  of  the  industry 
Independent        to  comply  with  the  new  regulation,  and  the  2,356 
Concerns  Grant  union  printers  (2,322  men,  34  women)  employed  by 
the  Demand.        them  were  thus  assured  that  their  weekly  hours  of 
labor  thereafter  would  be  48  instead  of   54  with- 
out any  curtailment  of  wages.      Many  large  and  influential  firms 
and  companies  that  conceded  the  shorter  working  day  had  been 
for   a    number   of    years    connected    with    the    Typothetae,   which 
resolved  to  resist  the  demand  of  the  union.     It  advertised  extensively 
for  non-union  help,  and  equipped  headquarters  in  West  Tenth  street, 
with  a  commissary  department  and  sleeping  accommodations  for 
a  force  of  freemen,  as  it  termed  them,  that  it  had  collected  in  different 
parts  of  the  United  States.     Then  on  December  30,  1905,  the  remain- 
ing members  of   the  Typothetae  posted  in  their  composing  rooms 
a  card  asserting  that  the  refusal  of  the  union  to  renew  the  contract 
that  was  about  to  expire  compelled  them  to  make  open  shops  of 
their  establishments;  that  from  January  2,  1906,  the  working  hours 
would  be  54  per  week,  as  theretofore,  without  any  change  in  wage 
rates,  and  announced  that  they  would  be  very  glad  to  keep  any  of 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    SHORTENING    HOURS    OF    LABOR.  379 

the  force  who  remained  in  their  employ  under  the  above  conditions. 
By  the  union  this  notification  was  viewed  in  the  light  of  a  lockout 
order,  and  on  January  2d,   1,163  o^  its  members  (i,og6  men,  67 
women)  became  involved  in  a  long  struggle  for  time  in  62  workshops. 
In  addition  to  these  union  employees  244  unorgan- 
ized  composing-room   workers  —  apprentices,    pro-     Typothetae 
bationers,  copyholders,  etc. —  walked  out  in  sym-     Shops  Lost 
pathy  with  the  imion  compositors.     Ere  long  109     *o  ^^^  Union. 
electrotypers,    39    stereotypers    and    65    of    their 
apprentices  and  helpers  in  20  foundries  also  engaged  in  a  sympathetic 
movement  to  assist  the  printers.     Before  fall  eighteen  offices  that 
had  engaged  in  the  dispute  conceded  the  eight-hour  day,  and  400 
compositors,    of   whom    20   were   women,    besides   93    unorganized 
employees,  as  well  as  37  foundry  w^orkers,  were  benefited  by  these 
settlements.     For  several  years  the  conflict  was  unremittingly  waged. 
Other   offices,   including   that   of   the   Butterick   Company,   finally 
yielded  to  the  union,  and  even  the  Typothetas  itself  eventually 
granted  the  eight-hour  day  to  its  unorganized  journeymen.     During 
the  two  years  that  the  controversy  was  actively  carried  on  the  New 
York  union  of  printers  expended  $762,485  in  strike  benefits. 

At  the  instance  of  the  Typothetas  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
Justice  James  A.  Blanchard,  of  the  Supreme  Court,  issued  a  tem- 
porary injunction,  on  March  2,  1906,  at  the  height 
of  the  eight-hour  dispute,  restraining  Typographical     ^  Injunction, 
Union  No.   6,  its  officers  and  members  and  their     Contemot  ^ 
agents,  servants  and  associates,  "  (i)  from  inducing     Proceedings, 
or  coercing,  or  attempting  to  induce  or  coerce,  by  any 
species  of  intimidation,  threats,  force  or  fraud,  any  employee  of  the 
plaintiff  or  any  of  its  members  to  quit  the  em.ployment  of  the  plaintiff 
or  any  of  its  members ;  (2)  from  preventing,  or  attempting  to  prevent, 
by  any  species  of  intimidation,  threats,  force  or  fraud,  any  person  from 
entering  the  employ  of  the  plaintiflE  or  any  of  its  members;  (3)  from 
any  and  all  acts  of  intimidation,  threats,  force  or  fraud  toward  any 
employee  of  the  plaintiff  or  any  of  its  members;  (4)  from  any  and 
all  unlawful  interference  with  the  property,  property  rights  or  busi- 
ness of  the  plaintiff  or  any  of  its  members."     Supreme  Court  Justice 
Samuel  Greenbaum  continued  the  enjoining  order  without  modi- 
fication on  April  6th. 

On  the  twenty-sixth  of  April  the  Typothetae  applied  to  the  Su- 
preme Court  for  an  order  adjudging  President  P.  H.  McCormick, 
Organizers  G.  W.  Jackson  and  Vincent  Costello,  as  executive  officers 
of  No.  6,  W.  J.  S.  Anderson,  Thomas  Bennett  and  eleven  other 


380  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

members  thereof,  in  contempt  of  court  for  a  wilful  violation  of  the 
provisions  of  the  injunction.  It  was  charged  that  acts  of  intimi- 
dation and  violence  had  been  committed  by  union  pickets,  among 
their  number  being  Anderson  and  Bennett;  that  the  officers  of  the 
union  through  acts  of  omission  in  not  more  widely  promulgating 
the  restraining  order  were  responsible  for  the  offenses  and  were 
therefore  guilty  of  contempt.  Justice  Joseph  E.  Newberger  directed 
the  defendants  to  show  cause,  on  May  3d,  why  they  should  not  be 
pimished  for  criminal  contempt,  and  Adam  Wiener  was  thereafter 
appointed  to  take  testimony  of  the  facts  alleged  in  the  moving 
papers  and  answering  affidavits  and  to  report  to  the  court  as 
to  whether  the  defendants  were  guilty  of  criminal  contempt.  The 
referee  filed  his  report  on  November  27,  1907,  giving  his  opinion  that 
the  five  defendants  above  named  out  of  the  sixteen  against  whom 
complaints  were  lodged  were  guilty  as  charged.  Several  pickets 
had  testified  that  they  did  not  know  anything  about  the  issuance  of 
the  injimction.  In  his  testimony  President  McCormick  stated  that 
at  a  general  meeting  of  the  union  on  March  4th,  two  days  after  the 
granting  of  the  preliminary  injunction,  he  addressed  the  1,000  mem- 
bers present,  reading  to  them  the  entire  text  of  the  court's  order  and 
"  warned  them  that  they  must  strictly  comply  with  its  provisions; 
that  the  order  must  be  obeyed  to  the  letter,  and  that  he  as  president 
would  insist  that  no  act  of  violence  or  intimidation  be  committed 
by  any  members  of  the  union;"  that  on  March  5th  he  called  a  special 
meeting  of  all  the  men  who  were  on  strike,  and  repeated  to  the  600 
members  present  thereat  the  statements  that  he  had  made  to  the 
general  meeting  on  the  previous  day;  that  on  March  6th  "  a  meeting 
of  the  Executive  Committee  was  called,  which  committee  embraced 
all  the  officers  of  the  union,  together  with  sixteen  members  comprising 
the  said  Executive  Committee,  at  which  meeting  there  was  a  full 
attendance;"  that  he  read  to  that  meeting  the  injunction  order, 
repeated  the  instructions  and  directions  that  he  had  previously  given, 
and  "  directed  that  said  Executive  Committee,  as  far  as  was  in  their 
power,  should  notify  all  members  of  the  union  with  whom  they  came 
in  contact  that  said  orders  should  be  literally  obeyed."  The  pres- 
ident declared  that  he  himself  had  not  only  shown  respect  for  law 
and  order  and  the  mandates  of  the  court,  but  he  had  in  every  way 
that  lay  in  his  power  endeavored  to  enforce  the  same  obedience 
from  all  officers  and  members  of  the  imion,  and  that  he  and  the 
other  officers  had  done  everything  in  their  power  to  prevent  the 
slightest  disobedience  to  said  mandates,  which  he  held  in  the  highest 
and  most  reverent  regard.     Organizers  Jackson  and  Costello  swore 


MOVEMENTS    FOR   SHORTENING   HOURS   OF   LABOR.  38 1 

that  they  had  at  no  time,  wilfully  or  otherwise,  disregarded  the 
injunction  order;  that  they  themselves  had  not  only  complied  with 
its  requirements,  but  had  at  all  times  counseled,  advised  and  com- 
manded members  of  the  union  with  whom  they  had  come  in  contact 
that  its  provisions  be  obeyed.  Defendant  Anderson  stated  that  a 
copy  of  the  injunction  had  been  served  on  him ;  that  while  picketing  he 
had  pursued  peaceable  means  to  induce  non-union  men  to  join  the 
union,  and  that  at  no  time  was  there  any  interference  or  opposition 
offered  on  his  part  to  such  non-members.  Defendant  Bennett 
testified  that  he  had  approached  a  former  member  of  the  union  who 
had  obtained  employment  in  a  struck  shop  and  endeavored  to  per- 
suade him  to  pay  his  back  dues  and  be  reinstated  in  the  organization ; 
that  he  had  conversed  with  the  man  in  a  friendly  manner,  denying 
that  he  used  violent,  threatening  or  abusive  language,  although 
admitting  that  he  was  earnest  in  what  he  said,  "  and  from  the  nature 
of  the  conversation  upon  the  public  street,  and  both  parties  walking 
rapidly,  the  same  was  necessarily  animated."  Testimony  was,  how- 
ever, adduced  to  the  effect  that  he  had  called  the  ex-member  a  "  rat  " 
and  "  scab  "  upon  the  public  streets,  at  the  same  time  pushing  him 
and  refusing  to  go  away  when  asked.  The  defendant  stated  that 
he  had  been  arrested,  charged  with  disorderly  conduct,  but  the 
Magistrate  before  whom  the  case  was  tried  discharged  him. 

Justice  Henry  Bischoff  on  March  2,  1908,  confirmed  the  report  of 
the  referee,  and  ordered,  adjudged  and  decreed  that  President  Mc- 
Cormick  and  Organizers  Jackson  and  Costello  were  guilty  of  con- 
tempt because  each  had  failed  "  to  obey  the  said  injunction  order 
in  that  he  did  not,  in  good  faith,  endeavor  to  apprise  the  mem- 
bers of  the  said  defendant  union,  among  whom  are  the  persons 
above  stated  to  have  committed  such  assaults  and  acts  of  intimi- 
dation, of  the  contents  of  the  said  injimction  order  to  the  end  that 
acts  of  violence  and  intimidation,  directed  against  persons  employed 
by  members  of  the  plaintiff  corporation,  should  not  be  committed 
by  members  of  the  defendant  union  as  in  said  injunction  order 
directed."  The  court  then  sentenced  each  of  the  three  defendants 
to  "be  imprisoned  for  a  period  of  20  days  in  close  custody  in  the 
common  jail  of  the  County  of  New  York,  and  that  he  be,  and  he  is 
hereby  fined  the  siim  of  $250."  Messrs.  Anderson  and  Bennett  were 
declared  guilty  of  violating  the  injunction  in  that  they  had  committed 
acts  of  intimidation  and  addressed  threatening  and  abusive  language 
to  non-members  of  the  union  while  acting  as  pickets.  Each  was 
fined  $100.  The  proceedings  against  the  other  eleven  members  of 
the  union  were  dismissed. 


3iS2  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

An  appeal  from  the  foregoing  judgment  was  taken  by  the  defend- 
ants to  the  Appellate  Di^'ision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  First  Depart- 
ment, and  the  order  of  Justice  Bischoff  adjudging  contempt  was 
affirmed;  Justice  Frank  C.  Laughlin  dissenting  on  the  ground  that 
the  officers  of  the  union  were  declared  guilty  of  contempt  because 
they  failed  to  notify  some  of  the  7,000  members  of  the  organization 
of  the  issuance  of  the  injunction  order;  that  such  an  adjudication 
should  not  stand  because  the  court  that  granted  the  injunction  did 
not  expressly  direct  that  such  a  notification  be  given,  and  that  there- 
fore the  essential  element  of  wilfulness  was  lacking.  The  Court 
of  Appeals,  to  which  the  case  was  taken  for  final  adjudication,  sub- 
sequently sustained  the  decision  of  the  lower  court.  Justice  Willard 
Bartlett,  however,  non-concurring  and  sustaining  the  contention  of 
Justice  Laughlin  of  the  Appellate  Division. 

During  the  pendency  of  the  matter  on  appeal  Mr.  Jackson  died. 
Messrs.  McCormick  and  Costello  appeared  before  Justice  Bischoff 
on  December  28,  1909,  and  moved  for  a  suspension  of  the  jail  sentences 
imposed  as  part  of  the  penalties  against  them.  In  their  petition 
they  said: 

Your  petitioners  respectfully  aver  that  at  the  time  of  the  granting  of  the  in- 
junction herein,  and  for  a  long  time  thereafter,  a  disagreement  between  the  union 
printers  and  the  firms  composing  the  plaintiff  herein  was  existing.  During  all 
of  this  time  your  petitioners  as  officers  did  everything  in  their  power  to  see  that 
the  injunction  was  in  every  respect  obeyed,  and  believed  that  their  actions  were 
in  every  respect  lawful.  At  no  time  did  they  wilfully  intend  to  violate  any  of  the 
provisions  of  the  injunction  herein,  but  this  court  having  found  them  guilty  of 
acts  which  have  brought  them  into  contempt  of  this  court,  they  now  come  before 
this  court  and  ask  leave  to  purge  themselves  of  the  contempt  of  which  they  have 
been  found  guilty,  and  they  do  now  offer  their  sincere  apology  and  regrets  for 
the  acts  because  which  the  judgment  herein  has  been  found  necessary.  As 
citizens  of  this  community,  they  desire  that  law  and  order  be  in  every  respect 
maintained,  and  they  regret  that  any  action  which  they  have  taken  has  been 
held  to  be  subversive  of  those  principles  which  they  will  ever  try  in  the  future 
to  sustain. 

The  attention  of  the  court  is  respectfully  called  to  the  fact  that  one  of  the 
learned  Justices  of  the  Appellate  Division  and  one  of  the  learned  Justices  of  the 
Court  of  Appeals  each  dissented  from  the  opinion  of  their  respective  tribunal  and 
believed  that  the  acts  of  your  petitioners  were  not  contemptuous.  If  these  Judges, 
learned  in  the  law,  were  of  this  opinion,  surely  your  petitioner  should  not  be  severely 
punished  for  what  has  proven  to  be  a  serious  mistake  in  judgment  on  their  part. 

Your  petitioners  therefore  pray,  in  view  of  all  the  facts  and  circumstances, 
that  this  court  suspend  the  sentence  of  20  days  in  jail  for  each  petitioner  as  here- 
tofore imposed;  their  lives  having  been  heretofore  without  stain  or  reproach, 
they  having  been  honored  by  election  to  office  by  members  of  Typographical 
Union  No.  6  of  the  City  of  New  York;  they  and  their  families  having  been  able 
to  maintain  a  happy  and  honorable  position  in  this  city,  and  they  submit  that 
at  this  time  in  their  lives  it  would  be  a  great  hardship  to  place  upon  them  the 


MOVEMENTS    FOR    SHORTENINO    HOURS    OF    LABOR.  383 

stigma  of  a  term  in  prison.  They  fully  realize  the  seriousness  of  the  charge  which 
was  made  and  has  been  sustained  against  them,  and  they  fully  appreciate  that 
the  dignity  of  this  court  and  respect  for  its  mandates  must  be  fully  sustained. 

The  motion  of  the  petitioners  was  granted,  and  in  the  opinion 
modifying  the  sentence  the  court  remarked: 

The  respondents  before  me  have  been  adjudged  guilty  of  a  criminal  contempt 
of  court  in  violating  an  injunction  order  heretofore  granted.  As  officers  of  the 
defendant  Typographical  Union  No.  6  they  so  acted  as  to  further  the  commis- 
sion of  acts  of  violence  and  intimidation  upon  the  part  of  members  of  the  union 
during  the  course  of  a  labor  dispute,  which  acts  it  was  the  duty  of  these  officers 
to  endeavor  to  prevent,  according  to  the  court's  mandate.  After  successive 
appeals  to  the  Appellate  Division  and  Court  of  Appeals,  resulting  in  affirmance 
in  each  instance,  this  court  is  now  asked  to  direct  the  execution  of  its  sentence, 
fine  and  imprisonment,  and  the  survivors  of  the  respondents  directed  to  be  im- 
prisoned have  petitioned  the  court  for  clemencj''  in  that  respect.  After  mature 
deliberation  I  have  concluded  that  upon  payment  of  the  fines  imposed,  within 
ten  days,  the  issuance  of  process  for  the  imprisonment  of  the  petitioning  respond- 
ents should  be  stayed.     *     *     * 

I  am  not  perturbed  by  any  question  of  the  wisdom  of  my  direction  for  the  stay 
of  the  respondent's  imprisonment.  I  made  the  order  adjudging  them  guilty 
of  contempt  and  imposing  the  punishment,  but  I  am  now  impressed  with  the 
sincerity  of  the  respondents'  apologies  to  the  court,  of  their  assurances  of  regret 
for  the  unlawful  occurrences  and  their  participation  therein,  and  of  their  promises 
in  the  future  to  defer  to  and  to  obey  the  court's  directions,  and  by  their  example 
to  persuade  others  to  conduct  themselves  in  every  respect  as  the  peace  and  good 
order  of  the  community  requires.  I  have  not  been  unmindful  of  an  impression 
prevalent  among  many  persons  that  injunctions  of  the  class  to  which  the  one 
violated  by  the  respondents  belonged  constituted  an  unjust  interference  with  the 
supposed  rights  of  those  enjoined,  because  of  which  the  latter  are  sometimes 
persuaded  to  determine  those  rights  for  themselves,  and  are  impatient  of  or 
unwilling  to  await  the  arbitrament  of  the  courts,  a  course  tending  toward  the 
destruction  of  social  order,  which  the  law  is  designed  to  maintain.  I  am  willing 
to  assume  that  the  respondents  had  fallen  into  the  error  of  that  impression,  and 
if  they  have  now  been  cured  of  it,  and  have  come  to  a  realization  of  what  good 
citizenship  and  a  due  regard  for  the  rights  of  others  demands  of  them  in  that 
respect,  the  court's  dignity  is  not  lessened  if  it  overlooks  and  forgives  their  past 
offense  and  spares  them  the  humiliation  of  confinement  in  jail.  I  believe  that 
the  court  should  be  content  with  the  respondents'  apology  and  promises,  and  I 
feel  assured  that  clemency,  under  the  circumstances,  is  better  in  keeping  with 
the  court's  dignity  than  would  be  the  ruthless  and  inexorable  enforcement  of 
the  respondents'  disgrace.  Aside  from  the  contempt  of  which  the  respondents 
were  adjudged  guilty,  they  have  steadily  behaved  as  good  and  useful  members 
of  the  community,  having  supported  themselves  and  those  dependent  upon  them 
by  honest  toil,  risen  to  places  of  dignity  and  honor  among  their  fellow-craftsmen, 
and  contributing,  so  far  as  their  station  would  permit,  to  the  common  weal. 
In  view  of  their  present  attitude  of  respect  for  the  court,  therefore,  I  cannot  see 
that  any  good  purpose  can  be  subserved  by  directing  their  imprisonment  in  the 
jail,  thus  causing  them  to  feel  humiliated  and  lowered  in  the  esteem  of  their 
friends  and  neighbors.  Should  future  events  prove  my  error,  I  will  feel  comforted 
by  the  fact  that  it  was  at  mercy's  prompting. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 
CELEBRATED  INDIVIDUAL  STRIKES. 

SEVERAL  individual  strikes  instituted  by  the  New  York  Typo- 
graphical Union  have  been  so  wide-reaching  in  scope  and  of 
such  general  importance  that  they  are  worthy  of  attention 
in  this  connection.     The  Tribune  figured  prominently  in  these  dis- 
putes.     Already  the  part  taken  by  that  journal  in  the  wage  move- 
ment of  1864  has  been  described  in  these  pages,  and 
Strikes  here  will  be  taken  into  account  the  momentous  con- 

on  the  troversies  of    1877   and    1883,    when   the    printers 

Tribune.  inaugurated  the  system  of  boycotting,  which  was  sub- 
sequently practiced  by  other  trade  organizations. 
Few  members  of  the  present  typographical  fraternity  have  heard  of 
the  first  strike  on  the  Tribune,  which  occurred  in  1852.  It  was  due 
purely  to  a  misapprehension,  and  was  of  very  brief  duration.  The 
affair  was  described  in  detail  at  the  time  of  its  occurrence  by  one  of  the 
participants,^  "  We  have  had  a  most  radical  change  in  the  Tribune 
office  since  my  last  letter,"  he  wrote.  "  Week  work  has  been  substi- 
tuted for  piecework.  The  $14  situations  have  been  apportioned  among 
ten  compositors,  the  $11  ones  (exclusively  night)  have  been  given 
to  fourteen  men,  and  the  $10  positions  to  ten  others.  At  the  com- 
mencement of  the  week  work  we  had,  as  was  usual  in  time  past  and 
gone,  a  large  quantity  of  matter  standing,  and  things  went  on  very 
smoothly  for  a  week  or  more,  when  we  had  used  up  the  back  matter; 
then  the  paper  began  to  be  late  to  press.  It  was  evident  that  some 
change  must  be  made;  but  how  or  what  was  a  matter  which  called 
forth  all  of  Foreman  Rooker's  latent  energies.  For  the  time  being 
he  put  on  five  '  extras.'  He  then  came  to  the  conclusion,  and  so  pub- 
licly expressed  himself,  that  he  had  either  made  a  great  mistake  as  to 
the  number  of  men  employed  or  that  the  men  did  not  do  their  duty  — 


>  Henry  M.  Failing,  in  a  letter  to  Charles  W.  Colburn,  then  in  St.  Louis,  dated  Sunday,  July 
II,  1852. 

In  announcing  the  death  of  Henry  M.  Failing,  in  the  1874  convention  of  the  International 
Typographical  Union,  Mr.  Burke,  of  New  York,  said:  "  He  was  present  at  the  formation  of  No.  6 
in  1850,  of  which  he  became  president  a  few  years  later.  He  represented  New  York  at  Nashville 
in  i860.  In  1864  he  left  New  York  to  engage  in  the  hotel  business  in  Columbus.  In  the  memor- 
able campaign  of  1872  he  took  part  in  politics,  and  was  secretary  to  the  Liberal  Republican  State 
Committee  of  Ohio,  in  which  capacity  he  worked  ardently  for  his  old  friend,  Horace  Greeley." 

[384] 


CELEBRATED    INDIVIDUAL    STRIKES.  385 

that  is,  an  average  of  5,500  ems  all  around.  So  on  Wednesday 
morning  he  requested  the  men  as  they  came  in  to  schedule  their 
'  takes  '  and  mark  the  paper  the  next  morning.  A  tempest  was 
plainly  visible  and  as  soon  as  Sam.  Sloan  came  in  (he  being  the  father 
of  the  chapel)  it  biirst  upon  the  astonished  vision  of  Rooker.  Sloan, 
with  almost  the  entire  compositorial  corps  at  his  back,  immediately 
went  up  to  the  foreman  and  asked  him  if  that  plan  was  decided 
upon.  He  replied  that  it  was.  Sloan  said  that  it  was  incompatible 
with  their  dignity  as  men  to  mark  and  measure  their  paper  while  at 
work  by  the  week.  Rooker  thought  differently.  It  was  not  his 
intention,  he  said,  to  degrade  the  men;  far  be  it  from  him.  Sloan 
replied  that  he  thought  the  majority  of  the  men  worked  faithfully 
and  earned  their  money,  and  as  far  as  he  was  individually  concerned 
he  knew  it  to  be  the  case,  and  he  should  consider  it  a  degradation 
to  comply  with  Foreman  Rooker's  request,  and  sooner  than  do  it 
he  would  throw  up  his  'sit.'  Several  other  men  spoke  up  and  said 
that  they  should  do  the  same.  The  excitement  was  then  up  to  a 
high  pitch.  Rooker  then  remarked  that  it  appeared  to  him  that 
this  whole  movement  was  a  preconcerted  measure  to  force  the  office 
from  the  stand  it  had  taken  in  changing  from  piece  to  week  work, 
and  that  he  would  lose  his  last  drop  of  blood  before  he  would  be 
forced  into  a  measure  of  that  kind.  It  was  explicitly  stated  to  him 
that  it  was  not  a  preconcerted  movement;  neither  was  there  any 
intention  on  the  part  of  the  men  to  force  the  office  into  any  measure. 
Again  it  was  asked  if  he  insisted  on  the  mark.  He  said,  *  Yes.'  The 
men  then,  as  one  man,  tendered  their  resignations.  Rooker  com- 
menced taking  down  their  names,  but  soon  found  it  was  a  useless 
task,  as  every  man  in  the  office,  with  but  two  exceptions,  threw  up 
their  situations.  In  fifteen  minutes  there  were  no  types  being  set 
except  by  those  two  men.  The  office  was  literally  deserted,  and 
that  too  between  i  and  2  o'clock,  just  as  the  evening  editions  were 
going  down.  The  compositors  immediately  left  the  office  and  went 
round  to  Clinton  Hall,^  where  they  held  consultations.  John  Ingles 
and  several  others  were  talking  to  Rooker  after  the  majority  of  the 
men  had  gone  downstairs  and  then  for  the  first  time  was  the  thing 
sufficiently  explained.  Rooker  said  that  his  idea  was  to  have  the 
compositors  mark  their  matter  so  that  he  could  distinguish  the  new 
matter  from  the  old,  so  that  he  could  have  the  matter  measured 
generally  and  not  individually,  as  the  men  supposed  he  meant. 
He  said  he  did  not  care  whether  they  marked  with  a  general  mark 


8  Clinton  Hall  was  at  Nassau  and  Beekman  streets,  where  Temple  Court  now  stands. 
13 


386  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

or  individual  mark  —  his  object  being  to  get  the  total  amount  of  ems 
in  the  paper  so  that  he  could  make  an  average  and  see  whether  he 
had  men  enough  on  or  not.  Had  the  men  fully  understood  him  in 
this  way  there  would  have  been  no  difficulty.  Just  before  3  o'clock 
word  came  from  Rooker  that  he  would  like  to  see  the  men  and  talk 
with  them  —  that  there  appeared  to  be  a  misunderstanding,  and  if 
so  to  have  it  corrected,  and  then  if  they  saw  fit  to  refuse  to  work 
he  had  nothing  more  to  say.  The  men  came  back.  Then  they 
refused  to  make  a  general  mark,  even,  but  told  Rooker  that  if  he 
wished  to  get  the  number  of  ems  in  the  paper  he  could  do  so  by 
measuring  the  proofs.  He  finally  concluded  to  do  this,  and  the  men 
went  to  work.     Thus  ended  the  demonstration." 

Most  notable,  however,  was  the  dispute  that  began  with  the 
Tribune  in  1877,  while  the  country  was  still  in  the  throes  of  the  panic 
that  started  in  1873.  On  June  18,  1876,  the  union  reduced  the  news- 
paper wage  scale,  and  later  the  chairman  of  the  Tribune  chapel 
informed  the  membership  that  the  foreman  had  asked  for  a  further 
reduction  on  time  work,  albeit  a  substantial  decrease  already  had  been 
made.  But  the  crisis  did  not  arrive  until  June  29,1877.  In  the  interim 
the  price  for  piecework  on  morning  newspapers  had  been  cut  by  the 
union  to  46  cents  per  1,000  ems  —  a  decline  of  9  cents  in  one  year. 
To  a  committee  of  the  chapel  on  the  foregoing  date  the  management 
of  the  paper  addressed  this  communication  after  having  discussed 
the  matter  with  the  compositors'  representatives: 

What  we  want  and  would  like  our  men  to  consider: — 

1.  A  reduction  in  the  price  of  composition  on  night  work  to  40  cents  and  on 
day  work  to  33  cents  —  or  about  one-fourth  off  from  the  very  highest  prices 
of  the  flush  times  before  the  panic. 

2.  No  work  to  be  done  which  we  do  not  want  and  cannot  use  —  in  other 
words,  no  "  bogus  "  and  no  allowance  in  place  of  it. 

3.  Work  to  be  done  at  fair  prices  in  whatever  way  we  may  think  most  to  our 
interest  —  by  the  piece  or  on  time,  at  foreman's  option. 

4.  No  double-price  matter. 

A  Special  meeting  of  the  Executive  Committee  was  hastily  called, 
and  the  Tribune  men  were  authorized  to  submit  this  answer  to  the 
newspaper's  proposal:  "We  have  deliberately  and  dispassionately 
considered  the  four  propositions  submitted  to  us  in  your  memoran- 
dum, and  we  have  decided  that  we  cannot  accede  to  any  of  them. 
If  you  adhere  to  your  proposition  we  hereby  tender  our  resignations, 
to  take  effect  immediately."  This  paper,  signed  by  the  members 
of  the  chapel,  was  immediately  presented  to  Whitelaw  Reid,  of  the 
Tribune,  and  as  he  declined  to  withdraw  his  demand,  late  in  the 


CELEBRATED    INDIVIDUAL    STRIKES.  387 

afternoon  of  June  29th  89  printers,  66  of  whom  held  permanent 
situations  and  23  were  substitutes,  walked  out  of  the  office.  Their 
places  were  taken  by  non-union  men.  The  Executive  Committee 
was  on  July  3d  unanimously  sustained  by  the  union  in  ordering  the 
strike,  immediately  following  which  this  interdict,  directed  par- 
ticularly against  the  signers  of  the  above  communication  and  union 
printers  in  general,  was  issued  by  the  Tribune  management: 

It  is  expressly  ordered  that  under  no  circumstances,  and  at  no  time,  shall  any 
member  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  or  any  printers'  trade  union,  or  any  one 
known  to  be  in  sympathy  with  such  organizations,  be  employed  in  the  Tribune 
composing  or  proof  rooms;  and,  especially,  that  no  man  whose  signature  was 
attached  to  the  paper  hereto  appended  shall  ever  again,  under  any  pretext,  be 
employed  in  any  capacity  in  the  Tribune  composing  room,  or  permitted  to  enter  it. 

Afterward  some  of  the  Tribune's  force  of  printers  joined  the  com- 
positors' organization,  and  in  1883,  when  the  union  resolved  to  estab- 
lish a  uniform  wage  scale  in  New  York,  it  was  deemed  an  opportune 
time  to  attempt  to  regain  jurisdiction  over  the  Tribune  office  and 
enforce  the  schedule  of  prices  there.  In  November  of  that  year 
nearly  every  journeyman  responded  to  the  call  of  the  union  to  strike 
for  increased  wages  and  a  card  office,  and  Foreman  W.  P.  Thompson, 
who  had  assumed  charge  of  the  composing  department  in  1877, 
promptly  surrendered  to  the  union  and  entered  into  an  agreement 
with  the  latter,  which  was  represented  by  its  president,  John  R. 
O'Donnell,  and  Executive  Committee,  but  with  the  understanding 
that  it  should  be  subject  to  the  approval  of  Mr.  Reid  upon  his  return 
to  the  city  from  a  trip  to  Ohio.  It  was  subsequently  announced 
that  the  manager  of  the  Tribune  had  sanctioned  the  contract,  which 
was  dated  November  19,  1883,  and  was  as  follows: 

This  agreement  made  and  entered  into  the  nineteenth  of  November,  1883, 
between  W.  P.  Thompson,  on  behalf  of  the  New  York  Tribune,  and  John  R. 
O'Donnell  and  the  Executive  Committee  of  New  York  Typographical  Union 
No.  6,  is  to  effect  as  follows: 

1.  The  said  W.  P.  Thompson,  representing  the  New  York  Tribune,  agrees  to 
pay  the  present  union  scale,  46  cents  per  1,000  ems,  to  the  men  employed  for 
the  term  of  one  year  from  date. 

2.  The  Tribune  is  to  be  a  union  office  for  the  same  term, 

3.  John  R.  O'Donnell  and  the  Executive  Committee  of  Typographical  Union 
No.  6  agree  not  to  interfere  in  any  way  with  the  typesetting  machines  or 
machine  men,  so  long  as  they  are  paid  the  scale,  $22  per  week,  now  in  use  in  said 
Tribune  office. 

4.  John  R.  O'Donnell  and  the  Executive  Committee  further  agree  not  to  inter- 
fere or  in  any  way  annoy,  trouble  or  attempt  to  interfere  with  the  present  fore- 
man of  said  Tribune  composing  room,  so  long  as  he  performs  the  requirements 
cited  in  Clauses  i  and  2  of  this  agreement. 


388  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

5.  It  is  understood  and  agreed  that  either  party  can  by  giving  thirty  days' 
notice  revoke  or  modify  this  agreement  in  any  way  either  party  elects. 

6.  It  is  further  agreed  between  the  same  parties  that  the  union  shall  in  no  way 
interfere  with  the  present  status  of  the  apprentices  or  other  boys  in  the  office. 

To  the  surprise  and  vexation  of  the  Typographical  Union  on 
December  12,  1883,  23  days  after  the  above  contract  became  opera- 
tive, although  the  covenant  stipulated  that  30  days'  notice  of  a 
revocation  or  modification  of  the  agreement  was  required  to  be  given 
by  either  party,  the  foreman  of  the  Tribune  notified  the  compositors 
that  they  must  either  sever  their  connection  with  the  union  or  con- 
sider themselves  dismissed  from  the  service  of  the  Tribune.  Forty- 
four  journeymen  refused  to  dissociate  themselves  from  their  organi- 
zation and  walked  out  of  the  office.  It  was  immediately  charged  by 
the  union  that  Mr.  Reid  had  instigated  the  action  of  his  foreman  and 
consequently  had  broken  the  contract  with  the  printers'  organization, 
the  Executive  Committee  of  which  on  December  13  th  determined  to 
wage  a  new  system  of  warfare  against  the  paper  by  resolving  "  to 
take  steps  toward  an  immediate  and  effective  boycotting  of  the 
Tribune,"  and  on  December  i8th  it  ordered  "that  a  Boycotting 
Committee  be  appointed,  to  begin  at  once."  A  circular  was  forth- 
with sent  to  labor  organizations  throughout  the  United  States, 
stating  that  the  union  "  has  decided  to  attempt  to  boycott  the  most 
pronounced  opponent  of  the  workingmen  of  America,  the  New  York 
Tribune.  As  boycotting  is  the  most  effective  weapon  at  the  disposal 
of  labor  organizations,  and  as  this  is  the  first  organized  attempt  to 
introduce  in  the  East  a  system  which  has  proved  irresistible  in  the 
West,  we  feel  confident  that  we  can  coimt  on  the  support  of  every 
workingman  in  our  contemplated  movement."  Subsequently  the 
union  established  a  weekly  paper  entitled  The  Boycotter,  through 
which  channel  it  presented  its  side  of  the  controversy  and  induced 
other  trade  unions  to  take  up  its  contest  in  every  section  of  the 
coimtry.  In  1886  the  name  of  the  paper  was  changed  to  the  Union 
Printer,  the  publication  of  which  was  discontinued  on  May  i,  1887, 
by  a  vote  of  1,162  ayes  to  530  nays. 

Owing  to  its  conflict  with  the  Tribune  the  union,  recognizing  the 
fact  that  the  paper  was  considered  to  be  the  leading  exponent  of 
the  principles  of  the  Republican  party,  concluded  to  enter  politics, 
with  the  hope  that  such  course  would  effect  a  result  in  its  favor. 
It  was  not  the  first  time  that  the  organization  had  taken  such  action 
to  enforce  its  requirements.  Back  in  1869,  during  the  dispute  of 
the  book  and  job  printers  for  higher  wages,  it  passed  denunciatory 
resolutions,  on  February  19th,  in  consequence  of  the  refusal  of  the 


CELEBRATED    INDIVIDUAL    STRIKES.  389 

Boards  of  Aldermen  to  withdraw  the  city  printing  from  Jones  &  Rogers, 
and  through  them  from  the  sub-contractors,  who  had  refused  to  accede 
to  the  new  scale  of  prices;  declaring  "  that  as  the  members  of  this 
imion,  in  common  with  the  workingmen  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
freely  cast  their  votes  in  favor  of  the  members  of  said  Boards  of 
Aldermen,  thereby  elevating  them  to  positions  of  honor  and  emolu- 
ment, we  claim  and  are  determined  to  maintain  the  right  to  withhold 
our  votes  in  future  from  all  and  every  member  of  said  Corporation 
boards  and  not  be  deceived  again  by  their  claptrap  of  '  workingmen's 
friend;'  that  a  committee  of  three  be  appointed  by  the  president  of 
this  iinion,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  wait  on  the  different  trade  and 
labor  organizations  of  the  city,  and  in  particular  the  Longshoremen's 
Society,  furnish  them  with  copies  of  the  resolutions  presented  by 
this  union  to  the  Boards  of  Aldermen,  explain  the  action  taken  by 
said  boards  and  their  respective  Committees  on  Printing,  and  request 
their  endorsement  of  the  foregoing  resolution;  that  our  secretary 
be  instructed  to  furnish  said  committee  with  correct  lists  of  the  present 
Boards  of  Aldermen,  to  be  distributed  among  the  various  labor 
organizations  for  futiire  reference;  also  that  our  delegates  to  the 
Workingmen's  Union  be  instructed  to  bring  the  action  of  the  Alder- 
manic  Boards  before  that  body."  An  interest  in  the  movement 
was  immediately  manifested  by  various  trade  societies,  which 
selected  delegates  to  wait  upon  the  Common  Council  in  relation  to 
transferring  the  city  printing  to  a  imion  establishment,  and  on  March 
nth  the  Aldermanic  Committee  on  Printing  handed  in  a  lengthy 
report,  going  fully  into  the  merits  of  the  case.  It  severely  censured 
the  attempts  made  by  the  printers  to  intimidate  the  Common  Council 
by  resolutions  adopted  by  the  trade  unions,  and  asserted  that  while 
its  sympathies  were  with  the  employees  any  attempt  to  interfere 
with  the  printing  contract,  which  was  of  long  standing  and  always  had 
been  faithfully  carried  out,  would  be  a  violation  of  the  faith  of  the 
Corporation,  and  that  inasmuch  as  Jones  &  Rogers  had  signified 
their  willingness  to  pay  the  full  prices  for  the  municipal  work  the 
board  could  not  interfere  in  the  private  business  of  the  firm.  The 
report  concluded  by  requesting  the  contractors  to  pay  the  prices  asked 
by  the  journeymen  printers.  This  was  complied  with  and  the  diffi- 
culty ceased.  On  December  4,  1877,  the  union  again  decided  to 
enter  the  field  of  politics  in  its  efforts  to  unionize  a  newspaper  that 
was  controlled  by  leading  adherents  of  an  influential  branch  of  the 
Democratic  party  in  New  York  City  —  declaring  that  as  "  the  New 
York  Star  is  about  to  be  enlarged  and  published  under  the  auspices 
of  Tammany  Hall  "  the  union  maintained  that  inasmuch  as  it  was 


390  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

its  duty  "  to  procure  employment  for  its  members  and  prevent  as 
far  as  possible  the  employment  of  *  rats,'  a  committee  be  appointed 
to  consult  with  Comptroller  Kelly  and  other  prominent  stockholders 
in  order  to  ascertain  if  they  cannot  be  induced  to  make  the  Star  a 
union  office."  A  committee  of  thirteen  was  selected.  At  different 
times  it  reported  progress,  and  on  March  $,  1878,  the  union  resolved 
"  that  the  committee  be  directed  to  call  upon  the  various  labor 
organizations  and  see  what  arrangements  can  be  made  for  meetings 
to  denounce  Tammany  Hall  for  reducing  the  price  of  labor. "  Twenty 
thousand  circulars  in  relation  to  the  Star  were  ordered  by  the  organi- 
zation on  May  7  th  to  be  distributed  by  its  officers  among  other  labor 
organizations,  and  the  Amalgamated  Trades  and  Labor  Union  was 
requested  to  call  a  meeting  to  discuss  the  situation.  On  August 
6th  the  union  unanimously  resolved  "  that  the  committee  to  wait 
upon  the  Comptroller  in  relation  to  the  Star  be  requested  to  immedi- 
ately take  steps  to  notify  the  workingmen  in  this  city  of  the  standing 
of  the  Star  and  Ex-press,  and  such  other  matters  as  may  be  to  the 
interest  of  the  union,  the  committee  to  have  and  possess  full  power 
to  do  whatever  in  its  judgment  may  be  necessary  to  carry  this 
object  into  effect."  ^  That  the  Star  was  finally  won  by  the  union 
was  shown  in  the  latter's  proceedings  of  May  7, 1882,  when  that  paper 
was  mentioned  as  being  an  organized  chapel.  In  May,  1882,  as 
the  outcome  of  a  strike  in  the  office  of  M.  B.  Brown,  city  printer, 
a  resolution  favoring  the  cause  of  the  union  was  introduced  in  the 
Board  of  Aldermen  and  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Salaries  and 
Offices.  The  union  on  the  fourteenth  of  that  month  appointed  a  com- 
mittee of  five  for  each  Aldermanic  District  to  lu-ge  the  Aldermen  "  to 
vote  with  us  in  the  board. ' '  Further  action  was  taken  on  July  2d,  the 
organized  printers  then  directing  "  that  our  delegates  to  the  Central 
Labor  Union  and  the  Amalgamated  Trades  and  Labor  Union  be 
instructed  to  bring  this  matter  before  both  bodies  and  procure  the 
appointment  of  committees  to  wait  upon  the  Executive  Committee  of 
the  County  Democracy  and  notify  them  that  we  will  oppose  them  at 
the  polls  if  Mr.  Brown  does  not  yield  to  this  union."  The  difficulty 
came  to  a  conclusion  on  December  3d,  when  a  committee  that  had 
been  chosen  to  inquire  whether  the  action  of  the  union  in  ordering 


*The  New  York  Sun  of  December  4,  1878,  referred  to  the  subject  as  follows:  "  During  the  late 
canvass  it  was  shown  that  the  Tammany  leaders  *  *  *  were  forcing  the  printers  on  their 
morning  and  evening  dailies  to  work  at  something  barely  better  than  starvation  wages.  This 
was  called  to  the  attention  of  Mr.  Kelly  and  his  copartners  in  the  publications  concerned. 
Mr.  Kelly  and  his  friends  promised  that  the  matter  should  be  looked  into,  but  did  nothing. 
The  result  was  that  1,200  votes  that  went  to  elect  Mr.  Cooper  (the  County  Democracy  candi- 
date for  Mayor)  were  put  in  by  the  union  men." 


CELEBRATED    INDIVIDUAL    STRIKES.  39I 

the  strike  on  May  7  th  was  constitutional  and  legal  reported  a  resolu- 
tion that  the  union  erred  in  fixing  a  scale  for  the  Brown  establishment 
and  inaugurating  a  strike  therein,  and  that  such  proceeding  "  was 
hasty,  unconstitutional  and  consequently  illegal."  By  passing  that 
resolve  the  union  acknowledged  its  mistake,  and  the  dispute  became 
a  closed  incident.  With  the  above  precedents  in  mind  the  member- 
ship of  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  which  had  demonstrated  that 
it  was  a  strictly  non-partisan  institution  and  participated  in  politics 
for  the  sole  economic  benefit  of  those  who  were  affiliated  with  it, 
concluded  in  the  Presidential  year  of  1884,  in  addition  to  its  warfare 
against  the  Tribune's  circulation  and  advertising  columns,  to  institute 
a  political  boycott.  A  committee  was  sent  by  the  union  to  the 
Republican  National  Convention,  which  assembled  in  Chicago  on 
June  3d,  that  year,  to  inform  the  delegates  that  the  Tribune's  attitude 
was  inimical  to  the  interests  of  organized  labor,  and  that  the  paper 
should  be  repudiated  by  the  convention.  No  attention  was  paid  to 
the  committee's  plea,  so  on  August  3d  at  a  regular  meeting  held  in 
Clarendon  Hall  the  tinion  resolved  "  that  until  the  RepubHcan 
National  Committee  give  us  written  assurance  that  they  will  repu- 
diate the  Tribune  the  future  policy  of  The  Boycotter  shall  be  to  boy- 
cott the  Tribune  and  James  G.  Blaine,"  who  was  the  candidate  for 
President  on  the  Republican  ticket.  Political  leaders  tried  to  effect 
an  adjustment  of  the  dispute,  but  were  unable  to  accomplish  any- 
thing in  that  direction,  and  as  the  national  committee  did  not  repu- 
diate the  Tribune  a  large  majority  of  the  union,  which  at  that  time 
numbered  some  3,500  printers  on  its  roster,  determined  to  vote 
against  the  Republican  Presidential  electors.  As  the  Democratic 
electors  in  this  State  that  year  were  chosen  by  a  plurality  of  only 
1,149  votes,  the  imion  printers  claimed  that  it  was  chiefly  due  to 
their  action  that  Grover  Cleveland,  the  Democratic  nominee,  was 
enabled  to  attain  the  Presidency,  as  New  York  chanced  to  be  the 
pivotal  State. 

Officers  of  the  union  in  1885  again  endeavored  to  bring  about  a 
settlement  of  the  controversy,  and  the  Republican  State  Committee 
urged  Mr.  Reid  to  enter  into  peaceful  relations  with  the  typographical 
organization.  As  a  consequence  an  agreement  was  signed  on  October 
31st,  pledging  "  that  no  man  employed  in  the  Tribune  office  shall 
be  dissuaded  from  joining  the  union;  that  such  action  shall  not  be 
the  cause  for  discrimination  against  the  men;  that  no  additional 
non-union  men  shall  be  imported  or  employed,  and  that  all  men 
hereafter  employed  shall  be  m.embers  of  the  imion  in  good  standing." 
A  report  having  been  circiilated  after  the  signing  of  the  agreement 


392  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL  UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

that  the  employees  of  the  Tribune  had  been  advised  not  to  become 
members  of  the  union,  No.  6  on  November  ist  declined  to  ratify 
this  agreement,  declaring  "  that  we  accept  no  terms  but  uncon- 
ditional surrender  from  the  Tribune  Association."  Several  other 
attempts  were  thereafter  made  to  adjust  the  differences,  but  the 
negotiations  proved  unavailing  until  November  i,  1891,  when  the 
secretary  of  the  union  reported  for  the  Executive  Committee,  **  that," 
to  quote  from  the  minutes  of  the  meeting,  "  negotiations  had  been 
entered  into  between  the  committee  and  the  New  York  Tribune; 
that  an  agreement  had  been  submitted  to  Mr.  Reid,  and  he  had  sub- 
mitted some  amendments,  but  that  he  had  intimated  that  he  would 
sign  an  agreement  drawn  on  more  favorable  lines  than  this  if  agree- 
able, and  the  committee  had  held  the  matter  over  for  further  con- 
sideration." A  more  definite  report  was  presented  to  the  union  on 
June  5,  1892,  by  the  officers,  who  stated  that  they  had  "  arranged 
a  plan  of  settlement  with  the  Tribune,  the  terms  of  which  were  the 
placing  of  a  union  foreman  in  charge  of  the  composing  room  with 
full  power,"  and  they  recommended  that  "  the  union  send  a  com- 
mittee to  the  National  Republican  Convention  in  Minneapolis  to 
announce  a  cessation  of  hostilities  against  the  Tribune  and  the 
Republican  party."  It  was  unanimously  resolved  by  the  union 
"  that  the  report  be  received,  the  recommendation  adopted,  and  the 
matter  be  referred  to  the  president  and  secretary  with  full  power." 
When  the  controversy  had  about  come  to  a  close  the  union  on  August 
7th  directed  "  that  on  the  completion  of  the  settlement  with  the 
Tribune  the  officers  be  instructed  to  declare  the  boycott  off  and  to 
notify  sister  unions  and  other  organizations."  Acting  under  this 
resolution  the  officers  on  August  nth  circularized  all  labor  organi- 
zations throughout  the  United  States  "  that  the  differences  between 
our  union  and  the  New  York  Tribune  have  been  satisfactorily  ad- 
justed; that  the  boycott  against  that  establishment  and  its  manager 
has  been  declared  off,  and  that  all  antagonisms  of  whatever  nature, 
growing  out  of  the  famous  labor  struggle,  are  ended.  It  gives  us 
pleasure  to  announce,  furthermore,  that  the  Tribune  is  now  a  strict 
imion  office." 

Peaceful  relations  between  the  union  and  the  Tribune  were  dis- 
turbed a  little  more  than  a  year  later,  however.  Discontent  among 
the  stereotypers  began  to  reveal  itself  on  December  3,  1893,  Stereo- 
typers'  Union  No.  i  then  informing  the  compositors'  organization 
that  four  of  the  former's  members  had  been  dismissed  from  the 
Tribune  office  and  Knights  of  Labor  members  put  in  their  places. 
The  matter  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Allied  Printing  Trades, 


CELEBRATED    INDIVIDUAL    STRIKES.  393 

and  on  January  7,  1894,  the  secretary  of  that  central  association 
submitted  a  report  declaring  that  the  Tribune  was  not  a  union  office. 
But  the  Typographical  Union  was  loth  to  proceed  in  the  matter  with 
undignified  haste,  and  decided  "  that  from  the  report  of  the  delegates 
to  the  AlHed  Trades  we  believe  that  every  effort  has  not  as  yet  been 
exhausted  and  that  the  question  of  a  vote  on  a  strike  in  that  office 
be  postponed."  A  Conference  Committee,  composed  of  represen- 
tatives from  the  unions  of  printers,  stereotypers  and  pressmen,  having 
adopted  a  resolution  that  it  was  the  duty  of  "  No.  6  to  place  itself 
on  record  as  being  in  favor  of  concentrated  action  on  the  part  of 
the  printing  trades  crafts  by  actively  and  immediately  assisting  the 
pressmen  and  stereotypers  in  their  efforts  to  place  both  departments 
of  the  New  York  Tribune  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  International 
Typographical  Union,"  the  compositors'  organization  became  in- 
volved in  the  dispute  by  concurring  on  October  7  th  in  the  recom- 
mendation of  the  conferees  "  that  immediate  and  decisive  action  be 
taken  at  this  meeting  in  behalf  of  Stereotypers'  Union  No.  i  and  the 
Amalgamated  Pressmen's  Union,  and  that  every  effort  be  exhausted 
before  abandoning  the  imionizing  of  both  these  departments  of  the 
Tribune  office."  The  management  of  the  paper  was  given  until  6 
o'clock  p.  M.  on  October  8th  to  comply  with  the  demand.  When 
the  executive  officers  of  the  union  informed  the  Tribune  authorities 
of  the  action  that  had  been  taken  the  latter  called  attention  to  the 
contract  of  the  stereotypers  of  August  12,  1892,  in  which  Stereo- 
typers' Union  No.  i  agreed  to  "  accept  as  members  all  of  the  men  now 
working  in  the  stereotype  room,  one  helper  excepted,  providing  the 
foremanship  is  given  to  some  one  who  is  now  a  member  of  the  union." 
The  Tribune's  manager  informed  the  officers  of  No.  6  that  the  paper 
was  not  making  war  upon  any  branch  of  organized  labor,  and  declined 
to  commence  it  by  discharging  stereotypers  who  belonged  to  the 
Knights  of  Labor,  especially  at  the  behest  of  an  organization  that 
he  considered  had  broken  its  contract.  At  6  o'clock  in  the  evening 
of  October  8th  the  strike  commenced,  but  it  closed  at  12  o'clock 
midnight,  long  before  which  hour  it  had  become  evident  to  the 
stereotypers  that  the  sacrifice  was  too  great  to  ask  the  printers  to 
endiire,  so  they  withdrew  their  demands.  In  the  minutes  of  the  union 
meeting  held  on  November  4th  the  dispute  is  thus  described: 

Concerning  the  inception,  progress  and  outcome  of  the  Tribune  strike  the 
president  made  an  oral  report  on  behalf  of  the  ofiScers  and  Executive  Committee. 
He  said  that  on  the  afternoon  of  October  8th  last  efforts  were  made  to  bring  about 
an  amicable  settlement  of  the  controversy  respecting  the  stereotype  department, 
and,  these  efforts  failing,  at  6  o'clock  P.  M.  the  men  comprising  the  Tribune  chapel 
went  on  strike  in  obedience  to  the  union's  instructions.     During  the  evening 


394  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

the  places  of  the  strikers  were  filled  quite  rapidly  and  about  10:30  o'clock  the 

office  was  virtually  lost  to  the  union.     The  Executive  Committee  was  hastily 

summoned  in  special  session,  and  decided  that  it  would  be  advisable  for  the 

union  men  to  resume  work.     President  Denneen  of  Stcreotypers'  Union  No.  i, 

who  was  called  into  the  conference,  said:     "  Well,  gentlemen,  you  have  assisted 

us  as  much  as  you  can.     Go  and  send  your  men  back."     The  strike  was,  therefore, 

declared  off,  and  the  president  and  sub-committee  of  the  Executive  Committee 

were  compelled  to  sign  the  following  agreement  before  John  E.   MilhoUand 

would  allow  the  strikers  to  retvirn  to  work: 

New  York,  October  8,  1894. 
J.  E.  MilhoUand: 

Dear  Sir: — ^In  behalf  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  we,  the  undersigned,  desire  to  state, 
as  its  authorized  representatives,  to  you,  the  representative  of  the  Tribune: — ■ 

First  —  That  the  strike  of  the  composing  machine  operators  ordered  to-night  is  hereby 
declared  ofif. 

Second  — That  we  agree  to  return  to  work  Immediately,  and  furthermore  agree  that  our 
organization  will  not  order  a  strike  in  future  without  giving  you  at  least  30  days'  notice  of  such 
intention. 

As  the  representative  of  the  Tribune  Association  Mr.  MilhoUand 
addressed  to  the  union  on  October  14th  the  following  letter,  which  was 
read  on  November  4th: 

On  the  threshold  of  your  deliberations  to-day  I  desire  to  submit  a  brief  state- 
ment in  behalf  of  the  Tribune,  which  I  have  the  honor  to  represent  in  this  matter. 

For  the  past  two  years  the  Tribune  has  been  a  union  office;  it  is  a  union  office 
to-day.  Until  last  Sunday  it  had  no  thought  of  becoming  anything  else.  It 
was  at  peace  with  you  and  with  organized  labor  throughout  the  country.  In  its 
various  departments  union  rules  and  regulations  were  scrupulously  observed. 
This  fact  and  the  assumption  that,  so  far  as  your  union  was  concerned,  it  was 
dealing  with  a  responsible  body  obscured  from  view  all  obstacles  in  the  way 
of  the  permanent  maintenance  of  the  relations  between  it  and  your  organization. 

The  action  taken  by  your  body  one  week  ago  apparently  demonstrated  that 
in  assuming  that  you  were  a  thoroughly  responsible  body  the  paper  was  the 
victim  of  an  illusion.  I  say  apparently,  for  we  cannot  yet  bring  ourselves  to 
believe  that  the  monstrous  outrage  perpetrated  upon  this  paper  by  the  sudden 
withdrawal  of  your  members  from  our  composing  room  was  really  the  deUberate 
proceeding  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  but  prefer  to  think  that  it  was  rather 
the  reckless  act  of  ill-advised  individuals  blinded  as  to  the  serious  consequences 
of  their  own  folly. 

Whether  this  theory  is  correct  or  not  we  do  not  pretend  to  say.  Your  action 
to-day  will  determine  that.  It  is  not  the  function  of  this  paper  to  decide  whether 
policies  adopted  by  No.  6  truly  represent  it  or  not.  The  question  for  our  con- 
sideration is  one  of  a  purely  business  character.  It  is  simply  —  Are  you  a 
responsible  body  or  not?  If  you  are,  then  you  are  in  honor  bound  to  make 
satisfactory  reparation  for  what  was  done  in  your  name  against  the  Tribune 
last  Monday  night,  and  give  satisfactory  assurance  against  its  repetition  in  the 
future.  If  you  are  not,  if  your  methods  are  to  be  utterly  irresponsible;  if  this 
paper  is  to  be  liable  to  loss  and  inconvenience  because  it  does  not  choose,  for 
example,  to  become  your  ally  in  wars  upon  rival  organizations;  if  our  faithful 
observance  of  your  rules  and  regulations  is  no  guarantee  against  strikes  and 
threatenings ;  if,  in  short,  there  is  no  security  whatever  in  dealing  with  you, 


CELEBRATED    INDIVIDUAL    STRIKES.  395 

then  it  is  my  duty  to  inform  you  that  so  soon  as  that  fact  is  assured  the  Tribune 
will  cease  to  be  a  union  office,  and  this  letter  is  a  formal  notice  to  that  effect. 

It  is  not  my  intention  to  thrust  my  personality  into  this  communication,  and 
yet  when  I  recall  the  three  long  years  that  I,  together  with  loyal,  earnest  mem- 
bers of  the  union,  labored  unceasingly  for  the  settlement  of  the  memorable  war 
between  it  and  the  Tribune,  I  cannot  repress  the  bitter  regret  I  feel  at  what 
seems  possibly  to  be  the  final  outcome  of  it  all. 

This,  however,  is  extraneous,  since  the  union  has  apparently  fallen  into  ways 
that  make  it  treat  as  enemies  those  who  have  given  practical  evidence  of  their 
friendship  for  the  organization,  and  seemingly  has  consideration  only  for  the 
demagogues  who  seek  political  preferment  and  not  the  advancement  of  the  union's 
true  interests. 

At  the  same  session  of  the  union  a  proposed  compact  with  the 
Tribune  was  discussed,  and  on  November  24th  an  agreement  was 
entered  into  between  the  Tribune  Association,  party  of  the  first 
part,  and  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  party  of  the  second  part. 
It  was  signed  by  Thomas  N.  Rooker  for  the  newspaper  and  James  J. 
Murphy,  president,  and  William  Ferguson,  secretary-treasurer,  for 
the  union.  The  contract,  which  has  been  renewed  annually  since 
that  time  (in  1896  a  new  clause  being  inserted  "  that  any  change  in 
scale  will  be  conformed  to"  by  the  Tribune),  is  as  follows: 

First  —  The  party  of  the  first  part  agrees  that  during  the  term  of  this  contract, 
as  hereinafter  set  forth,  it  will  employ  in  its  composing  room  such  employees 
only  as  are  members  of  said  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  to  whom  the  union  scale 
of  prices  shall  be  paid,  except  as  hereinafter  provided.  This  shall  include  all 
typesetters  and  proofreaders,  but  shall  not  include  the  superintendent  of  the 
mechanical  department.  The  party  of  the  first  part  further  agrees  that  it  will 
not  during  the  said  term  of  this  contract  discontinue  the  employment  of  the 
members  of  said  union  or  employ  in  any  of  said  positions  any  person  or 
persons  not  members  thereof,  except  upon  30  days'  previous  notice  in  writing 
of  its  intention  so  to  do,  addressed  to  said  union  or  to  the  president  thereof,  and 
delivered  personally  to  said  president  or  one  of  the  other  officers  thereof  within 
the  City  of  New  York,  but  this  shall  not  apply  to  individual  employees  who  may 
be  dismissed  for  cause  by  the  superintendent  on  his  own  judgment  or  that  of 
his  employers. 

Second  —  It  is  agreed  by  and  on  behalf  of  the  party  of  the  second  part  and  the 
members  thereof  that  no  strike  on  the  part  of  said  employees  of  the  party  of 
the  first  part  either  in  whole  or  in  part  shall  be  had,  ordered,  aided  or  attempted 
on  the  part  of  said  union  nor  of  any  of  the  officers  thereof  during  the  said  term  of 
this  contract,  except  upon  30  days'  previous  notice  in  writing  of  its,  his  or 
their  intention  so  to  do,  addressed  to  the  party  of  the  first  part  and  delivered 
personally  to  John  E.  Milholland,  or  to  Nathaniel  Tuttle,  the  cashier  of  the  party 
of  the  first  part,  or  to  the  person  then  actually  representing  the  Tribune  in  its 
cashier's  office,  within  the  City  of  New  York.  In  the  event  that  individual 
members  of  said  union  shall  without  such  notice  or  suddenly  leave  the  employ- 
ment of  the  party  of  the  first  part,  the  party  of  the  second  part  agrees  to  use 
all  reasonable  and  prompt  efforts  to  co-operate  with  the  party  of  the  first  part 


396  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

in  filling  the  places  of  such  employees  so  leaving  with  equally  efficient  operators 
or  workers. 

Third  —  The  term  of  this  contract  shall  be  from  November  17,  1894,  to 
December  31,  1895,  both  inclusive. 

Fourth  —  The  party  of  second  part  further  agrees  that  on  or  before  Novem- 
ber 17, 1894,  it  will  deliver  to  the  party  of  the  first  part  a  bond  with  such  securities 
as  shall  be  acceptable  to  the  party  of  the  first  part  in  the  penalty  of  $5,000  con- 
ditioned upon  the  faithful  performance  of  this  agreement  in  all  respects  by  the 
party  of  the  second  part;  and  in  case  said  bond  is  not  delivered  on  or  before 
November  17,  1894,  it  is  agreed  that  this  contract  shall  not  go  into  effect  until 
the  delivery  and  acceptance  of  said  bond. 

Ever  since  the  agreement  went  into  effect  there  has  been  a  perfect 
understanding  between  Typographical  Union  No.  6  and  the  Tribune, 
nothing  having  occurred  in  the  past  seventeen  years  to  mar  the  good 
feeling  that  was  engendered  at  the  end  of  the  strike  in  1894.  This 
communication  from  John  E.  Milholland,  addressed  to  the  foreman 
of  the  Tribune  composing  room  and  spread  upon  the  minutes  of 
the  union  on  December  6,  1896,  further  accentuates  the  cordial 
relations  between  both  parties  to  the  covenant. 

You  may  say  to  your  fellow-members  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  that 
the  Tribune  is  unaware  at  present  of  any  reason  why  it  should  not  be  willing  to 
continue  its  present  relations  with  your  organization,  on  the  same  conditions 
that  now  exist,  including  the  $5,000  bond. 

It  is,  I  am  sure,  mutually  satisfactory  to  recall  the  fact  that  for  the  first  time 
in  20  years  a  Presidential  campaign  has  been  passed  through  without  the 
slightest  friction  between  this  paper  and  No.  6.  It  would  seem  to  indicate  that 
the  existing  bond  of  union  has  stood  a  test  that  argues  well  for  permanent  co- 
operation. 

Permit  me  to  express  the  best  wishes  of  the  Tribune,  as  well  as  my  own,  for 
the  prosperity  of  your  organization,  and  let  me  also  congratulate  you  upon  the 
faithful  and  excellent  service  rendered  by  the  Tribune  chapel  throughout  the  year. 

It  was  a  long  and  acrid  dispute  in  which  Typographical  Union 
No.  6  and  the  New  York  Sun  became  involved  on  August  5,  1899. 
These  two  parties  had  been  in  conflict  at  other 
Controversies     periods,    but   this   last   controversy   overshadowed 
with  the  those  of  previous  years.     Back  in  1852,  when  the 

New  York  Sun.  union  had  barely  passed  out  of  its  formative  con- 
dition, it  had  a  difficulty  with  the  Sun  that  con- 
tinued with  more  or  less  acerbity  for  twelve  years.  The  affair 
started  on  April  17th,  when  a  resolution  that  had  been  adopted  by 
the  union  "  recognizing  the  New  York  Sun  as  a  fair  office,  was  re- 
scinded in  consequence  of  the  proprietors  of  that  paper  having 
reduced  the  wages  of  the  journeymen  employed  by  them  to  *  rat  * 
prices,"  and  the  association  requested  printers  "  to  give  the  Sun  a 


CELEBRATED    INDIVIDUAL    STRIKES.  397 

wide  berth."  As  has  been  already  noted  in  these  pages  the  Sun  in 
1853  refused  to  recognize  the  union's  demand  for  more  wages  on 
newspapers.  At  a  mass  meeting  of  book  and  job  printers  held  on 
April  nth  of  that  year  to  discuss  a  proposed  raise  of  rates  in  those 
branches  of  the  printing  industry  it  was  unanimously  resolved  "  that, 
notwithstanding  the  professions  of  friendship  of  the  New  York  Sun 
and  kindred  papers,  for  the  interest  and  welfare  of  the  mechanics 
and  laborers  of  the  City  of  New  York,  we  regard  it  as  our  most 
malignant  enemy,  for  under  the  mask  of  pretended  friendship  they 
are  ever,  both  by  their  editorials  and  practices,  aiming  to  poison  the 
public  mind  both  as  to  our  wants  and  the  means  of  attaining  them, 
and  regarding  the  Sun  and  other  papers  in  this  light,  we  feel  it  not 
only  incumbent  on  us  to  discountenance  them,  but  to  recommend  our 
co-laborers  in  the  mechanic  arts  everywhere  to  do  likewise."  A  cor- 
respondent, writing  to  the  Tribune  on  April  19th,  said  "  it  was  only 
a  matter  of  form  on  the  part  of  the  committee  appointed  by  the 
Printers'  Union  to  notify  publishers  that  the  scale  of  prices  was 
about  to  be  changed  that  that  committee  waited  upon  the  proprietors 
of  the  Sun  at  all.  The  union  expected  nothing  from  that  concern. 
It  wishes  nothing  now.  The  union  can  survive  the  opposition  of 
the  Sun.  We  shall  see  before  many  months  how  that  '  friend  of 
the  laboring  classes  '  will  succeed  without  the  co-operation  of  the 
union.  The  working  classes  generally  understand  the  peculiar 
devotion  of  the  Sun  to  their  interests,  as  the  writer  of  this  has  every 
reason  to  know.  All  that  members  of  the  Printers'  Union  ask  of 
that  luminary  is  that  it  will  say  nothing  in  their  praise."  The 
matter  even  found  its  way  into  the  1853  convention  of  the  National 
Typographical  Union.  Jeremiah  Gray,  one  of  the  delegates  from 
the  New  York  organization  of  printers,  had  introduced  a  resolution 
declaring  "  that  among  the  many  enemies  arrayed  against  our 
interests  and  advancement  the  National  Typographical  Union  knows 
of  none  more  insidious  or  poisonous  in  its  nature  than  that  found 
daily  in  the  columns  of  the  New  York  Sun;  and  that,  therefore,  we 
respectfully  recommend  to  our  friends  engaged  in  the  profession 
throughout  the  United  States  to  discountenance  that  publication 
in  every  possible  manner;  and  that  we  also  ask  the  co-operation  of 
all  trades  and  professions  in  accomplishing  that  object."  This  was 
suggestive  of  the  boycott  that  years  afterward  was  effectively  exer- 
cised as  a  weapon  of  enforcement  by  the  general  association  of  printers, 
but  the  convention  did  not  then  take  kindly  to  the  proposition. 
Having  been  referred  to  the  Committee  on  New  Business  the  latter 
recommended  on  May  5th  that  the  resolution  be  negatived,  and  the 


398  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

report  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  sixteen  to  eight.  That  convention 
also  set  its  face  against  strikes,  excepting  in  an  extremity,  regarding 
"  as  injudicious  a  frequent  resort  to  strikes  on  the  part  of  journey- 
men, or  any  misunderstanding  occurring  between  them  and  their 
employers  —  believing  that  in  most  cases  all  such  differences  can 
be  settled  satisfactorily  by  other  and  more  amicable  means,  and  that 
a  strike  should  be  resorted  to  only  when  all  such  means  fail."  Un- 
expectedly a  settlement  was  effected  by  the  combined  compositors 
with  the  Sun's  proprietors  in  1864  at  a  time  when  other  newspaper 
owners  who  had  always  recognized  union  rules  balked  at  what  they 
regarded  as  exorbitant  demands.  Francis  Freckelton,  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  typographical  organization  in  the  Workingmen's 
Union,  described  to  that  body  on  August  26,  1864,  how  his  associa- 
tion had  adjusted  the  long-standing  dispute.  "  When  the  new  scale 
of  prices  was  adopted  a  committee  was  appointed  to  wait  on  Mr. 
Beach  and  ask  him  to  pay  those  prices,"  said  he.  "  Mr.  Beach 
promptly  responded  by  stating  that  he  would  do  so.  The  employ- 
ing printers  (newspaper,  book  and  job)  appear  to  be  opposed  to  the 
union,  and  wish  to  break  it  up.  They  are  advertising  in  country 
papers  for  men  to  come  here  and  work  under  price  —  and  3  5  men  are 
now  '  ratting  '  in  the  Tribune  office.  At  present  there  are  from  500 
to  800  printers  out  of  work,  but  a  Committee  of  Conference  has  been 
appointed  and  will  meet  to-morrow,  and  probably  some  arrange- 
ment might  be  entered  into.  For  myself  I  now  say  that  the  Sun 
is  sold  at  as  fair  a  price  as  any  in  the  city,  and  its  worlonen  are  all 
members  of  the  union."  This  statement  was  supplemented  on 
August  2 2d  in  a  card  printed  in  the  Tribune,  informing  the  public 
that  on  August  20th  the  Sun's  compositors  had  assembled  and 
resolved  with  one  voice  to  "  tender  our  sincere  thanks  to  the  Messrs. 
Beach  for  their  prompt  compliance  with  our  request  for  an  increase 
of  wages  in  accordance  with  the  scale  of  prices  of  the  New  York 
Typographical  Union.  By  their  action  in  sustaining  us  on  an  equahty 
with  the  members  of  the  craft  and  our  fellow-workmen  of  the  city 
in  general,  they  have  shown  themselves  to  be  true  supporters  of 
the  workingmen  at'  large,  and  we  trust  and  hope  that  the  public 
will  continue  the  generous  support  they  have  hitherto  extended  to 
the  New  York  Sun."  All  resolutions  that  it  had  adopted  against 
the  Sun  were  rescinded  by  the  Workingmen's  Union  on  August  19th 
and  the  long  opposition  of  the  organized  mechanics  in  New  York 
to  that  newspaper  was  thus  officially  terminated. 

Never  has  the  Typographical  Union  interfered  with  a  newspaper 
because  of  its  editorial  expressions,  particularly  against  trade  unions. 


CELEBRATED    INDIVIDUAL    STRIKES.  399 

It  believes  in  the  freedom  of  the  press,  and  has  on  several  occasions 
placed  itself  squarely  upon  record  in  favor  of  that  principle.  In 
1887  an  element  in  the  Knights  of  Labor  inaugurated  a  boycott  on 
the  Sun  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  the  editorial  columns  of  that  journal 
had  contained  comments  on  organized  labor  that  were  of  an  adverse 
character.  Such  course  on  the  part  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  members 
incensed  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  which  on  March  6th  instructed 
its  delegates  to  the  Central  Labor  Union  "  to  protest  against  the 
boycotting  of  papers  employing  union  printers  merely  for  expression 
of  opinion."  On  April  3d  the  union  again  adverted  to  the  subject, 
declaring  "  that  we  most  sincerely  deprecate  any  attempt  to  muzzle 
the  press  of  this  city  or  country;  that  it  is  the  sense  of  this  meeting 
that  any  and  all  papers  have  a  right  to  express  their  honest  opinions 
on  all  matters  concerning  the  public  welfare."  Later  in  the  year  the 
New  York  union  of  printers  gave  the  affair  a  national  range  by  causing 
the  introduction  of  the  question  at  the  annual  convention  of  the 
International  Typographical  Union,  which  imanimously  adopted 
the  following: 

The  New  York  Sun  is  a  strictly  union  establishment,  conforming  in  every 
particular  to  the  rules  of  the  International  Typographical  Union  and  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  6.  The  editors  and  proprietors  of  the  Sun  and  the  Evening 
Sun  have  always  been  advocates  of  the  rights  of  labor  unions  and  trade 
federations.  The  "  Home  Club  "  and  its  allies  in  the  Knights  of  Labor  have 
unwarrantably  and  unjustly  boycotted  these  newspapers.     Therefore  resolved : — 

That  the  International  Typographical  Union,  in  convention  assembled,  de- 
nounces said  boycott  as  a  blow  not  only  at  tried  friends  of  labor,  but  as  a  blow 
at  trade  unions  themselves,  made,  not  by  the  Knights  of  Labor,  but  by  a  clique 
in  that  organization  which  has  violated  the  constitution  and  usurped  the  functions 
of  that  body. 

That  a  free  press  is  the  heritage  of  free  men,  and  that  every  workingman  who 
aids  in  either  stifling  or  muzzhng  its  expression  of  opinion  aids  in  the  establish- 
ment of  a  tyranny  that  would  destroy  the  rights  of  man. 

That  the  attempt  of  a  cabal  in  the  Knights  of  Labor  to  make  itself  the  secret 
and  supreme  ruler  of  this  country  and  to  control  the  social  and  business  interests 
of  its  citizens  merits  the  indignant  opposition  of  all  free  men. 

That  where  a  newspaper  proprietor  conforms  to  the  regulations  of  a  trade 
union  and  employs  none  but  strictly  union  help  the  business  of  such  newspapers 
should  not  be  interfered  with. 

Regarding  the  dispute  that  commenced  on  the  fifth  of  August,  1899 , 
the  Sun  management  charged  that  when  certain  new  printing  ma- 
chines were  installed  by  the  publishing  company  it  engaged  practical 
machinists  to  operate  them,  these  mechanics  not  being  members  of 
the  Typographical  Union;  that  on  July  i6th  a  representative  of  the 
union  called  on  the  business  manager  and  announced  to  him  that  he 


400  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

must  employ  compositors  to  work  on  the  machines;  that  the  Sun 
management,  knowing  that  the  command  would,  if  not  complied 
with,  be  enforced  by  a  strike  and  a  boycott,  yielded  a  compliance 
thereto,  but  owing  to  lack  of  acquaintance  with  the  devices  the  com- 
positors could  not  operate  them  without  damaging  the  mechanism, 
so  a  sufficient  number  of  machinists  had  to  be  retained  to  perform 
the  work  while  the  printers  "  stood  by  and  looked  on  and  drew  their 
pay  for  so  doing."  Again,  the  Sun  Company  claimed  that  the  union 
delegate  visited  the  business  manager  in  the  early  part  of  August 
and  notified  him  to  discharge  the  machinists  and  keep  none  but 
union  compositors.  "  Believing  and  knowing  that  it  had  the  right 
under  the  laws  of  the  land  to  conduct  its  business  in  its  own  way 
and  without  dictation  from  outside  persons,  subject  only  to  the  law," 
the  company  contended  that  it  had  "  refused  to  comply  with  this 
demand;  that  on  the  night  of  Saturday,  August  5,  1899,  ^^  10  o'clock, 
all  the  printers  in  its  employ  who  were  members  of  the  Typographical 
Union,"  and  all  the  union  stereotypers  working  in  the  establish- 
ment, "  without  notice,  but  selecting  that  hour  as  the  one  at  which 
a  strike  of  the  employees  would  be  most  harmful  to  it,  because  of 
the  necessity  of  getting  out  its  Sunday  morning  edition,  the  same  being 
several  times  larger  than  its  week-day  morning  editions,  struck  and 
left  the  employ  of  the  Sun  Publishing  Company  and  were  never 
at  any  time  locked  out." 

Typographical  Union  No.  6  admitted  that  the  Sun  had  in  its 
employ  practical  machinists  who  were  not  members  of  that  organi- 
zation, but  that  there  was  never  any  question  raised  as  to  the  employ- 
ment of  these  men  to  attend  the  machines.  "  In  the  month  of  June, 
1899,"  said  the  union,  "  the  company's  representatives  sent  for  our 
organizer  and  stated  that  the  management  was  about  to  change  the 
method  of  composition  on  the  Sun  and  the  Evening  Sun  from 
hand  work  to  machine  work,  and  asked  for  the  union  rules  governing 
the  operation  of  typesetting  machines."  It  was  denied  that  any 
such  command  as  that  alleged  by  the  company  was  ever  given  by 
the  union's  official,  "  By  our  rules,"  was  the  claim  of  the  journey- 
men, "  boys  other  than  apprentices  are  forbidden  to  handle  type, 
and  the  fact  that  these  boys  were  being  permitted,  authorized  or 
ordered  to  handle  type  was  called  to  the  attention  of  the  officers  of 
the  Sun  Company,  but  we  deny  that  this  fact  had  anything  what- 
ever to  do  with  causing  the  printers  and  stereotypers  to  leave  the 
emplo3rment  of  that  paper,  neither  was  the  hour  of  10  o'clock  on  the 
night  of  August  5,  1899,  or  any  other  hour  on  any  other  day,  selected 
by  the  union  or  any  one  connected  with  it,  at  which  to  strike."     The 


CELEBRATED    INDIVIDUAL    STRIKES.  4OI 

trouble  arose,  the  union  affirmed,  over  the  fact  that  the  Sun  had 
caused  a  want  advertisement  to  be  inserted  in  Philadelphia  news- 
papers calling  for  compositors,  and  that  in  response  to  those  answering 
the  advertisement  a  circular  letter  was  addressed  on  August  4th, 
stating  that  the  applicants  would  be  required  to  go  a  short  distance 
from  Philadelphia  and  that  "  from  and  after  August  7  th  ours  will 
be  an  open  office."  At  the  same  time  another  circular  was  sent  out 
by  the  Sun's  superintendent  of  printing  to  the  effect  that  "  it  is  the 
purpose  to  reorganize  the  composing  room  in  this  establishment,  and 
to  that  end  all  the  positions  in  the  above-named  department  are 
hereby  made  vacant."  Learning  of  this  the  union  sent  a  committee 
to  the  Sun  office  in  the  afternoon  of  August  5  th  to  ascertain  whether 
such  change  as  indicated  in  the  documents  was  contemplated,  and 
to  seek  a  denial  of  the  authenticity  of  the  circular  letters.  "As 
no  person  in  the  Sun  office  either  could  or  would  make  such  denial," 
the  imion  urged,  "  the  committee  notified  the  men  at  work  in  the 
office  of  the  exact  situation  of  the  affairs  therein,  on  learning  which 
the  organized  printers  and  stereotypers  quit  their  work  and  went  out 
rather  than  be  locked  out  on  the  following  day."  Some  of  the 
force  of  men  who  had  been  engaged  in  Philadelphia  and  went  to 
New  York  by  steamboat  took  the  places  of  those  who  had  ceased 
work.  A  boycott  against  the  morning  and  evening  editions  of  the 
newspaper  was  begun  soon  after  the  trouble  commenced,  and  on  August 
13  th  it  was  announced  that  the  New  York  Central  Federated  Union 
had  voted  to  "  condemn  the  action  of  the  Morning,  Evening  and 
Sunday  Sun  in  locking  out  the  members  of  organized  labor  employed 
by  them  for  years,"  and  "  that  all  members  of  the  Central  Federated 
Union  be  requested  to  cease  purchasing  the  different  editions  of  that 
paper  and  refrain  from  patronizing  dealers  who  sell  the  same,  or 
from  frequenting  places  or  making  purchases  from  those  who  persist 
in  continuing  to  subscribe  for  it  or  advertise  therein."  The  boycott 
became  wide-reaching  in  a  few  months  and  was  wielded  so  relentlessly 
and  effectively  that  a  temporary  injunction  was  issued  on  December 
ist  by  Supreme  Court  Justice  Henry  W.  Bookstaver,  restraining  the 
Typographical  Union  and  others  from  advising  or  requesting  people  to 
desist  or  refrain  from  advertising  in  the  Sun  and  Evening  Sun;  from 
resorting  to  threats,  intimidation,  force  or  fraud  to  accomplish  such 
purpose;  from  preventing  or  attempting  to  hinder  newsdealers  from 
selling  those  papers;  from  picketing  the  establishment;  from  "  inter- 
cepting its  employees  while  going  to  or  returning  from  its  place  of 
business,  and  by  intimidation,  threats,  force,  fraud  or  defamatory 
publications,  inducing  or  procuring  them  to  quit  their  employment." 


402  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

An  appeal  was  taken  by  the  union  from  this  order,  which  later  was 
somewhat  modified  by  the  Appellate  Division.  To  further  extend 
its  crusade,  the  arena  of  politics  was  entered  by  the  union,  the  Board 
of  Delegates  of  which  on  September  9,  1900,  adopted  a  recommenda- 
tion of  the  Executive  Committee  "that  No.  6  take  political  action 
against  the  Republican  party  and  its  mouthpiece,  the  New  York 
Sun."  Cessation  of  hostilities  came,  however,  on  March  12,  1902, 
through  a  mutual  agreement  by  Typographical  Union  No.  6  and 
Stereotypers'  Union  No.  i  with  the  Sun  Publishing  Company.  It 
was  agreed  by  the  two  unions  to  declare  off  the  strike  and  to  refrain 
from  any  further  action  repugnant  or  injurious  to  the  paper,  and 
under  such  conditions  the  management  of  the  Sun  was  willing  that 
any  of  its  employees  who  desired  to  do  so  might  join  the  respective 
unions  without  apprehension  or  hindrance,  the  organizations  to 
accept  as  members  all  workmen  in  the  two  departments  who  made 
application  for  admittance.  It  was  also  provided  that  union  wages 
should  be  paid  and  that  all  vacant  positions  should  be  filled  by  union 
men.  Shortly  thereafter  the  Sun  was  added  to  the  chapel  roster 
of  Typographical  Union  No.  6.  For  benefits  paid  to  the  men  who 
took  part  in  the  controversy,  together  with  expenditures  for  the 
general  conduct  of  the  dispute,  the  total  cost  of  the  affair  to  the  union 
of  compositors  was  $153,841.02,  and  the  publishing  concern  also 
suffered  a  material  financial  loss. 

There  have  been  several  disputes  between  Typographical  Union 
No.  6  and  the  New  York  World.     The  first  of  these  occurred  late  in 
the  year  1 867.     It  was  caused  by  the  World  manage- 
Strikes  ment  insisting  that  its  compositors  should  set  up 

on  the  matter  for  a  Brooklyn   newspaper  whose   printers 

World.  ]^a^(3^  gone  on  strike.     Quite  a  commotion  was  created 

at  the  time  when  members  of  the  union's  Vigilance 
Committee  who  were  standing  peaceably  on  the  sidewalk  in  front  of 
the  World  office  were  arrested  on  the  complaint  of  the  cashier  of  that 
newspaper  on  the  charge  of  disorderly  conduct  in  blocking  the  door- 
way and  preventing  the  non-union  employees  from  going  to  work. 
In  court,  after  a  consultation  between  the  counsel  for  the  proprietors 
and  the  Magistrate  before  whom  the  action  was  brought,  the  case 
was  dismissed.  The  arrested  men  instituted  suit  for  $10,000  dam- 
ages against  the  cashier  and  the  manager  of  the  paper  for  malicious 
prosecution  and  false  imprisonment.  The  matter  was  not  seriously 
pursued,  and  in  1868  the  World  discharged  a  number  of  young  women 
whom  it  had  employed  to  take  the  places  of  the  strikers  and  re- 
engaged its  union  joiuneymen. 


CELEBRATED    INDIVIDUAL    STRIKES.  403 

In  the  proceedings  of  the  meeting  of  the  union  of  January  5,  1879, 
it  is  recorded  that  its  members  were  locked  out  at  the  World  office 
on  December  26,  1878,  and  the  sum  of  $500  was  appropriated  for 
the  "  benefit  of  the  needy  men  discharged  from  the  office  and  to 
assist  such  of  them  as  wish  to  leave  the  city." 

Almost  from  the  moment  that  the  present  management  assumed 
control  of  the  World  it  has  been  at  peace  with  the  Typographical 
Union.  The  paper  was  in  a  decadent  state  in  1883  when  the  new 
proprietor  purchased  it.  Only  55  compositors  then  constituted  its 
worldng  force.  To-day  in  its  composing  room  416  members  of 
Typographical  Union  No.  6  are  employed.  A  strike  was  ordered 
by  the  union  on  May  24,  1883,  to  enforce  a  recognition  of  its  rules 
on  the  World.  The  dispute  had  been  in  progress  several  hours  that 
night  when  the  officers  had  a  conference  with  the  business  manager 
and  an  arrangement  was  entered  into  by  which  all  objection  to  its 
non-union  men  joining  the  printers'  organization  was  withdrawn  by 
the  paper,  which  within  a  week  was  placed  on  the  list  of  fair  chapels. 
Later  in  the  year,  at  the  time  the  piece  rate  on  morning  newspapers 
was  established  at  46  cents  per  1,000  ems,  the  World  demurred  to 
its  payment,  and  the  officials  of  the  union,  having  become  convinced 
that  the  concern  was  not  in  a  financial  position  to  raise  the  wages  to 
the  standard  set  by  the  printers,  agreed  that  for  a  specified  period 
the  union  would  pay  to  the  World  for  disbursement  among  its  com- 
positors the  difference  between  the  scale  and  the  compensation  that 
the  paper  was  willing  to  allow,  which  difference  amounted  to  5  cents 
per  1 ,000  ems.  This  proposition  was  acceptable  to  the  management, 
and  the  office  remained  within  the  union  jurisdiction.  The  com- 
positors' organization  reimbursed  the  World  to  the  extent  of  $1,797.80 
altogether,  but  it  proved  to  be  an  excellent  investment  on  the  part 
of  the  officers,  as  it  was  not  long  after  the  settlement  was  effected 
that  the  paper  began  to  enlarge  its  working  force  and  to  pay  the 
prevailing  rate  of  wages  for  newspaper  composition  —  in  fine,  for 
the  past  28  years  it  has  continuously  conformed  to  the  rules  of  the 
Typographical  Union,  to  the  substantial  benefit  of  a  large  proportion 
of  its  membership.  Testifying  as  to  the  reasons  that  impelled  the 
officers  to  come  to  such  terms  with  the  World,  President  John  R. 
O'Donnell  in  1884  made  this  statem.ent  to  a  committee  that  had 
been  authorized  by  the  union  to  make  an  investigation  relative  to  its 
finances : 

The  World  office  was  carrwd  by  strike  on  May  24,  1883,  and  a  contract  was 
made  out  between  the  union  and  the  World  management.  The  book  strike 
was  to  come  off  just  at  the  time  of  the  termination  of  the  contract  with  the 


404  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

World.  It  was  shown  by  the  World  management  that  they  could  get  men  to 
fill  the  office.  We  deemed  it  best  to  make  a  compromise  with  the  World  for  the 
purpose  of  carrying  the  book  strike.  The  union  could  not  have  carried  the  book 
strike  if  the  World  had  been  "ratted."  While  nearly  $i,8oo  had  been  spent  in 
this  way,  $900  a  week  was  made  by  the  success  of  the  book  strike.  The  payment 
to  the  World  was  made  with  the  knowledge  of  the  Newspaper  Strike  Committee. 

Trouble  began  to  brew  in  the  New  York  Times  chapel  in  April, 
1876,  the  stagnation  in  business  during  that  period  contributing 
largely  to  the  occurrence.     On  the  thirtieth  of  that 
Trouble  on        month  the  chairman  of  a  committee  that  had  been 
the  New  appointed  to  wait  on  the  proprietors  informed  the 

York  Times.  Typographical  Union  that  "  Mr.  Jones  wished  his 
employees  to  leave  the  union  and  form  an  inde- 
pendent office,  and  also  desired  a  reduction  of  the  scale."  Efforts 
to  settle  the  difficulty  having  failed  the  union  on  October  2 2d  ap- 
pointed a  committee  of  three  with  full  power,  in  conjunction  with 
the  officers,  to  institute  and  conduct  a  strike  in  the  establishment. 
At  the  meeting  of  November  1 2  th  the  president  reported  that  the  com- 
mittee had  "  resolved  that  the  official  order  of  the  union  be  sent  to 
the  Times  office  hands  and  read  in  the  chapel.  The  notice  was: 
'  You  are  hereby  ordered,  in  accordance  with  a  resolution  adopted 
this  afternoon  (October  2 2d)  to  quit  work  immediately.'  It  was 
read  on  the  Times  floor.  After  the  order  was  read  your  committee 
decided  to  fix  the  latest  time  at  which  the  men  could  leave  the  Times 
office,  and  be  on  strike,  at  7  o'clock  p.  m.  on  Tuesday,  October  24th." 
Sixty-one  members  of  the  union  refused  to  obey  its  mandate,  and 
remained  at  work,  but  a  number  of  others  gave  up  their  situations. 
Nineteen  of  these,  at  their  own  request,  received  a  sufficient  sum  of 
money  to  enable  them  to  leave  the  city,  the  committee  stating  that 
it  had  expended  $398  to  defray  their  expenses  to  other  localities. 
The  committee  also  reported  that  it  had  directed  its  chairman  to 
prefer  charges  against  all  who  remained  in  the  Times  office  after 
the  union's  order  had  been  promulgated.  Notification  of  these 
charges  was  sent  to  66  members,  five  of  whom  had  accepted  positions 
in  the  composing  room  when  the  dispute  was  at  its  height,  and  they 
were  cited  to  defend  themselves  before  the  union.  They  were  all 
expelled  on  February  6,  1877.  During  the  upbuilding  movement  of 
1883  a  successful  attempt  was  made  to  reclaim  the  office.  A  strike 
was  started  on  the  paper  early  in  the  evening  of  November  1 9th  for 
an  increase  in  wages  of  i  cent  per  1,000  ems  —  from  45  cents  to  46 
cents  —  and  for  the  discharge  of  the  foreman,  complaint  being  made  by 
the  men  that  he  had  been  unfair  in  his  dealings  with  them  and  that 


CELEBRATED    INDIVIDUAL    STRIKES.  405 

his  attitude  had  been  so  unbearable  that  they  would  not  return  to  work 
if  he  were  continued  at  the  head  of  the  composing-room  force.  Sixty- 
three  printers  engaged  in  the  dispute,  44  of  them  being  non-members 
of  the  union,  to  which,  however,  they  attached  themselves  imme- 
diately after  leaving  their  situations  in  the  office.  Negotiations  for  a 
settlement  began  at  9 130  o'clock  on  the  night  of  the  dispute  between 
President  John  R.  O'Donnell  of  the  union  and  Gilbert  Jones,  who 
represented  his  father,  George  Jones,  proprietor  of  the  Times.  An 
hour's  conference  followed  and  at  its  conclusion  the  employer  agreed 
to  pay  the  advance  in  the  wage  rate  and  to  temporarily  suspend  the 
objectionable  foreman  until  the  charges  against  him  could  be  inves- 
tigated. The  strikers  then  retiumed  to  their  employment.  Subse- 
quently the  foreman  was  deprived  of  supervision  in  the  typesetting 
department,  another  was  engaged  in  his  place,  and  that  ended  for 
all  time  the  long-standing  rupture  between  the  Times  and  No.  6. 

Typographical  Union  No.  98  of  Brooklyn  when  it  amalgamated 
with  Typographical  Union  No.  6  in  1898  turned  over  as  a  legacy  to 
the  latter  a  dispute  that  had  been  in  progress  with 
the  Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle  for  more  than  six  years.  Brooklyn 
Union  No.  98  on  December  30,  1886,  entered  into  Daily  Eagle 
an  agreement  with  the  Eagle  by  which  all  persons  Dispute. 
working  in  its  composing  room  were  required  to 
join  the  association  of  printers  and  to  them  was  accorded  the  privilege 
of  holding  "  chapel  meetings  from  time  to  time  to  makes  rules  for 
their  government,  and  to  select  their  own  chairman  and  secretary, 
such  officers  to  exercise  such  rights  and  privileges  as  usually  apper- 
tain to  the  positions  in  union  offices."  The  president  of  the  company 
guaranteed  "  that  the  scale  of  prices  of  Typographical  Union  No. 
98  shall  be  in  all  respects  complied  with,"  and  the  union  pledged 
itself  to  initiate  all  compositors,  both  men  and  women,  employed 
on  the  Eagle  on  the  payment  of  $1  each,  while  it  was  stipulated  that 
members  who  had  been  suspended  would  be  reinstated  in  the  asso- 
ciation upon  the  payment  of  back  dues.  To  the  proprietors  or  fore- 
man was  conceded  the  right  to  employ  or  discharge  employees  at 
will,  provided  such  dismissal  was  not  for  maintaining  union  prin- 
ciples. Under  this  compact  the  Eagle  and  the  union  worked  in 
harmony  until  September,  1 891,  at  which  time  a  number  of  members 
of  the  organization  employed  on  the  newspaper  struck  because  the 
management  had  refused  to  sign  an  agreement  to  put  in  operation 
the  six-day  law  that  the  International  Typographical  Union  had 
enacted.  The  Eagle  was  issued  six  afternoons  of  each  week  and  on 
Sunday  morning,  thus  being  a  seven-day  paper,  and  while  it  did  not 
compel  its  composing-room  employees  to  work  a  full  week  of  six 


4o6  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

days  and  on  Saturday  night,  it  permitted  them  to  do  so  if  they  chose. 
Therefore  it  decHned  to  be  bound  by  the  union's  six-day  rule  and  a 
strike  of  a  part  of  its  force  was  the  consequence.  The  New  York 
union  on  September  12,  1891,  approved  the  action  of  the  Brooklyn 
association  and  gave  to  the  latter  its  moral  and  financial  support, 
but  Union  No.  98  failed  to  enforce  its  demand,  and  non-unionists 
were  installed  in  the  situations  of  those  who  had  severed  their  con- 
nection with  the  ofhce.  At  the  beginning  of  the  difficulty  in  1891 
the  official  representative  of  the  Brooklyn  organization  stated  that 
the  six-day  law,  which  caused  the  strike,  had  been  passed  by  the 
International  Typographical  Union  in  order  to  provide  work  for  the 
unemployed  by  requiring  all  persons  working  on  seven-day  news- 
papers to  take  one  day  off  a  week  to  give  idle  members  an  oppor- 
tunity to  make  a  living.  "  It  was  a  voluntary  reduction  on  our 
part,"  he  said,  "  as  the  person  losing  the  day  gave  the  wages  to  his 
substitute.  This  the  management  refused  to  accede  to  us  and  we 
struck  by  order  of  the  International  Union.  About  50  of  our  mem- 
bers remained  in  the  office  and  the  substitutes  that  stayed  in  took 
the  regularly  employed  hands'  situations.  The  seven  editions  were 
set  up  in  six  days,  but  the  union  had  always  decided  that  Saturday 
night  was  an  extra  day,  making  seven  days  in  all.  This  the  employers 
denied  and  called  it  six  days."  For  several  years  a  boycott  was 
carried  on  against  the  paper. 

After  the  consolidation  in  1898  each  time  that  Union  No.  6 
advanced  the  newspaper  wage  scale  for  Brooklyn  Borough  the  Eagle 
paid  the  increase  to  its  printers,  but  allowed  them  to  work  seven  days 
per  week,  if  they  elected  to  do  so,  and  conducted  its  establishment 
imder  the  so-called  open-shop  system.  This  non-recognition  of  the 
union  went  on  until  April  17,  1905,  when  Col.  WilHam  Hester,  as 
president  of  the  Eagle  Company,  entered  into  an  agreement  with 
Typographical  Union  No.  6,  through  its  president,  P.  H.  McCormick, 
and  the  composing  room  was  eventually  placed  under  the  juris- 
diction of  the  union.  By  the  terms  of  the  agreement,  which  was 
renewed  upon  its  expiration  on  May  i,  1906,  it  was  provided  that: — 

The  business  methods  of  the  composing  room  shall  remain  the  same  as  at 
present  and  that  the  rules  that  govern  newspaper  offices  in  the  union  shall  not 
be  enforced  except  as  specified  below. 

The  Eagle  management  has  no  objection  to  the  employees  in  the  Eagle  com- 
posing room  becoming  members  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6.  The  action  of 
the  employees  shall  be  voluntary. 

All  the  employees  who  are  competent  to  earn  the  scale  shall  be  paid  the  present 
rate  as  demanded  by  the  Typographical  Union  rules,  except  such  old  employees 
who  have  been  in  the  employ  of  the  Eagle  upward  of  fifteen  years.  Such  others 
who  are  not  fully  competent  shall  be  exchanged  for  first-class  compositors. 


CELEBRATED    INDIVIDUAL    STRIKES.  407 

The  number  of  boys  and  laborers  shall  remain  the  same  as  at  present  and 
perform  such  duties  as  the  foreman  directs. 

An  effort  will  be  made  to  place  the  proofroom  as  nearly  in  line  as  possible 
with  the  requirements  of  the  Typographical  Union. 

During  the  general  movement  in  1883  for  a  uniform  wage  scale 
the  Typographical  Union  fixed  the  rate  for  composition  on  evening 
newspapers  at  40  cents  per  1,000  ems,  the  prevail- 
ing price  at  the  time  being  35  cents.  Among  the  Controversy 
papers  on  which  this  increase  was  sought  was  the  with  the  Mail 
Mail  and  Express,  but  its  publisher  refused  to  grant  ^^^  Express, 
it,  and  in  the  forenoon  of  November  i6th  eighteen 
printers  in  its  composing  room  went  on  strike  to  enforce  the  demand. 
By  the  twentieth  of  that  month  the  ofhce  was  practically  lost  to  the 
union,  the  manager  then  announcing  that  he  had  a  full  force  at  work 
and  was  publishing  every  edition  on  time.  He  stated  that  a  number 
of  men  had  quit  work  on  the  preceding  Saturday.  "  But  we  have 
been  adding  to  our  force  day  by  day,"  said  he,  "  and  now  have  a 
good  working  force,  including  two  ex-union  men  who  refused  to  obey 
the  order  to  strike.  The  dispute  is  ended  so  far  as  this  office  is  con- 
cerned." Not  so  with  the  union,  which  immediately  inaugurated  a 
boycott  on  the  paper,  and  continued  the  warfare  for  some  years, 
even  appealing  to  the  national  leaders  of  the  Republican  party  to 
assist  it  in  its  reclamation  efforts.  That  plan  of  campaign  was 
ultimately  successful,  and  on  October  6,  1888,  the  first  union  chapel 
meeting  since  the  strike  of  1883  was  held  in  the  Mail  and  Express 
composing  department,  46  employees  attending  that  session  and 
adopting  rules  for  the  government  of  trade  matters  in  the  office. 
So  appreciative  was  the  union  respecting  the  part  that  an  eminent 
political  leader  had  taken  in  the  settlement  of  the  controversy  that 
on  October  7,  1888,  it  "  resolved  that  the  thanks  of  Typographical 
Union  No.  6  are  due  to  Hon.  J.  C.  Clarkson,  of  the  Republican 
National  Committee,  for  his  invaluable  services  in  unionizing  the 
Mail  and  Express,  and  that  the  secretary  of  No.  6  be  directed  to 
notify  Mr.  Clarkson  of  this  action." 

Between  Typographical  Union  No.  6  and  the  New  York  Evening 
Post  a  serious  breach,  which  has  never  been  repaired,  occurred  in 
the  morning  of  November  16,  1883.     Primarily  the 
cause  of  the  trouble  was  a  demand  for  higher  wages    Union  Loses 
—  an  advance  per  1,000  ems  from  35  cents  to  40    Office  of  the 
cents.     For  years  beyond  memory  the  sympathies    Evening  Post, 
of  the  Evening  Post  had  been  cast  with  organized 
labor.     In  the  thirties  of  the  nineteenth  century  one  of  its  leading 
editors  was  a  prominent  member  of  the  Typographical  Association, 


408  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

and  during  its  entire  career  from  1801  up  to  1883  the  paper's  rela- 
tions with  the  several  unions  of  typographers  had  been  of  a  cordial 
nature.  Afternoon  newspapers  in  the  fall  of  1883  were  asked  by  the 
organization  of  compositors  to  conform  to  its  proposed  uniform  price 
list.  Most  of  the  journals  acquiesced,  but  the  Evening  Post  declined 
to  pay  the  new  scale  on  the  ground  that  there  was  not  anything  in 
the  condition  of  trade  to  warrant  the  demand  for  more  wages.  An 
opposite  view  was  taken  by  the  union,  and  at  8:30  o'clock  in  the 
forenoon  of  November  i6th,  through  its  officers,  it  called  out  the 
entire  working  force  of  42  typesetters  and  other  composing-room 
employees  of  the  paper,  excepting  the  foreman  and  his  assistant. 
At  first  difficulty  was  experienced  by  the  management  in  issuing 
the  journal  in  its  usual  form,  but  on  November  21st  the  customary 
amount  of  reading  and  advertising  matter  appeared  in  its  columns 
and  the  union  was  then  practically  defeated  in  its  purpose.  Non- 
unionists  have  since  manned  the  composing  room  of  the  paper. 
"  The  final  course  adopted  by  the  men,  many  of  whom  had  been 
employed  on  this  journal  for  a  great  number  of  years,"  said  the 
Evening  Post  on  the  day  the  dispute  began,  "  was  somewhat  of  a 
surprise.  The  strike  is  not  caused  by  any  actual  or  threatened 
decrease  of  v/ages ;  that  the  rates  paid  to  compositors  by  the  Evening 
Post  are  as  high  as  those  paid  by  any  other  evening  paper,  and  were 
until  within  three  or  four  weeks  higher  than  those  paid  by  two  other 
evening  papers;  that  the  weekly  earnings  of  our  compositors  under 
the  present  rates  average  as  high  as  those  of  the  job  offices,  even 
since  the  recent  advance  in  those  establishments;  that,  in  short, 
there  is  nothing  in  the  state  of  the  market  to  justify  the  strike.  It 
is  simply  an  attempt  to  force  wages  up  by  combination  in  one  city 
and  in  one  particular  branch  of  business."  In  its  news  columns  of 
Tuesday,  November  20th,  the  Post  gave  its  version  of  the  contro- 
versy more  in  detail,  as  follows: 

At  8:30  o'clock  last  Friday  morning  the  compositors,  who  had  assembled  as 
usual,  left  their  cases  and  marched  out  almost  in  a  body.  Among  them  were 
the  time  hands,  or  those  paid  by  the  week,  who  made  no  demand  for  higher  wages, 
but  left  simply  because  the  others  did.  Both  classes  of  workmen  included  men 
who  had  been  in  the  employ  of  the  Evening  Post  for  a  great  many  years,  and 
who,  but  for  the  influence  of  the  union,  would  never  have  deserted  their  positions, 
with  which  they  had  excellent  reason  to  be  contented.  It  is  well  understood  that 
many  of  them  left  unwiUingly,  but  were  controlled  by  a  mistaken  sense  of  fealty 
to  their  associates,  by  the  discipline  of  the  Typographical  Union,  and  by  the  hope 
that,  after  all,  the  proprietors  of  the  Evening  Post  would  not  persist  in  their 
determination  to  resist  the  demands  of  the  strikers.  Some  of  the  men  who 
abandoned  their  cases  were  not  even  members  of  the  union.  A  small  force  of 
new  compositors  was  got  together  as  quickly  as  possible  and  a  four-page  edition 
of  the  Evening  Post  was  published  at  4  p.  m.     Despite  the  declaration  of  a  com- 


CELEBRATED    INDIVIDUAL    STRIKES.  409 

mittee  of  the  old  workmen  before  the  strike,  that  if  one  occurred  it  should  be 
a  simple  test  of  the  existing  laws  of  supply  and  demand,  the  underhand  work 
of  the  union  was  begun  that  very  morning.  Agents  of  the  union  loitered  in  the 
basement  hallway  of  the  Eve7iing  Post  building  until  a  policeman  was  stationed 
there  to  keep  them  out,  and  endeavored  to  turn  back  all  persons  who  came  in 
response  to  the  call  for  new  compositors.  A  placard  outside  the  counting-room 
announcing  that  compositors  were  wanted,  was  turned  face  to  the  wall.  A 
number  of  spies  applied  for  work,  representing  themselves  as  non-union  men  out 
of  a  job,  and  in  many  cases  there  were  no  means  of  detecting  their  true  character 
until  after  they  had  been  admitted  to  the  composing  room.  After  pretending 
to  work  for  a  little  while  these  men  would  put  on  their  coats  and  leave.  Then 
it  would  be  discovered  that  they  had  made  ridiculous  errors  in  the  little  matter 
they  had  set  up;  that  they  had  mixed  together  type  from  different  fonts,  had  made 
as  large  a  quantity  of  "  pi  "  as  their  opportunities  permitted,  and  had  broken 
numbers  of  pieces  of  leads  which  are  used  to  separate  the  lines  of  type  from  each 
other.  In  some  cases  the  spies  also  committed  larceny,  carrying  off  in  their 
pockets  the  composing-sticks  and  rules  which  had  been  given  to  them  to  work 
with.  These  annoyances  have  been  continued  on  every  day  of  the  strike,  and 
have  inflicted  damage  amounting  to  hundreds  of  dollars  to  the  property  of  the 
Evening  Post.  Malicious  mischief  of  this  kind  is  very  difificult  to  prevent  and 
when  detected  it  is  equally  difficult  to  furnish  legal  proof  against  the  perpetrators. 
On  Saturday  the  new  force  in  the  composing  room  was  enlarged,  and  a  single 
edition  was  again  published  at  4  o'clock,  containing  much  more  freshly  set  matter 
than  the  issue  of  Friday.  Twice  in  the  course  of  the  day  commotion  was  caused 
in  the  room,  a  spy  of  the  union  calling  to  his  associates  to  leave,  and  the  latter 
following  him.  On  one  occasion  five  compositors  went  out,  and  on  the  other 
seventeen,  all  leaving  their  work  "  at  sixes  and  sevens."  Such  occurrences,  of 
course,  had  their  intended  effect  of  causing  more  or  less  confusion  and  disor- 
ganization. Yesterday  morning  enough  compositors  reported  or  applied  for 
work  to  man  all  the  cases  fully,  but  at  a  given  signal,  at  about  10:30  o'clock, 
eighteen  men  dropped  their  composing-sticks  and  left  the  room.  A  single-sheet 
edition  of  the  Evening  Post  was  published  at  4  o'clock.  To  guard  against  the 
admission  of  spies  a  system  of  questioning  all  applicants  for  work  was  adopted, 
but,  as  the  agents  of  the  union  were  prepared  with  ready  lies,  it  was  often  difficult 
to  distinguish  between  them  and  honest  workmen.  To-day  a  good  number  of 
compositors  are  at  work,  all  who  stuck  to  their  cases  yesterday  having  returned 
this  morning,  and  more  having  been  received.  It  will  take  a  little  time,  of 
course,  to  get  the  composing  room  into  the  same  complete  running  order  as  before 
the  strike,  but  the  daily  improvement  in  its  reorganization  is  very  gratifying  and 
assures  the  complete  ultimate  victory  of  the  Evening  Post  over  trade  union  methods. 

Editorially  on  the  same  date  the  Evening  Post  commented  upon 
the  occurrence  in  these  terms: 

The  experience  of  the  working  of  the  trade  unions  through  which  the  Evening 
Post  is  just  now  passing  has  considerable  public  interest,  because  it  furnishes, 
we  fear,  a  striking  illustration  of  the  thoroughly  anti-social  principles  on  which 
many  of  these  organizations  are  managed.  Against  trade  unions  as  means  of 
enabling  Labor  to  measure  its  strength  fairly  with  Capital,  and  protect  itself 
against  Capital  in  case  of  difference  of  opinion  either  about  wages  or  methods, 
we  should  be  the  last  to  say  a  word.  We  have  always  held  that  to  talk  of  the 
laborer  as  a  free  agent  in  his  negotiations  with  the  capitalist,  unless  he  had  a 


4IO  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

labor  organization  at  his  back,  was  a  mockery.  In  all  contests  between  Labor 
and  Capital  the  capitalist  can  bide  his  time;  the  laborer,  unless  in  combination 
with  other  laborers,  cannot  do  so.  So  that  we  consider  the  existence  of  well- 
managed  trade  unions  as  really  a  good  sign  of  the  times,  as  regards  the  future 
of  the  working  classes.  But  in  saying  all  this  we  assume  that  the  management 
of  them  will  be  sober,  rational  and  business-Hke,  that  is,  will  respect  the  rules 
of  morality  which  constitute  the  social  bond  in  a  civilized  industrial  community. 
In  other  words,  we  assume  that  the  conscience  of  the  best  members  of  the  union 
will  be  the  conscience  of  the  union  itself,  and  that  the  members  will  not  cause, 
or  permit  to  be  done  by  the  organization,  things  which  they  as  individuals  would 
shrink  from,  or  be  ashamed  of,  and  which  if  done  by  men  in  general  in  the  ordinary 
transactions  of  life  would  reduce  us  to  barbarism. 

Now,  as  an  illustration  of  our  meaning,  let  us  tell  the  story  of  our  dealings 
with  a  trade  union  during  the  past  week,  and  we  commend  it  to  the  attention  of 
everybody,  in  whatever  walk  of  life,  who  is  interested  in  the  solution  of  what  is 
called  the  labor  problem.  The  compositors  of  the  Evening  Post  have  been  for 
many  years  a  picked  body  of  men.  Some  of  them  have  been  in  its  employment 
for  more  than  20  years;  one  or  two  retired  lately  who  had  served  it  for  a  still 
longer  period.  The  whole  company  was  one  with  whom,  in  short,  it  was  a 
pleasure  to  deal,  owing  to  the  skill,  inteUigence,  fidelity  and  self-respect  of  its 
members,  and  there  was  every  reason  for  believing  that  they  were  well  satisfied 
with  their  position.  Within  a  few  weeks  they  asked  for  an  advance  of  wages. 
The  managers  of  the  paper  denied  that  this  demand  was,  in  the  present  state 
of  the  market,  justifiable.  The  discussion  which  followed  was  everything  that 
could  be  desired.  It  was  friendly  and  temperate  in  tone  and  was  conducted  on 
behalf  of  the  compositors  by  a  committee  who  would  be  a  credit  to  any  delibera- 
tive body.  When  finally  the  point  of  irreconcilable  difference  of  opinion  was 
reached  the  controversy  was  brought  to  an  end  with  expressions  of  mutual  respect 
and  good  will.  A  strike,  the  compositors  said,  would  take  place,  but  the  mana- 
gers of  the  paper  would  have  seasonable  notice  of  it,  and  it  would  be  simply  a 
friendly  trial  of  strength. 

At  this  point  the  strikers  apparently  lost  the  control  of  the  conflict  and  it  passed 
into  the  hands  of  the  union.  Now,  observe  what  followed.  The  compositors 
did  not  give  the  employers  the  notice  which  they  had  promised,  and  which  every 
honorable  man  standing  by  himself  feels  bound  to  give  of  any  act  of  his  which 
will  disappoint  the  reasonable  expectations  of  a  fellow-man,  or  is  likely  to  cause 
him  loss  or  trouble,  and  which  every  employer,  who  is  not  utterly  heartless  and 
unscrupulous,  feels  bound  to  give  to  any  one  who  has  served  him  long,  and  has 
been  guilty  of  no  misconduct.  On  the  contrary,  they  came  to  the  office  on 
Friday  morning  as  usual,  apparently  prepared  to  do  the  work  of  the  day.  At 
half-past  8,  when  but  four  hours  remained  for  the  printing  of  the  paper, 
they  marched  out  of  the  composing  room  without  a  word  of  warning,  the  best  of 
them,  as  well  as  the  worst.  This  hour  was,  of  course,  chosen  in  the  expectation 
that  the  proprietors  would  be  so  much  shaken  by  the  prospect  of  having  to 
suspend  publication  for  that  day  that  they  would  at  once  surrender  without 
further  struggle. 

After  recounting  the  doings  of  some  of  the  men  who  it  was  claimed 
had  gained  access  to  the  composing  room  upon  the  untrue  statement 
that  they  were  non-union  printers  and  there  committed  the  unlawful 
offense  of  reducing  type  to  "pi,"  besides  otherwise  creating  a  dis- 


CELEBRATED    INDIVIDUAL    STRIKES,  411 

tiirbance  in  the  office,  as  has  been  already  described  above  in  the 
article  from  the  news  columns  of  the  paper,  the  editorial  proceeded : 
We  have  been  assured  that  the  decent  men  who  left  the  services  of  the  Evening 
Post  are  not  responsible  for  those  things  and  are  ashamed  of  them.  Ashamed 
of  them  they  may  well  be,  but  responsible  for  them  they  certainly  are.  Any 
one  who  voluntarily  surrenders  his  liberty  to  a  man  or  organization,  and  permits 
such  man  or  organization  to  control  his  conduct  in  the  ordinary  business  of  life  is 
answerable  in  the  forum  of  morals,  at  all  events,  for  the  use  his  master  makes  of 
his  power.  The  disgrace  of  it  and  the  guilt  of  it  are  his,  as  well  as  the  master's. 
No  majority  of  vote  can  save  him,  or  whitewash  him.  Workrngmen  may  rest 
assured  that  as  long  as  the  methods  of  trade  unions  are  criminal  and  anti-social 
they  will  not  permanently  or  considerably  improve  their  condition.  These 
methods  may  now  and  then  extort  a  temporary  and  small  rise  in  wages,  but  more 
than  this  they  cannot  do.  They  cannot  raise  the  laborer  in  a  social  scale. 
There  is  in  this  world  no  future  for  either  force  or  fraud.  If  they  had  nothing 
else  to  fight  against  they  would  be  foiled  by  the  social  instinct  of  the  race,  which 
in  the  long  run  and  on  the  whole  reserves  the  good  things  of  this  life  for  those 
who  tell  the  truth,  respect  their  contracts,  and  do  as  they  would  be  done  by. 

Officers  of  the  Typographical  Union  disclaimed  amenability  for 
the  perpetration  of  the  base  and  illegal  acts  of  a  iew  irresponsible 
men  whom  the  Evening  Post  charged  were  members  of  the  printers' 
organization,  and  the  inculpation  of  the  association  and  its  whole 
membership  for  misdeeds  done  without  its  knowledge  and  which 
were  repugnant  to  its  principles  was  regarded  as  unreasonable  and 
unjust.  The  Typographical  Union  has  always  prided  itself  upon 
being  a  law-abiding  body  and  entirely  out  of  sympathy  with  those 
who  transgress  against  either  property  or  persons;  yet  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  the  union  was  not  a  party  to  the  wrong-doing, 
the  Evening  Post  continued  to  discredit  it  because  of  the  offenses 
from  which  it  had  suffered.  In  truth,  the  affair  so  embittered  the 
management  of  the  paper  that  it  has  declined  for  more  than  a  quarter 
of  a  century  to  in  any  way  recognize  Typographical  Union  No.  6. 

"  I  have  a  very  vivid  recollection  of  the  event,"  the  writer  is  in- 
formed by  a  union  printer  who  struck  on  the  first  day  of  the  dis- 
pute in  1883.  "  Although  the  other  newspapers  had  little  to  say 
about  it,  it  was  one  of  the  most  bitterly  contested  struggles  of  its 
kind  in  this  city.  For  several  days  after  the  printers  walked  out 
the  paper  appeared  day  after  day  with  practically  the  same  matter, 
only  the  date  lines  being  changed.  At  about  the  end  of  a  week  the 
Evening  Post  printed  an  issue  which  contained  all  new  matter,  but 
this  issue  consisted  of  a  single  sheet,  only  two  pages.  Thereafter  they 
managed  to  get  out  the  paper  in  its  usual  form,  consisting  of  six  or 
eight  pages.  At  that  time  the  Evening  Post  was  under  the  edi- 
torial direction  of  three  men,  all  of  them  conspicuous  in  public 
affairs   and    journalism.     They  were    Carl    Schurz.   Horace   White 


412  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

and  E.  L.  Godkin,  Another  man,  who  was  either  its  business 
manager  or  exercised  a  powerful  influence  in  the  control  of  the 
paper,  was  Wendell  Phillips  Garrison,  a  son  of  the  famous  William 
Lloyd  Garrison,  the  great  Abolitionist.  While  the  management 
did  not  formally  recognize  the  union  every  printer  employed  in 
the  composing  room,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  was  a  member 
of  the  organization,  and  the  editorial  tone  of  the  paper  was  dis- 
tinctly partial  to  trade  unionism.  In  fact,  almost  on  the  eve  of 
the  trouble  an  article  appeared  which  presented  the  trade  union 
movement  in  a  most  favorable  light.  General  Schurz,  editor-in- 
chief,  was  known  to  entertain  the  most  friendly  feeling  for  labor 
organizations,  and  in  this  connection  I  recall  a  very  interesting 
incident.  It  was  in  July  of  that  year  that  the  big  telegraphers' 
strike  occurred.  The  office  of  the  Evening  Post  was  at  Fulton  street 
and  Broadway,  almost  directly  opposite  the  Western  Union  Tele- 
graph Building.  The  shrill  blast  of  a  whistle  which  was  heard  above 
the  street  noises  of  Broadway  was  the  signal  that  called  the  teleg- 
raphers from  their  keys,  and  as  they  left  the  bmlding  a  defiant 
cheer  rang  out,  which  brought  the  occupants  of  the  nearby  buildings 
to  the  windows.  Among  them  was  General  Schurz,  who,  thrusting 
his  head  out,  waved  his  hand  at  the  strikers  and  joined  in  their  cheer. 
When  the  printers  presented  their  demand  for  increased  wages  the 
Evening  Post  rejected  it.  After  more  than  a  week  spent  in  negotia- 
tions between  the  managers  and  the  representatives  of  the  printers 
the  strike  occurred.  Every  person  in  the  composing  room,  except 
the  foreman  and  the  assistant  foreman,  left  the  place  and  the  paper's 
troubles  began  in  earnest.  During  the  following  week  it  repeatedly 
charged  that  secret  emissaries  or  sympathizers  with  the  union  had 
entered  its  composing  room,  pied  its  cases  and  damaged  or  destroyed 
its  property,  and  I  believe  that  efforts  were  made  to  arrest  President 
John  R.  O'Donnell  of  the  union  on  a  criminal  charge,  but  nothing 
came  of  this.  Coupled  with  denunciations  of  the  organization  and 
its  alleged  methods  in  the  Post's  editorials  were  expressions  of  high 
regard  for  the  striking  printers  and  statements  that  its  late  composing- 
room  force  was  the  finest  in  the  city  and  that  the  arguments  of  its 
chosen  representatives  in  the  discussions  preceding  the  trouble  would 
have  done  credit  to  any  deliberative  body  in  the  land.  Eventually 
the  union  had  to  confess  itself  beaten,  but  the  bitterness  of  the  quarrel 
left  an  effect  in  the  office  of  the  Evening  Post  which  has  not  been 
changed  to  this  day.  It  is  noteworthy  that  soon  after  normal  con- 
ditions had  been  restored  in  the  composing  room  General  Schurz 
severed  his  connection  with  the  paper,  and  it  was  the  current  opinion 
that  his  action  was  due  in  large  measure  to  this  labor  trouble." 


CHAPTER  XX. 
NUMERICAL   STRENGTH    AND    UPBUILDING   EFFORTS. 

AT  THE  inception  of  the  present  union  of  New  York  printers 
in  January,  1850,  the  membership  was  28,  while  at  the  close 
of  this  report  on  September  30,  191 1,  its  numerical  strength 
was  6,969,  the  second  highest  figure  in  its  history.  Fluctuations 
from  many  causes  have  occurred  in  some  of  the  intervening  twelve- 
months, but  in  the  past  sixteen  years,  with  but 
few  exceptions,  the  growth  has  been  gradual  and  Panic  of  1857 
substantial.  By  the  end  of  the  first  quarter  of  Depletes  Ranks 
1850  the  rolls  contained  114  bona  fide  members,  of  the  Union, 
going  up  to  2 1 2  in  the  initial  six  months,  and  enough 
additions  were  made  to  the  roster  at  the  opening  of  185 1  to  advance 
the  number  to  300.  Steady  was  the  gain  up  to  January  i,  1857, 
when  the  membership  reached  917.  But  the  financial  and  industrial 
panic  which  began  in  that  year  depleted  the  ranks  of  the  union,  and 
at  the  commencement  of  1858  the  rolls  contained  but  318.  It  had 
not  recovered  from  the  effects  of  the  hard  times  —  the  first  in  its 
experience  —  when  1859  was  ushered  in,  but  there  was  held  on  May 
29th,  that  year,  a  special  meeting,  to  which  all  printers  who  were 
favorable  to  the  principles  of  the  organization  were  invited.  Pres- 
ident Charles  W.  Colbum  opened  the  session  with  an  address. 
"  There  should  be  a  feeling  of  union,  of  harmony,  existing  among 
us,"  spoke  he  to  his  auditors,  many  of  whom  were  not  members. 
"  That  good  fellowship  is  largely  in  the  ascendant  is  evident  from 
the  manner  in  which  you  have  responded  to  the  call  for  this  meet- 
ing; and  it  was  with  a  view  to  arouse  that  feeling  of  union  and  har- 
mony, to  dispel  all  jealousies,  if  any  there  were,  that  this  meeting 
has  been  called.  To  such  of  you  as  are  not  now  members  of  the 
union  I  say,  join  with  us  at  once,  and  my  word  for  it,  you  will  never 
regret  it.  A  few  meetings  since  a  committee  of  the  union  was 
appointed  to  revise  and  amend  the  scale  of  prices.  That  committee 
has  completed  its  labors,  and  the  scale  as  revised  and  amended  is 
before  the  union  for  conclusive  action;  but  before  that  action  is 
taken  we  want  every  printer  in  New  York,  be  he  a  journeyman  or 
an  employer,  to  unite  with  us,  to  give  us  his  views,  to  aid  us  by  his 

[413] 


414  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

experience  and  to  guide  us  by  his  counsel.  Our  doors  are  as  open  to 
the  employer,  so  he  be  a  practical  printer,  as  to  the  journeymen,  and 
why  should  they  look  one  upon  the  other  as  enemies,  when  they 
should  be  friends?  They  should  haiTnonize,  not  clash;  for  what  is 
to  the  interest  of  one  can  surely  be  made  to  the  interest  of  the  other. 
At  the  last  session  of  the  National  Union,  composed  of  delegates 
from  nineteen  different  States,  and  representing  between  30  and  40 
local  unions,  a  resolution  was  adopted  recommending  the  admission 
of  employers  to  full  membership  in  the  subordinate  unions,  and  as 
I  have  already  intimated  to  you,  the  New  York  union  most  heartily 
approves  of  such  action.  It  is  proper  that  I  should  state  to  you, 
gentlemen,  that  the  revised  scale  makes  no  increase  of  prices;  no 
resort  to  a  strike  is  recommended;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  believed  that 
the  scale  has  been  so  harmonized  as  to  be  at  once  acceptable  to  the 
employer  and  the  employee.  This  meeting  has  not  been  called  with 
a  view  to  any  formal  action,  but  rather  to  afford 
Upbuilding  an  opportunity  for  a  full  and  free  interchange  of 
Efforts  the  sentiments  of  the  entire  craft  of  this  city,  with 

in  1859.  a  view  to  the  benefit  of  the  trade  of  the  country, 

for  whatever  affects  the  printing  business  of  the 
commercial  Metropolis  of  the  Western  Hemisphere  must  necessarily 
afEect  it  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  this  mighty  republic. 
My  himible  opinion  is  that  the  means  can  most  readily  be  found  in 
the  bosom  of  New  York  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  and  I  hope  to 
be  sustained  by  the  unanimous  voice  of  the  sons  of  Faust  in  Man- 
hattan." At  this  juncture  the  gathering  reorganized  as  a  mass 
meeting  of  printers  and  Thomas  J.  Walsh  was  selected  to  preside. 
He  stated  that  one  of  the  objects  of  the  assemblage  was  to  urge  the 
necessity  of  printers  generally  becoming  members  of  the  union  in 
order  to  maintain  a  fair  rate  of  wages,  the  encouragement  of  good 
workmen  and  the  employment  of  every  means  which  may  tend  to 
the  elevation  of  craftsmen  in  the  scale  of  social  life.  In  addition 
to  other  reasons  advanced  as  to  why  the  purposes  of  the  meeting 
should  be  carried  out  he  read  the  resolution  that  had  been  passed 
by  the  National  Union,  which  considered  it  "of  the  utmost  import- 
ance, in  order  to  carry  out  the  resolve  of  this  body  in  relation  to 
admitting  proprietors  of  printing  establishments  as  members  of 
subordinate  unions,  that  every  effort  should  be  made  to  reconcile 
past  differences  by  mutual  concession  and  the  exercise  of  leniency 
toward  erring  members.  The  National  Typographical  Union  there- 
fore recommends  to  subordinate  unions,  where  differences  exist,  the 
necessity  of  doing  all  in  their  power  to  further  the  good  work  of 


NUMERICAL    STRENGTH    AND    UPBUILDING    EFFORTS.  415 

uniting  all  branches  of  our  profession  in  the  bonds  of  harmony  and 
brotherly  love."  Samuel  Sloan  then  called  upon  those  present  to 
go  forward  at  once  and  assume  their  proper  position,  not  only  in 
endeavoring  to  obtain  their  rights  as  workmen,  but  also  to  assist 
their  brethren,  to  relieve  the  distressed,  to  visit  the  sick,  to  bury  the 
dead,  and  to  educate  and  protect  the  orphan;  such  objects  being 
among  the  duties  of  its  members.  Another  speaker,  Mr.  Davis, 
remarked  that  in  union  there  was  strength,  and  that,  although  he 
was  not  a  member  of  the  union,  still  he  fully  endorsed  the  action  of 
that  body  at  all  times,  as  he  sincerely  believed  the  main  desire  of 
its  members  was  to  promote  the  best  interests  of  printers  as  a  class. 
.  He  portrayed  the  benefit  of  workmen  being  united  in  their  endeavors 
to  maintain  their  just  and  equitable  rights  —  representing  it  as  part 
of  his  own  personal  experience,  in  a  large  office  in  New  York  where 
justice  was  denied  the  workmen,  so  long  as  their  claims  were  preferred 
by  each  printer  individually;  but  when,  on  their  becoming  united  in 
a  body  —  even  though  their  numbers  were  but  six  —  their  demands, 
being  just,  were  at  once  acceded  to.  He  stated  that  he  should 
certainly  join  the  union,  and  advise  all  his  friends  to  do  likewise. 
Mr.  Phillips  urged  the  necessity  of  united  action,  peaceful  and 
reasonable  endeavors  to  carry  out  the  principles  and  objects  pre- 
viously stated,  and  concluded  by  expressing  a  hope  that  the  day 
was  not  far  distant  when  all  measures,  having  in  view  the  benefit 
of  the  operative  printer,  would  be  carried  by  the  moral  force  of  public 
opinion,  and  the  justness  of  their  claims  without  ever  being  compelled, 
finally,  to  resort  to  the  enforcement  of  their  demands  through  the 
obnoxious  method  of  strikes.  The  meeting  was  quite  a  success, 
and  in  response  to  the  request  to  affiliate  with  the  union  67  new 
members  subscribed  to  the  constitution  at  its  regular  session  on 
June  4th.  By  January  i,  i860,  the  membership  showed  an  increase 
of  230  within  the  previous  year,  having  risen  to  537. 

In  the  Civil  War  period  and  two  years  afterward  the  numerical 
strength  of  the  union  rose  and  fell,  in  seven  years  the  highest  figure 
being  677,  and  that  was  at  the  beginning  of  1864, 
in  which  year  the  newspaper  strike  occurred,  caus-    Membership 
ing  a  drop  in  the  membership  to  299  in  less  than    Loss  During 
five  months,  and  it  declined  to  264  in  the  succeeding    ^i^  Civil  War. 
twelvemonth.     But  conditions  commenced  to  mend 
in  1866   and  through   the   special  efforts   put  forth   by  President 
Robert  McKechnie  the  number  had  advanced  to    1,226  with   the 
arrival  of  January  i,  1868.     In  that  year  Mr.  McKechnie  became 
the  executive  head  of  the  National  Typographical  Union,  and  in 


4l6  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

accordance  with  a  resolution  of  that  organization  referring  to  him 
with  power  the  question  of  reorganization  he  issued  on  August 
2ist  a  proclamation  of  general  amnesty  "  to  all  printers  (whether 
expelled,  suspended  or  otherwise  punished  for  faults  committed) 
who  shall  make  application  in  due  form,  accompanied  by  the  usual 
initiation  fee  of  the  subordinate  union  within  whose  jurisdiction  the 
applicant  may  reside,  and  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  said  subordinate 
union  to  elect  such  applicant  to  membership  without  regard  to  his 
past  record,  or  without  any  fine,  pain  or  penalty  whatsoever  other 
than  the  initiation  fee  aforesaid."  The  amnesty 
General  Amnesty  continued  from  September  ist  to  December  ist,  and 
Augments  the  Union  No.  6  received  much  benefit  from  it,  increas- 
RoUs  in  1868.  ing  its  membership  to  2,105  o^i  January  i,  1869,  and 
the  successful  issue  in  the  book  and  job  strike  in  the 
same  year  induced  a  further  growth.  Even  during  the  greater  part 
of  the  panic  in  the  seventies  it  is  a  surprising  fact  that  the  union, 
instead  of  losing  ground,  actually  gained  in  numbers,  having  on 
its  rolls  in  1876  no  less  than  2,644  printers.  But  the  serious  trade 
dispute  of  1876,  accelerated  by  the  hard  times,  produced  a  down- 
ward tendency.  In  1880  the  membership  had  dropped  to  1,042, 
and  on  September  loth  a  movement  was  inaugurated  to  again  fill 
up  the  ranks,  the  union  then  resolving  "  that  a  committee  of  eleven 
be  empowered  from  October  i,  1880,  to  January  i,  1881,  to  admit 
to  membership  all  those  working  at  the  printing  business  as  com- 
positors, within  the  jurisdiction  of  this  union,  on  the  payment  of 
such  stim  as  the  committee  in  its  judgment  may  deem  fit." 

From  that  time  there  was  a  slow  rise  until  1883,  when  under  the 
generalship  of  President  John  R.  O'Donnell  rapid  progress  was  made 
in  adding  new  members  to  the  lists.     "  In  view  of 
Work  of  the  fact  that  there  are  many  large  printing  offices 

Rejuvenation     in  this  city  now  closed  against  union  men  by  order 
in  1883.  of  the  union,"  resolved  the  organization  of  com- 

positors on  February  4th,  "  and  further  believing 
that  it  would  be  for  the  best  interest  of  the  union  to  have  union  men 
working  in  such  offices,  the  president  and  secretary  are  hereby  em- 
powered to  grant  permits  to  such  members  as  can  obtain  work  in 
any  of  said  offices,  on  the  condition  on  the  part  of  the  party  receiving 
said  permit  that  he  will  while  at  work  in  any  such  office  use  his 
influence  in  promoting  the  interest  and  welfare  of  the  union  by  en- 
couraging non-members  to  join  the  union,  and  report  to  the  secretary 
in  writing  at  least  once  a  month  what  progress,  if  any,  he  has  made." 
The  officers  were  instructed  to  call  within  ten  days  a  meeting  "  con- 


NUMERICAL    STRENGTH    AND    UF^BUILDING    EFFORTS.  417 

sisting  of  one  or  more  representatives  from  all  the  different  offices 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  union  for  the  purpose  of  consultation 
and  deliberation,  and  to  see  if  some  ways  and  means  can  be  devised 
for  bringing  this  union  up  to  the  elevation  it  should  occupy,  whereby 
all  its  members  shall  receive  reasonable  wages  and  equal  rights." 
President  O'Donnell,  Secretary  George  A.  McKay  and  Treasurer 
Edward  J.  Kain  on  September  25th  issued  the  call  for  the  conference. 
"Believing  that  the  present  low  and  highly  diversified  scale  of  rates 
existing  in  the  City  of  New  York  is  an  evil  to  the  trade  in  general  and 
an  element  of  danger  to  the  union,"  they  declared,  "  and  believing 
that  measures  should  be  taken  immediately  to  increase  the  member- 
ship of  the  union  and  put  it  in  a  position  which  would  enable  it  to 
enter  on  an  offensive  or  defensive  campaign  without  danger  of  failure, 
the  officers  of  the  union  respectfully  invite  you  to  meet  them  at 
Pythagoras  Hall,  No.  134  Canal  street,  on  Sunday,  thirtieth  instant, 
at  2  p.  M.,  to  consult  with  them  on,  and  assist  in,  initiating  and  car- 
rying out  measures  for  the  purpose  of  strengthening  the  imion  and 
thoroughly  organizing  the  city.  The  present  unsatisfactory  condition 
of  rates  in  the  book  trade  and  the  late  changes  in  the  prices  of  news- 
papers necessitate  prompt  and  vigorous  action.  This  circular  is  pri- 
vate only  so  far  as  not  to  be  made  a  subject  of  general  conversation. 
While  it  is  not  deemed  advisable  to  have  too  large  an  attendance 
you  are  at  liberty  to  bring  with  you  any  active  union  man  in  your 
office  whom  the  officers  may  have  overlooked."  The  conference 
was  held  and  it  was  determined  to  invite  non-union  printers  to  attend 
a  mass  meeting  to  discuss  trade  conditions  and  listen  to  reasons  to 
be  set  forth  why  they  should  affiliate  with  the  union.  This  circular 
was  sent  to  non-members  by  the  president  and  secretary  from  the 
headquarters  at  No.  ig  Centre  street: 

As  an  association  formed  for  the  purpose  of  improving  the  social  and  material 
conditions  of  the  printers  of  the  city  we  ask  your  assistance  in  an  endeavor  to 
establish  and  maintain  a  fair  rate  of  wages  in  New  York. 

Without  entering  into  any  extended  discussion  of  the  merits  and  workings  of 
the  union  system,  we  claim  that  the  union  is  the  only  practicable  means  yet 
devised  for  bettering  our  position.  When  our  organization  is  strong,  wages  are 
kept  up,  copy  is  fairly  distributed,  and  the  workmen  are  prosperous.  When  we 
are  weak,  wages  are  reduced,  favoritism  prevails,  and  lio  man  is  sure  from  one 
day  to  another  but  that  some  may  underbid  him  for  his  position.  If  you  wish 
an  example,  compare  the  state  of  the  trade  in  1875  with  that  of  to-day,  and  ask 
yourself  if  your  circumstances,  notwithstanding  the  revival  of  business,  have 
not  steadily  grown  worse. 

Since  we  have  lost  control  of  many  of  the  book  and  weekly  newspaper  offices 
of  this  city  there  has  developed  a  class  of  unscrupulous  employers  who  have  cut 
rates  in  competing  for  work,  and  have  taken  most  of  the  reduction  from  the 

14 


4l8  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

wages  of  the  compositors.  This  has  forced  their  competitors  to  take  similar 
action,  and  the  result  has  been  a  steadily  decreasing  rate  of  wages,  without  bene- 
fit to  either  employer  or  workman.  This  system  has  brought  about  a  reduction 
of  over  30  per  cent  in  six  years.  The  cutting  is  still  going  on,  and  we  find  to-day 
many  offices  paying  only  30  cents  per  1,000,  and  some  even  below  that  rate. 

As  we  must  all  make  a  living  at  the  printing  trade,  it  is  as  much  to  your  interest 
as  ours  to  endeavor  to  call  a  halt  before  the  business  is  totally  ruined.  You 
are  injured  as  much  by  a  reduction  as  we  are,  and  should  unite  with  us  in  our 
efforts.  If  you  do  not  wish  to  join  the  union  we  ask  at  least  your  assistance 
and  co-operation  in  an  effort  which  we  propose  to  make  to  enforce  a  minimum 
rate  of  35  cents  per  1,000  in  the  city. 

Therefore,  we  ask  you  to  attend  in  force  a  meeting  of  the  trade  to  be  held  at 
No.  10  Stanton  street  on  Sunday  next,  March  nth,  at  2  o'clock,  where  we  can 
freely  discuss  the  matter  in  all  its  bearing,  and  take  such  action  as  may  seem  best. 

Speedy  growth  of  the  organization  was  the  outcome  of  the  mass 
meeting,  and  on  New  Year's  Day,  1884,  it  was  observed  that  the 
membership  had  advanced  to  3,464,  the  highest  in  its  history  up 
to  that  time,  there  having  been  an  increase  of  1,610  in  a  single  year. 
There  was  a  loss  of  251  in  the  membership  during  1885,  and  on 
February  7,  1886,  the  union  created  the  office  of  walking  delegate, 
among  whose  prescribed  duties  was  to  "  endeavor 
Recession        to  obtain  the  name,  house  address  and  place  of 
in  the  employment  of  every  non-union  printer  in  the  city, 

Year  1885.       ^^^^  ^ge  his  efforts  by  argument  and  persuasion  to 
induce  non-union  printers  to  join  the  imion."      He 
was  also  authorized  to  "collect  all  moneys  owing  to  the  union  from 
members,  working  outside  of  the  jurisdiction  of  chapels,  who  do  not 
pay  promptly  at  the  secretary's  office."     Owen  J.  Kindelon  was  the 
first  walking  delegate,  but  he  resigned  on  May  9,  1886,  and  was 
succeeded  by  George  A.  McKay.     Although  in  that  year  223  mem- 
bers were  added  to  its  rolls,  the  union  on  December  12th  abolished 
the  office  of  walking  delegate.     It,  however,  on  January  10,  1892, 
restored  the  position.     A  resolution  submitted  on  March  15th  to 
repeal  the  law  establishing  the  place  was  sent  to  the  referendum, 
and  was  defeated  by  a  vote  of  1,087  for,  to  2,017  against.     Since  then 
the  office  has  been  a  fixture.     In  1895  the  title  was  changed  to 
organizer,  who  was  then  made  chairman  of  the  Dis- 
Growth  Since     cipHne  Committee  and  required  "  to  visit  offices  in 
Office  of  ^^®  ^^^  where  no  chapels  exist,  with  a  view  of  en- 

Organizer,  couraging  men  employed  there  to  embrace  unionism. ' ' 

The  membership,  which  in  1893  rose  to  5,122,  re- 
ceded to  4,665  in  1895,  but  through  the  labors  of  Organizer  William 
F.  Derflinger  it  then  began  to  expand.     In  August,  that  year,  he 


NUMERICAL    STRENGTH    AND    UPBUILDING    EFFORTS.  419 

appealed  to  non-unionists  to  join  the  organization,  stating  in  a  circular 
to  them  that  "  for  43  years  the  Typographical  Union  has  endeavored 
to  impart  dignity  to  the  craft  by  assisting  in  the  maintenance  of  the 
just  and  equitable  rights  of  the  individual  craftsman  and  cementing 
the  bonds  of  friendship  and  brotherhood  that  should  exist  between 
all  men,  and  especially  those  of  a  distinctive  craft,  and  so  beneficial 
has  it  been  that  we  are  desirous  of  extending  its  influence,  for  in 
proportion  to  the  intelligence,  unity  and  numerical  strength  of  his 
organization  does  the  wage- worker  find  through  higher  wages,  shorter 
hours  and  healthier  conditions  of  labor  a  taste  of  the  advantages 
so  fully  secured  by  the  superior  intelligence  and  unity  of  the  employ- 
ing class.  The  early  and  complete  accomplishment  of  this  will 
depend  largely  upon  the  rapidity  with  which  the  printers  who  are 
not  on  our  rolls  join  with  us,  and  we  ask  that  you  not  only  join,  but 
that  you  exert  your  influence  to  have  others  do  likewise.  That 
these  are  the  days  of  combination  is  well  illustrated  by  the  fact  that 
physicians  have  their  medical  association;  the  legal  fraternity  unite 
on  all  matters  of  common  interest  in  the  various  Bar  Associations;  the 
powerful  financial  institutions  of  the  country  find  it  necessary  to 
combine  in  the  National  Bankers'  Association  to  accomplish  their 
ends;  the  merchants  and  manufacturers  attain  the  object  of  their 
desires  through  Boards  of  Trade — 'then,  why  should  not  the  printers 
be  united  in  protecting  their  interests? "  George  W.  Jackson  became 
organizer  in  1897,  his  efforts  also  being  of  an  energetic  character, 
and  the  membership  in  1898  passed  the  5,000  mark.  When  the  eight- 
hour  strike  occurred  in  1906  the  total  number  of  members  was  7,066. 
That  dispute  caused  a  large  decrease  of  the  roster, 

which  in  1 9 o 7  exhibited  a  decline  to  6 , 7  2  9  and  to  6 , 4  7 8  ^"^ct  of  the 

1  .  ,  ,1         V       i_  •  1006  Strike  on 

m  1910,  smce  which  year  there  has  been  an  mcrease  .^    n/r     i,     t.- 

.  .  .  .  ,  the  Membership, 

of  491,  owing  principally  to  the  fact  that  several 

large  offices  in  which  strikes  took  place  in  1906  for  the  shorter  work- 
ing day  have  resumed  amicable  relations  with  Union  No.  6. 

Until  1890  the  financial  year  of  the  union  began  on  January  ist, 
but  the  annual  fiscal  period  since  then  has  dated  from  April  ist. 
Beginning  with  1850,  the  membership  at  the  commencement  of  every 
business  year  is  denoted  in  the  table  that  follows: 


420 


NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 


Membenhip  of  New  York  Typographical  Union  No.  6  Each  Year  fiom  January  1 ,  1 630,  to  April  1 ,  1911. 


Year. 
January  i, — 

i8so. . 
i8si. . 
1852. . 
1853.. 
i8S4.. 
I8SS. . 
1856.. 

1857 .  . 

1858.  . 
i8S9.  . 
i860.  . 

1861.  . 

1862.  . 
1863.. 
1864.  . 
I86s.  . 

1866.  . 

1867.  . 
1868.. 
1869. . 

1870.  . 

1871.  . 

1872.  . 

1873.  . 
1874.. 
187s.. 
1876.  . 
1877.. 

1878.  . 

1879.  . 

1880.  . 
I881., 


Number 

of 
members. 

28 

300 

547 

661 

750 

789 

800 

917 

318 

307 

537 

626 

S04 

431 

677 

299 

264 

588 

1,226 

2,10s 

2,228 

2 ,  409 

2,107 

2 ,  243 

2,332 

2,357 

2,644 

1 ,  998 

1,168 

1,024 

1,042 

1,490 


Year. 
January  i, — 


1883. 


1885. 


1887. 
1888. 


April  I, — 
1890. 
1891. 
1892. 
1S93. 
1894- 
189s. 
1896. 
1897. 


1899. 
1900. 

1901 . 

1902 . 
1903. 
1904. 
190S. 
1906. 
1907. 
1908. 
1909. 
1910. 
1911. 


Number 

of 

members. 


1,759 
1.854 
3,464 
3,494 
3,243 
3.466 
4.038 
3,879 

3.948 
4.487 
4.897 

5,122 

5. 072 
4.66s 
4,708 
4.796 
S.091 
S.41S 
5,409 
5. 491 
5,756 
6,220 
6.433 
6,800 
6,742 
6,729 
6,576 
6.547 
6,478 
6,84s 


0 


PlWIi 


HARTEB- 


^  © 


h 


...i  :i,,!..,,,;!.u,.i   '//■■ 


<•     I 


^. 


vf 


'''/,A,/    ''ii.,1,.  ,./ 


i 


.,:      Z/?-,.-:^-.. 


ylW-    L.<.-t-/i 


mI.-o,  l..l,i,i  ,„„l  „jju(.l  IP    ''>r',l 


Charter  Issued  by  National  Typographical  Union  to  New  York  Women's 
Typographical  Union  No.  i. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 
WOMEN  PRINTERS. 

THERE  were  several  instances  of  women  performing  work  at 
the  case  and  press  soon  after  the  general  introduction  of 
printing  in  America.  Prominent  among  these  were  two 
nieces  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  daughters  of  James  Franklin,  who  long 
before  his  death  in  1735  taught  them  the  art  in  Newport,  R.  I.,  and 
they  became  rapid  and  correct  compositors.  James  Franklin  be- 
queathed to  his  widow  and  their  family  his  printing  house,  which 
they  conducted  successfully  for  many  years.  Many  other  women 
acquired  the  trade  later  in  the  eighteenth  century,  but  they  were 
usually  connected  with  the  households  of  the  proprietors  whom  they 
assisted,  and  therefore  were  not  regarded  as  employees.  The  first 
reference  of  a  printers'  organization  taking  cognizance  of  the  employ- 
ment of  women  is  contained  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Philadelphia 
Typographical  Society  in  1 83  2 .  A  rumor  was  then  rife  that  a  master 
printer  was  about  to  employ  members  of  the  opposite  sex  as  type- 
setters in  his  establishment  at  the  instigation  of  an  economist,  who 
had  promised  to  supply  the  former  with  business  if  he  would  engage 
female  compositors.  In  a  letter  written  to  the  society  and  spread 
upon  the  minutes  this  statement  was  emphatically  denied.  During 
the  agitation  against  Duff  Green,  Public  Printer,  the  Columbia  Typo- 
graphical Society  of  Washington  on  January  17,  1835,  was  somewhat 
exercised  over  an  item  in  a  local  journal  that  girls  were  taking  the 
places  of  striking  printers  in  Philadelphia.  A  report  was  spread 
that  after  these  girls  had  been  taught  the  trade  they  were  to  be  given 
employment  on  the  Government  printing  in  the  National  Capital, 
so  a  resolution  was  adopted  and  communicated  to  the  associations 
in  other  cities  inquiring  whether  women  were  working  at  the  case 
in  those  towns,  and  if  so,  desiring  to  be  informed  as  to  what  they 
intended  to  do  "  to  prevent  the  further  progress  of  the  evil."  It 
was  a  well-settled  fact,  however,  that  at  that  period  there  were  not 
any  women  printers  employed  in  Philadelphia  or  Washington,  the 
discussion  having  been  caused,  not  by  the  actual  entrance  of  women 
into  the  printing  industry,  but  by  the  movement  then  in  progress 
looking  to  their  employment  in  a  larger  and  more  remunerative 
industrial  field. 

[421] 


422  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

In  New  York  City  young  women  first  began  to  be  employed  at 

typesetting  in  1853.     When  the  strike  occurred  on  the  Day  Book 

that  year  its  publisher  and  editor  advertised  for 

Employment  of    g|j.|g  ^q  learn  the  compositors'  trade.     He  described 

Women  Printers  ,  .  •  •      ^.i.      •  r  j-t,   ^   j    -i 

„    .      .    „         his  experience  m  the  issue  01  that  daily  paper  on 

Begms  m  New  ^  .  . 

York  in  1853.       April  nth,  saying  that '  on  Saturday  we  stated  that 

we  did  not  know  what  we  should  do,  but  should 
trust  to  our  wits  to  get  us  out  of  the  tight  place  the  Printers' 
Union  had  put  us  in.  We  did  not  trust  in  vain  —  they  came 
to  our  aid,  as  they  always  have  in  an  emergency.  We  advertised 
for  girls  to  learn  to  set  type,  determining  to  teach  them  the  art 
rather  than  submit  to  the  tyranny  of  any  trade  union  in  the  universe. 
There  were  more  than  40  girls  applied  for  situations  at  our  office 
this  morning  to  learn  to  set  type.  We  engaged  four  of  them,  and 
they  are  now  at  work  on  the  Book.  We  see  no  reason  why  they 
will  not  make  good  compositors  and  earn  their  eight  or  ten  dollars 
a  week,  which  will  be  to  them  good  wages.  This  we  look  upon  as 
the  real  practical  way  of  enlarging  the  sphere  of  female  labor,  and 
if  no  other  good  comes  out  of  this  strike  this  benefit  to  the  girls  will 
be  worth  the  efforts  and  trouble  we  are  put  to."  The  Tribune  on 
the  twenty-sixth  of  the  succeeding  August  printed  an  item  that 
"  Mrs.  Phebe  Patterson  proposes  to  establish  in  this  city  a  printing 
office  where  the  typesetting  will  be  done  by  women.  For  this  purpose 
she  is  now  endeavoring  to  raise  the  necessary  capital." 

In  1854  the  question  gave  some  concern  to  the  National  Typo- 
graphical Union  at  its  convention  in  Buffalo,  where  on  May  2d  a 
memorial  was  presented  from  the  Detroit  union,  which  referred  "  the 
subject  of  the  introduction  and  continued  employment  of  females 
within  its  jurisdiction  to  the  National  Union  for  its  full  and  explicit 

view  or  decision,"  and  urging  "  the  adoption  of  some 
Union  Endeavors  decisive  measure  to  guide  and  sustain  any  sub- 
to  iscourage  ordinate  union  in  whatever  just  and  proper  course 
Women  to  ^  majority  of  its  members  may  think  fit  to  pursue 

Printing  Trade,    against  this  injurious  innovation,  by  which  employers 

wish  to  set  aside  fair  usage  and  compensation." 
The  committee  to  which  the  memorial  was  referred  reported  a 
resolution  that  the  matter  be  left  in  the  hands  of  the  subordinate 
unions,  "  as  being  a  question  of  a  local  nature,  to  be  by  them  con- 
sidered and  acted  upon  as  the  circumstances  attending  them  may 
require."  In  lieu  of  that  Charles  F.  Town,  one  of  the  delegates 
from  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  moved  the  adoption  of  the 
following : 


WOMEN    PRINTERS. 


423 


That  this  union,  taking  into  consideration  the  present  organization  of  society, 
are  of  the  opinion  that  the  practice  of  employing  females  in  the  composing  depart- 
ment of  the  printing  business  is  calculated  to  operate  detrimentally  upon  the 
morals  of  those  so  employed,  especially  on  account  of  the  execution  of  many 
medical  and  other  scientific  works,  which  the  welfare  of  society  demands,  but 
which  contain  matter  eminently  unfitted  and  highly  improper  for  the  perusal 
of  modest  young  women.  Also,  that  it  is  injurious  to  the  interests  of  the  trade, 
by  throwing  out  of  the  business  men  who  have  served  regular  apprenticeships 
and  are  masters  of  their  profession  —  many  of  whom  have  families  (mothers, 
wives  and  daughters)  depending  upon  their  exertions  for  support. 

The  proposition  of  the  New  York  delegate  did  not  contain  any- 
thing of  a  mandatory  character.  It  was  simply  the  expression  of  an 
opinion,  with  the  evident  intent  that  its  dissemination  would  tend 
to  discotirage  young  women  from  entering  the  trade,  but  it  did  not 
suit  the  radical  element,  who  offered  an  amendment  "that  the  National 
Typographical  Union  recognize  none  but  male  compositors."  This 
provoked  a  protest  from  N.  R.  Pierce,  of  Cincinnati,  who  declared 
that  he  did  not  want  to  see  either  of  the  propositions  adopted,  but 
desired  that  all  compositors,  whether  male  or  female,  should  be  recog- 
nized if  they  had  served  a  regular  apprenticeship.  Thomas  J.  Walsh, 
of  New  York,  offered  a  substitute  "  that  in  the  opinion  of  this 
union  the  subject  of  the  memorial  of  the  Detroit  imion  is  as 
unworthy  of  the  serious  consideration  of  this  body  as  the  sordid 
philanthropy  and  hypocrisy  of  those  who  would  thus  induce  woman 
from  her  sphere  is  beneath  contempt."  Some  further  debate  was 
had,  one  delegate  believing  that  the  subject  was  sufficiently 
important  "  to  receive  the  serious  consideration  of  the  union," 
while  another  at  great  length  expressed  himself  on  the  question 
from  a  moral  point  of  view.  Finally  the  memorial  was  referred 
to  a  select  committee,  a  majority  of  which  on  the  succeeding  day 
reported  the  following: 

This  union  beheves  that  the  employment  of  females  as  compositors  can  never 
become  so  general  or  extensive  as  to  aflfect  the  trade  materially;  and  that  while 
private  cupidity  may  occasionally  make  efforts  to  introduce  this  kind  of  labor 
into  the  trade,  such  efforts  must  necessarily  be  spasmodic  and  eventually 
unsuccessful.     Therefore, 

Resolved,  That  the  National  Union  acknowledges  the  right  of  subordinate 
unions  to  legislate  for  themselves  with  regard  to  the  employment  of  females 
in  the  printing  business,  and  to  dispose  of  the  matter  as  may  best  suit  their 
several  localities. 

A  minority  report  was  also  submitted.  It  recommended  the 
adoption  of  these  resolutions: 

Whereas,  We  as  workingmen,  husbands,  sons,  brothers  and  fathers  take  a 
lively  interest  in  the  welfare,  and  have  the  warmest  desires  to  advance  the  best 
interests  of  females;  and, 


424  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Whereas,  As  the  representatives  of  the  printers  of  the  United  States,  in  con- 
vention assembled,  we  feel  called  upon  by  reason  of  misrepresentation  on  the 
part  of  some  —  enemies  to  all  interests  not  their  own  —  to  take  action  in  relation 
to  the  employment  of  females  in  printing  offices;  we  therefore 

Resolve,  That  we  recognize  the  right  of  females  to  any  employment  for  which 
they  may  be  fitted,  and  that  we  further 

Resolve,  That  we,  as  a  National  Printers'  Union,  leave  all  legislation  on  this 
matter  in  the  hands  of  subordinate  unions,  with  power  to  act  in  such  manner 
as  their  wisdom  may  direct. 

A  motion  that  the  majority  report  lie  upon  the  table  was  negatived 
by  the  casting  vote  of  the  chair.  Then  it  was  moved  that  recognition 
be  given  only  to  male  compositors.  This  was  lost  by  a  decided 
majority.     For  the  two  reports  this  substitute  was  offered: 

Resolved,  That  this  union  will  not  take  any  steps  toward  the  prevention  of 
females  as  compositors,  knowing  from  experience  that  all  such  attempts  to  lure 
women  from  their  legitimate  sphere  (the  domestic  circle)  has  in  a  great  measure 
failed  of  its  object,  and  has  been  done  by  those  who  are  antagonistic  to  the  rights 
of  Labor,  and  are  only  actuated  by  selfish  views.  With  these  views  we  leave 
the  matter  solely  with  the  respective  subordinate  unions. 

The  foregoing  was  not  carried;  neither  was  a  resolve  "  that  this 
National  Union  recommends  to  subordinate  unions  the  propriety 
of  discountenancing  the  employment  of  women  as  compositors," 
nor  a  proposition  "  that  the  right  of  females  to  work  in  printing 
offices  be  not  questioned  by  this  union,  and  that  whenever  a  female 
has  served  a  regular  apprenticeship,  and  demands  the  same  rate 
for  her  labor  as  journeymen  printers  subordinate  to  this  union,  she 
be  recognized  by  and  allowed  to  work  in  offices  with  them."  But 
a  substitute  "  that  this  union  will  not  encourage,  by  its  acts,  the 
employment  of  females  as  compositors  "  was  passed  by  a  vote  of 
17  to  9  —  the  three  representatives  from  New  York  City  being 
recorded  in  favor  of  it. 

Horace  Greeley  favored  the  employment  of  women  to  perform 

certain  kinds  of  composition.     He  spoke  on  the  subject  at  the  banquet 

of  the  New  York  Typographical  Society  on  January 

Greeley  Favors    ^^^    1854,   to  commemorate  the   148th  anniversary 
mpoymen         ^^  ^^^  birth  of  Benjamin  Franklin.     Responding  to 

Compositors.  ^^^  toast  "  Woman,"  Mr.  Greeley  expressed  the 
hope  that  the  day  had  passed  when  woman  could  be 
satisfied  with  mere  flattery  without  opportunity  to  rise  in  the  scale 
of  happiness.  He  desired  to  see  her  engaged  in  employments  where 
she  would  receive  equal  pay  vrith  man.  Referring  to  the  engage- 
ment of  women  in  typography  he  expressed  his  delight  at  knowing 


WOMEN    PRINTERS.  425 

there  were  printing  offices  where  they  were  employed  with  credit 
and  profit  to  themselves  and  utility  to  the  community.  Editor 
Greeley  again  gave  expression  to  his  thought  on  the  subject  in  the 
Tribune  of  July  17,  1854.  "  We  have  been  requested  on  behalf  of 
the  joirmeymen  printers  to  publish  a  manifesto,  signed  '  The  Printers' 
Union,'  against  the  employment  of  women  in  typesetting,"  he  wrote 
editorially.  "  Having  thus  given  them  a  hearing,  we  must  ask  them 
to  listen  a  few  moments  to  us.  Let  us  begin  by  conceding  one  point 
insisted  on  by  the  printers.  They  say  they  have  a  right  to  refuse  to 
work  where  women  are  employed  in  typesetting,  and  we  freely  admit 
it.  It  is  certainly  possible  for  them  to  '  knock-ofE '  abruptly,  inju- 
riously, imjustly,  but  on  giving  reasonable  notice  they  have  a  right 
to  quit  work,  and  for  any  reasons  that  are  satisfactory  to  them- 
selves. They  have  a  further  right  to  explain  their  position  to  other 
journeymen  who  may  be  solicited  to  fill  their  places  and  convince 
them  (if  they  can)  that  it  would  be  wrong  to  do  so.  Now  a  word  on 
the  other  side.  They  say  that  '  the  pretensions  made  by  the  press ' 
of  a  desire  to  meliorate  the  conditions  of  woman  in  this  matter  of 
typesetting  are  '  base  hypocrisy  '  put  on  to  conceal  their  designs  to 
depress  the  liberty  and  reduce  the  *  wages  of  the  males.'  We  beg 
leave  very  meekly  to  demur  to  this  sweeping  crimination.  We  never 
employed  girls  to  set  type,  and  do  not  expect  to  employ  any.  We 
don't  want  to  '  depress  '  anybody's  liberty,  not  even  that  of  women 
to  set  type,  if  they  see  fit,  nor  to  reduce  anybody's  wages.  Hadn't 
you  better  take  that  charge  back?  Now  as  to  wages.  Your  fears 
that  women  will  supplant  you,  or  seriously  reduce  yoiir  wages, 
Messrs.  Compositors,  are  neither  wise  nor  manly.  The  girls  who 
marry  and  have  families  to  look  after  will  stop  setting  type  —  never 
doubt  that — unless  they  are  so  luckless  as  to  get  drunken,  loafing, 
good-for-nothing  husbands,  who  will  do  nothing  to  keep  the  pot 
boiling,  and  then  th.y  must  work,  and  you  ought  not  to  be  mean 
enough  to  stop  them,  or  drr.'e  them  back  to  making  shirts  or  binding 
shoes  at  three  or  four  shillings  per  day.  If  you  find  yourselves 
troubled  with  too  strong  a  competition  from  female  workers  just 
prove  yourselves  worthy  to  be  their  husbands;  marry  them,  provide 
good  homes  and  earn  the  means  of  living  comfortably,  and  we'll 
warrant  them  never  to  annoy  you  thereafter  by  insisting  on  spending 
their  days  at  the  printing  office  setting  type.  But  waxing  theologic 
and  pious,  you  tell  us  of  the  sphere  of  action  God  designed  woman 
to  occupy  —  of  her  '  purity  '  and  of  the  '  immorality  and  vice  '  she 
must  inevitably  sink  into,  should  she  be  admitted  into  the  composing 
room  to  set  type  beside  you.  We  feel  the  force  of  these  suggestions  — 
we  admit  the  badness  of  the  company  into  which  unregulated  type- 


426  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

setting  would  sometimes  throw  her  —  but  did  it  never  occur  to  you 
that  this  is  her  lookout  rather  than  yours?  It  is  perfectly  fair  for 
you  to  apprise  her  beforehand  of  the  moral  atmosphere  into  which 
promiscuous  typesetting  would  expose  her,  but  when  you  virtually 
say  that  she  shan't  set  type  because  if  she  did  your  society  and  con- 
versation would  corrupt  her  you  carry  the  joke  a  little  too  far.  *  *  * 
Women  never  can  be  the  equals  of  men  as  typesetters,  except  on  the 
simplest  and  worst-paid  work.  No  morning  paper  in  a  great  city 
like  ours  can  ever  be  set  up  by  them;  the  work  is  too  hard,  the  hoiurs 
too  trying  and  the  requirements  of  lifting  forms,  staying  all  night, 
etc.,  are  too  exacting.  But  there  is  very  much  typesetting  that  they 
can  do  as  well  as  men  could,  and  considerably  cheaper,  while  making 
far  better  wages  than  they  could  otherwise  secure;  and  this  work 
they  will  do,  and  ought  to,  and  you  may  as  well  accede  to  it  at  once. 
Your  logic  is  essentially  that  by  which  hand-pressmen  of  the  olden 
time  denounced  power  presses,  and  is  as  futile  in  your  case  as  in  theirs. 
There  will  be  enough  for  all  who  qualify  themselves  for  varied  useful- 
ness and  steadily  do  the  best  that  comes  to  hand.  So  just '  leave  the 
girls  alone'  to  work  at  printing  or  something  else,  as  their  (not  your) 
Manifesto  Against  ^^"-^^  ^^  propriety,  and  perception  of  what  is  best 
Female  ^^^  them,  shall  dictate.     You  must  land  there  at 

Employees  in       last,  and  you  may  as  well  go  there  at  first."     The 
Composing  manifesto   criticised   above   by   the   editor   of   the 

Rooms.  Tribune  had  originally  appeared  in  the  Philadelphia 

Daily  News  in  the  form  of  a  communication  signed  "  The  Printers' 
Union."     It  was  as  follows: 

It  is  an  absolute  impossibility  for  artisans  or  others  in  the  great  field  of  human 
toil  to  obtain  through  the  columns  of  a  venal  press,  justice.  This  is  made 
palpable  every  day  we  exist,  and  it  is  surprising  to  us  how  certain  reporters, 
editors,  etc.,  can  twist  up  and  contort  facts  to  produce  an  unfavorable  impression, 
when  such  a  course  contributes  to  their  pecuniary  welfare.  The  public  there- 
fore will  understand  that  the  North  American  and  other  journals,  when  referring 
to  the  causes  of  printers'  strikes  are  vitally  interested  and  as  a  consequence  are 
disposed  to  treat  of  the  matter  as  ludicrously  as  possible.  They  hope  thereby  to 
throw  against  our  organization  the  power  of  public  opinion  and  thus  reduce  our 
members  so  that  they  may  eventually  be  able  to  disorganize  us  —  the  result  of 
which  disorganization  would  put  thousands  of  dollars  into  the  pockets  of  certain 
employers,  who  are  now  necessitated  to  pay  a  living  remuneration  for  the  work 
it  is  our  province  to  perform.  The  great  bulk  of  printers  in  this  country  are 
bound  together  in  a  common  brotherhood  for  mutual  benefit —  the  subordinate 
unions  occupying  the  same  position  to  a  national  head  as  that  which  is  sustained 
by  a  State  sovereignty  to  the  general  Government  and  are  represented  in  a  con- 
vention of  delegates  who  legislate  upon  all  general  principles  connected  with 
their  well-being.  Frequent  attempts  have  been  made  by  combinations  of  capi- 
talists to  pull  down  this  structure,  and  thus  far  they  have  been  futile.  The 
latest  means  employed  by  newspaper  publishers  is  the  introduction  of  girls  into 


WOMEN    PRINTERS.  427 

the  business  for  the  purpose  of  supplanting  members  of  our  craft,  whose  scale 
of  prices  and  regulations  do  not  altogether  agree  with  their  Shylock  faculties. 

The  printers  of  the  United  States  have  uniformly  opposed  the  introduction 
of  women  into  printing  offices  for  the  following  natural  reasons: 

1.  That  females  can  be  employed  at  rates  much  lower  than  we  demand  and 
are  properly  entitled  to,  and  as  a  consequence  employers  would  use  them  for 
the  subversion  of  our  national  organization. 

2.  That  we  do  not  believe  that  any  benefit  can  accrue  from  taking  women 
from  the  sphere  of  action  God  (as  is  evident  from  her  physical  and  mental  quali- 
ties) designed  her  to  occupy.  Her  faculties  are  different  from  those  of  the  male, 
and  any  attempt  to  draw  her  from  her  present  position  in  life  should  be  met  with 
that  opposition  from  the  American  people  which  would  be  exerted  against  immor- 
ality and  vice.  The  purity  of  woman  should  be  guarded  with  care,  and  surely 
contact  with  the  world  in  the  same  method  that  man  finds  necessary  would  have 
a  very  pernicious  effect  upon  her  morals. 

3.  That  the  pretensions  made  by  the  press  in  long  and  labored  articles  for 
the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  woman  are  neither  more  nor  less  than  base 
hypocrisy,  put  on  to  conceal  their  designs  to  depress  the  liberty  and  reduce  the 
wages  of  the  males. 

4.  That  as  wages  must  fall  just  in  proportion  to  the  increase  of  printers  over 
demand,  the  introduction  of  females  into  our  business  at  this  epoch  of  our  history 
as  a  craft  would  so  depreciate  the  value  of  our  labor  as  to  render  it  a  matter  of 
necessity  on  the  part  of  both  man  and  wife  to  labor  all  the  week  for  about  in  the 
aggregate  the  same  compensation  that  is  at  present  paid  to  the  male  for  his 
services;  and  that  as  no  bettering  of  the  condition  of  either  is  effected  by  such 
procedure,  except  to  the  money -holders,  we  believe  it  is  contrary  to  the  advanced 
intelligence  of  the  age,  common  sense,  and  justice  to  sanction  such  a  course  of 
conduct  on  the  part  of  men  who  are  not  printers,  but  who,  through  their  capital, 
speculate  on  the  labor  of  others. 

The  editor  of  a  certain  sheet  in  this  city,  of  a  very  unenviable  notoriety  among 
consistent  men,  placed  in  his  office  several  girls  whom  he  had  intended  to  instruct 
in  typesetting  so  that  he  might  introduce  them  into  places  of  men  who  were  employed 
on  his  paper;  as  the  office  in  which  they  are  to  be  schooled  was  a  part  and  parcel 
of  his  newspaper  establishment  the  men  refused  to  continue  longer  in  his  employ. 
He  was  notified  to  that  effect,  and  after  declining  to  discontinue  such  under- 
mining course  the  men  forsook  his  office. 

A  man  certainly  has  the  right  to  enter  into  a  contract  with  whom  he  may  feel 
disposed,  so  also  is  a  man  justified  in  refusing  to  be  engaged  under  circumstances 
that  would  eventuate  to  the  injury  of  himself  and  fellows.  The  editor  of  the 
sheet  above  mentioned  has  been  guilty  of  a  contract  to  annihilate  our  union  in 
order  that  he  may  save  a  few  dollars  in  the  composition  of  his  vacillating  sheet. 
Failing  to  school  a  sufficient  number  of  "  fair  ones  "  to  occupy  the  positions  of 
his  hands  of  "  sterner  stuff  "  engaged  on  his  paper,  he  sent  an  agent  to  New  York 
to  procure  hands,  and  nine  were  engaged  in  that  city  to  be  employed  upon  his 
paper  until  his  instruction  of  the  "fair  sex"  could  qualify  a  sufficient  number 
to  supplant  them  also.  The  printers  of  this  city,  knowing  that  misrepresenta- 
tions were  used  to  decoy  their  fellow-craftsmen  from  New  York,  appointed  a 
committee  to  meet  them  at  the  railway  station,  and  ascertain  if  they  understood 
the  condition  of  affairs  in  this  city.  They  were  conferred  with,  and  at  once 
stated  that  they  had  been  imposed  upon  by  the  agent  of  the  editor,  and  volun- 
tarily, to  a  man,  refused  to  have  any  intercourse  with  the  obnoxious  office, 


428  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

although  many  of  them  had  no  connection  whatever  with  the  New  York  Printers' 
Union.  They  will  appear  in  a  card  in  a  few  days,  and  express  their  indignation 
at  the  manner  in  which  they  were  enticed  from  their  own  city. 

Inclination  to  exclude  women  from  the  trade  prevailed  for  a  few 
years  afterward  among  some  unions  outside  of  New  York  City. 
The   Philadelphia   association   instructed   its   dele- 
Exclusion  Policy  gates  to  the  national   convention  of    printers    in 
Prevails  Outside  1855   "to  Oppose  any  recognition  of  the  employ- 
New  York  City,   ment  of  females  as  compositors."     Boston  Typo- 
graphical Union  on  Jime  14,  1856,  postponed  indefi- 
nitely consideration  of  a  motion  that  "  any  member  working  in  any 
office  that  employs  female  compositors  shall  be  expelled  from  the 
union."     That  organization,  however,  on  April  11,  1857,  declined  to 
pursue  a  policy  of  exclusion  in  cases  where  women  received  equal 
pay  with  men.     It  passed  a  resolution  "  that  all  females  be  allowed 
by  this  society  to  work  in  all  branches  of  the  business,  provided  they 
receive  the  scale  of  prices  adopted  by  this  union."     After  the  Civil 
War  the  question  again  came  to  the  forefront,  and  in  1867  occupied 
the  attention  of  the  National  Typographical  Union;  at  the  session 
of  which  in  June  A.  T.  Cavis,  of  Washington,  D.  C,  offered  a  reso- 
lution that  the  Special  Committee  on  the  President's  Address  ' '  inquire 
and  report  a  plan  to  regulate  and  control  female  compositors,  so  that 
ladies  in  the  business  may  benefit  themselves  and  inflict  as  little 
injury  as  possible  upon  printers."     Two  reports  were  submitted  by 
that  committee.     The  majority,  composed  of  Theodore  S.  Conklin, 
delegate  from  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  and  John  M.  Campbell, 
of  Coltimbia,  S.  C,  presented  their  conclusions  as  follows: 

We  are  clearly  of  the  opinion  that  no  hindrance  should  be  placed  in  the  way 
of  females  who  have  been  unfortunate  enough  to  have  learned  the  art  or  profes- 
sion of  a  compositor  to  earn  a  living  at  it.  Ignoring  the  broad  and  philan- 
thropic ground  of  the  benefits  the  female  sex  would  receive  from  connection  with 
a  body  that  knows  its  rights,  and  knowing,  dare  maintain  them;  and  passing  by 
the  extended  sphere  of  usefulness  such  a  connection  would  open  up  to  the  mind, 
tact  and  enterprise  of  the  American  female,  your  committee  would  place  the 
reason  for  such  action  upon  the  more  selfish  one  of  interest.  Every  member 
who  listens  to  the  reading  of  this  report  knows  the  fact  that  the  female  hereto- 
fore has  been  used  by  employers  as  an  instrument  of  evil  toward  unions  and  union 
men.  In  almost  every  case  in  which  female  labor  has  been  introduced  it  has 
been  used  to  the  detriment,  and  sometimes  to  the  complete  ruin  of  the  labor 
of  the  union  man.  Is  there  any  good  reason  for  this  state  of  warfare  between 
male  and  female  labor  continuing  ?  Your  committee  can  see  none.  The  interests 
of  Labor,  whether  that  Labor  be  of  the  male  or  the  female  gender,  are  identical 
and  inseparable,  and  in  no  case  can  they  be  made  antagonistic  without  injury 
to  both.  Females  are  never  paid  the  same  ratio  of  compensation  as  that  secured 
to  the  labor  of  the  male,  for  the  simple  reason  that  there  has  never  been  any 


WOMEN    PRINTERS.  429 

organization  for  mutual  protection  among  female  producers,  and  sordid  Capital 
has  had  full  swing  at  this  unprotected  species  of  labor,  and  has  ground  it  into 
the  dust.  Capital,  in  introducing  it  into  the  printing  business,  has  not  sought 
its  elevation,  but,  on  the  contrary,  has  been  largely  instrumental  in  degrading 
it,  and  as  a  consequence  the  labor  of  the  male  has  suffered  in  a  like  degree.  The 
most  experienced  female  in  the  science  of  economy  knows  that  a  thousand  ems 
set  by  her  is  of  as  much  value  to  the  proprietor  as  the  thousand  ems  set  by  her 
brother,  and  that  it  cost  her  as  much  mental  and  physical  exertion  to  compose 
that  thousand  ems  as  it  did  him ;  that  she  had  to  put  forward  the  same  faculties 
and  in  as  great  degree  as  he  had  to  learn  to  set  that  thousand  ems,  and  that  in 
common  justice  it  should  command  the  same  price.  But  she  cannot  get  it  because 
she  has  allowed  her  labor  to  be  made  antagonistic  to  that  of  her  brother  by  accept- 
ing for  it  when  first  offered  a  lower  price,  thereby  injuring  her  own  and  ruining 
his.  It  is  the  part  of  wisdom  to  treat  facts  as  they  exist,  and  not  as  they  should 
be.  Female  labor  will  never  cease  injtiring  male  labor  until  they  are  brought  in 
unison  and  they  assume  that  position  of  identity  which  is  their  normal  condition. 
This  state  of  things  can  never  be  arrived  at  as  long  as  female  labor  is  ostracized 
and  placed  beyond  the  pale  of  our  union  organizations.  The  men  of  our  local 
unions  wherever  this  state  of  facts  exist  should  throw  around  their  sisters  the 
protecting  power  of  their  organizations,  and  tell  unscrupulous  capitalists  who 
thus  use  the  female  to  degrade  the  male,  that  it  can  be  so  no  longer,  that  the 
female  laborer  is  as  equally  worthy  of  her  hire  as  the  male,  and  that  they  are 
determined  to  exact  it.  Your  committee  would  report  the  following  resolution 
as  embodying  the  true  doctrine: 

Resolved,  That  subordinate  unions,  under  whose  jurisdiction  the  fact  of  female  labor  exists, 
should  use  every  exertion  and  argument  to  induce  such  females  to  join  their  subordinate  unions, 
or  to  establish  a  union  of  their  own  in  conjunction  with  the  existing  union. 

But  the  sentiment  that  the  question  was  only  of  local  significance 
continued  to  exist  among  the  majority  of  representatives  in  the  na- 
tional body.  The  minority  member  of  the  committee,  S.  A.  Gray,  of 
New  Orleans,  La.,  told  the  convention  that  "  in  relation  to  female 
labor  I  shall  submit  nothing  more  than  the  subjoined  resolution," 
which  provided  "  that  the  National  Union  declines  to  interfere  with 
this  question,  as  it  is  entirely  of  a  local  character,  and  may  be  settled 
by  each  subordinate  union."  The  whole  subject  was  discussed  in 
Committee  of  the  Whole  on  Jtme  5th  and  decision  was  made  in  favor 
of  the  minority  report  by  a  vote  of  27  to  19,  which  action  was  sus- 
tained by  the  general  body. 

Agitation  for  equal  rights  for  women  was  in  that  period  receiving 
public  notice.     Miss  Susan  B.  Anthony  was  among 
the  leaders  of  the  movement  in  New  York  City,  and     ^*l"^^  Rights 
according  to  the  World  of  October  5,  1868,  "when     gfj^  Labor' 
the   Labor   Congress  was   in   session   she    thought     Recognition 
she    saw  an   opening    for    an   entering   wedge    in 
favor  of  female  suffrage,  and  to  become  a  representative  in  the 
convention  she  organized  a  female  labor  association,  which  elected 


43©  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

her  as  a  delegate.  ""^  It  was  largely  the  purpose  of  these  advocates 
of  equal  rights  to  broaden  the  occupational  field  for  their  sex,  and 
they  criticised  the  attitude  of  unions  of  journeymen  in  endeavoring 
to  prevent  women  learning  the  printing  trade.  These  women 
suffragists  issued  a  journal  called  the  Revolution.  The  World  had 
had  a  strike  in  its  composing  room  and  dimng  the  dispute  employed 
a  nimibcr  of  girls,  whom  it  taught  the  trade  of  typesetting.  In  the 
fall  of  1868  the  management  of  the  paper  and  Typographical  Union 
No.  6  entered  into  an  arrangement  by  which  the  union  printers  who 
had  struck  returned  to  their  cases  in  the  office.  Dismissal  of  the 
young  women  compositors  followed,  and  the  Revolution  charged  that 
they  were  displaced  to  appease  the  union.  "  Many  women  are  type- 
setters," said  the  Revolution.  "  That  is  the  only  trade  they  have 
learned,  and  yet  these  printers'  unions  will  not  allow  a  woman  in 
an  establishment  where  they  work.  Not  long  ago  the  World  em- 
ployed a  large  nimiber  of  women,  when  for  some  reason  it  was  at 
loggerheads  with  the  Printers'  Union,  but  as  soon  as  friendly  relations 
with  the  union  were  restored  the  women  were  discharged.  And  this 
is  the  case  all  over  the  country,  with  both  women  and  negroes 
ignored  everywhere  by  the  printers'  imions.  Now,  what  is  the 
reason?  Only  this,  they  are  disfranchised  classes,  hence  degraded 
in  the  world  of  work.     All  history  shows  that  just  as  you  elevate  the 


1  Miss  Susan  B.  Anthony  represented  Working  Women's  Protective  Association  No.  I  of  New 
York  at  the  convention  of  the  National  Labor  Congress,  which  assembled  in  that  city  in  September, 
1868.  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton  presented  to  the  same  convention,  as  a  delegate  from  the 
Woman's  Suffrage  Association,  credentials  signed  by  Miss  Anthony  as  secretary.  There  was 
some  opposition  to  the  acceptance  of  the  credentials  on  the  ground  that  the  suffrage  association 
was  not  a  labor  organization,  but  Mrs.  Stanton  was  finally  admitted  by  a  vote  of  45  yeas  to  18 
nays.  Subsequently  during  the  session,  being  apprehensive  that  an  endorsement  of  female  suffrage 
might  hinder  the  progress  of  an  independent  Labor  party,  the  convention  adopted  a  resolution 
"  that  by  the  admission  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton  as  a  delegate  to  this  body,  the  National 
Labor  Congress  does  not  regard  itself  as  endorsing  her  peculiar  ideas,  or  committing  itself  to  her 
position  on  female  suffrage,  but  simply  as  a  representative  from  an  organization  having  for  its 
object  the  '  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  those  who  labor  for  a  living."  " 

Before  the  lapse  of  another  quarter-century  the  attitude  of  organized  labor  on  the  question 
of  woman  suffrage  underwent  a  radical  change.  Typographical  Union  No.  6  on  February  i,  1891, 
received  a  communication  from  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  asking  for  the  endorsement 
of  its  petition  to  Congress  to  submit  a  constitutional  amendment  granting  woman  suffrage.  The 
request  was  complied  with.  In  after  years  Union  No.  6  continued  to  show  its  friendly  attitude 
toward  the  equal  rights  movement,  as  indicated  by  the  following  extracts  from  the  manuscript 
minutes  of  its  proceedings  :  May  3,  1908 — "  Mrs.  Louise  Weiss  and  Mrs.  Stanton-Blatch  were 
granted  the  privilege  of  the  floor.  Mrs.  Blatch  spoke,  advocating  that  the  union  send  a  delegate 
as  a  member  of  the  Executive  Board  of  the  Woman's  Suffrage  Association,  meeting  once  a  month 
at  No.  32  Union  Square.  Granted."  February  7,  1909 — "  Mrs.  Weiss  of  the  National  Woman's 
Suffrage  Association  spoke  in  favor  of  the  petition  to  secure  woman's  suffrage.  It  was  ordered 
that  the  petition  be  sent  to  the  chapels  and  that  members  be  requested  to  sign  it."  May  7, 191 1  — 
"A  letter  from  the  Woman's  Suffrage  Party  requesting  the  union  to  write  to  the  Judiciary  Com- 
mittees of  the  House  and  Senate  to  report  the  suffrage  amendment  out  of  committee  was  read 
and  the  request  granted  after  considerable  discussion  and  a  reading  of  the  International  Typo- 
graphical Union  law  declaring  in  favor  of  woman  suffrage." 


WOMEN    PRINTERS.  43  I 

political  status  of  citizens  you  open  to  them  all  the  advantages  and 
opportunities  of  life."      The  World  of  September  20,  1868,  stated 
that  "  the  Revolution  is  in   error   in  assigning   the 
reason  why  the  World  began  and  why  it  ceased  to    "^^^  World 
employ  women  as  typesetters.      It   neither   began    ^^^^^^^^    ^ 
to   employ  them   because   it  was  'at   loggerheads    Typesetters, 
with    the    Printers'    Union,'    nor    ceased    because 
'  friendly  relations  with  that  body  had  been  restored.'     In  fact,  the 
experiment  was  undertaken  and  was  concluded  without  any  reference 
to  the  Printers'  Union.     The  rules  of  that  body  on  the  subject  we 
are  not  now  and  never  have  been  informed  of,  nor  do  we  know  of 
any  such  rules.     We  should  regret  to  believe  that  it  would  interpose 
any  obstacle  to  the  employment  of  women  as  typesetters.     It  cer- 
tainly never  interposed  any  obstacle  to  the  World's  employment  of 
them."    These  were  the  reasons  assigned  by  the  World  for  its  course: 

The  World  undertook  the  experiment  of  employing  women  as  compositors 
because  it  was  willing  to  be  at  some  trouble  and  expense  for  the  sake  of  giving 
practical  aid  to  the  movement  for  enlarging  the  sphere  of  women's  work. 

The  increasing  business  of  the  World  made  it  necessary  last  May  to  enlarge 
both  its  composing  room  and  editorial  offices.  In  the  change  then  made  it  was 
found  impossible  to  retain  for  the  occupation  of  the  female  compositors  the 
separate  room  which  they  had  filled.  For  this  reason  we  sought  places  elsewhere 
for  the  women  then  in  our  employ,  retaining  one  only  in  a  more  responsible  posi- 
tion in  the  composing  room. 

From  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  our  experiment  perhaps  100  girls  were  em- 
ployed at  the  case.  Of  these  less  than  half  a  dozen  could  set  type  when  they 
were  first  received.  Some  of  them  became  tolerable  compositors,  and  are  now 
making  fair  wages  at  bookwork.  The  majority  of  them,  "with  every  opportunity 
to  learn,  and  with  better  payment  on  the  whole  for  all  they  did  than  our  men 
received  for  similar  work,  never  reached  an  equal  skill,  nor  earned  as  much  as 
they.  The  moment  they  were  tried  by  the  simple  test  of  so  much  pay  for  so 
much  composition,  which  all  male  compositors  undergo,  their  earnings  fell  far 
below  the  average  of  the  earnings  of  the  men.  They  were  required  for  the 
most  part  to  work  only  in  the  daytime;  only  once  or  twice  were  their  services 
required  at  night.  They  worked  as  many  days  in  the  week  as  men,  but  could 
none  of  them  work  as  many  hours  a  day.  Seven  or  eight  hours  were  more  than 
sufficient  to  tax  their  strength. 

Clean  composition  was  next  to  an  impossibility  with  all  of  them  in  the  first 
instance,  and  the  correction  of  their  "matter"  they  shirked,  if  possible,  and 
did  badly  when  it  could  not  be  shirked.  Yet  they  were  generally  favored  with 
the  most  legible  "  copy,"  and  were  under  little  stress  as  to  time.  To  the  setting 
of  "  reprint,"  that  is,  printed  copy,  these  remarks  also  apply.  Illegible  manu- 
script they  were  utterly  incapable  to  decipher.  The  majority  of  persons  write 
more  or  less  illegibly;  but  the  majority  of  that  majority  write  with  uniformity  — 
that  is,  their  manuscript  is  obscure  in  the  same  manner  with  the  same  letters 
or  combination  of  letters  —  the  same  pen-tracks  do  service  always  in  conveying 
the  same  syllables.     All  good  compositors  learn  to  read  illegible  manuscript  and 


432  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX 

they  learn  it  by  discerning  these  uniformities,  assisted  by  the  subject,  the  con- 
text, etc.  The  women  whom  we  have  employed  never  made  any  progress  in  this 
direction.  Punctuation  also  somehow  seemed  as  bad  to  them  as  "  seven  times 
nine  "  to  Marjory  Fleming.  It  was  more  than  human  nature  could  endure. 
At  any  rate,  they  never  punctuated;  and  their  justification  must  have  been  by 
faith  since  they  never  justified  by  spacing  well. 

Such  was  the  incapacity  of  the  four  or  five-score  women  we  have  employed  as 
typesetters,  and  such  its  kind  and  degree.  Their  hands  traveled  tolerably  well 
and  swiftly  from  the  case  to  the  stick,  when  the  boxes  had  been  learned  —  not 
so  well  from  the  stick  to  the  case,  in  distributing;  but  all  the  compositors'  art 
beyond  that  purely  mechanical  part  they  recked  little  of.  It  remains  only  to 
add  that  they  were  all  faithful  to  the  extent  of  their  abilities,  neat  and  decent 
in  their  dress,  and  well  behaved,  and  that  most  of  them  had  an  ordinary  common- 
school  education.    Such  are  the  facts;  whoever  pleases  may  preach  the  sermon. 

As  soon  as  women  printers  in  New  York  began  through  organiza- 
tion to  seek  to  better  their  economic  condition  they  received  the 
encom-agement  and  support  of  Typographical  Union 
First  Women's    ^q    5      j^q^  ^y  Miss  Augusta  Lewis  ^  female  com- 

ypograp  ica      positors  to  the  nimiber  of  six  met  on  October  8, 
Union  Formed 
in  New  York.      1868,  and  formed  Women's  Typographical  Union 

No.   I.     At  the  second  meeting  of  the  association 

the  membership  had    increased   to    eleven,  and  it  shortly  rose  to 

40.     In  less  than  six  months  the  wages  of  these  members  were 

advanced    5  cents  per    1,000   ems.     The   union   proved    to  be  of 


-  Miss  Augusta  Lewis  was  educated  in  the  Brooklyn  Heights  Seminary  and  the  Convent  of  the 
Sacred  Heart,  Manhattanville.  For  a  time  she  was  a  newspaper  writer,  and  afterward  began 
an  apprenticeship  in  the  printing  department  of  the  New  York  Era.  After  acquiring  the  trade 
of  compositor  she  was  employed  on  the  New  York  World.  About  that  time  the  Alden  typesetting 
machine  had  reached  completion,  and  its  projectors  engaged  her  to  demonstrate  the  new  device. 
She  soon  became  proficient  in  its  operation,  and  composed  and  distributed  the  entire  story  of 
"  Rip  Van  Winkle,"  consisting  of  24,993  ems  of  solid  a^ate  type,  in  six  and  one-half  hours.  Miss 
Lewis  was  especially  interested  in  social  reform  and  during  her  residence  in  New  York  she  visited 
tenement-houses  and  factories  and  studied  the  conditions  cf  working  people  for  the  purpose  of 
bettering  them.  On  June  12,  1872,  she  was  married  to  Alexander  Troup,  a  member  of  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  6  and  secretary-treasurer  of  the  National  Typographical  Union  in  1866  and 
1867.  Shortly  afterward  they  removed  to  New  Haven,  Conn.,  v/here  for  a  number  of  years  and 
up  to  the  time  of  his  death  Mr.  Troup  published  the  Daily  Union.  He  was  twice  elected  to 
the  Legislature  of  Connecticut  and  for  four  years  was  United  States  Collector  of  Internal  Revenue 
in  that  State.  In  a  letter  to  the  writer  on  April  3.  1911.  Mrs.  Troup,  in  referring  to  the  time  that 
the  women  compositors  began  to  organize,  said:  "  Printers  have  been  a  factor  in  educational 
and  industrial  progress.  I  was  a  member  of  '  Big  Six  '  and  Women's  Typographical  Union  No.  i. 
Considering  the  prejudice  against  women  in  industrial  occupations  at  that  period  I  wonder  at 
our  temerity  and  success.  I  contributed  articles  to  the  New  York  newspapers,  and  learned  print- 
ing as  an  educating  factor  to  help  me  in  writing."  She  was  the  first  and  only  woman  who  ever 
held  the  ofiice  of  corresponding  secretary  of  the  International  Typographical  Union. 

Another  conspicuous  example  of  the  election  of  a  woman  to  an  important  office  of  the  Inter- 
national Typographical  Union  is  that  of  Miss  Anna  C.  Wilson,  of  Washington,  D.  C,  who  is  at 
present  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Union  Printers'  Home,  having  been  in  May, 
1908,  chosen  to  that  responsible  position  by  a  vote  of  19.792,  which  was  2,018  more  than  the  num- 
ber received  by  the  next  highest  successful  candidate  and  15.691  above  the  lowest  vote  cast  for 
a  defeated  nominee  on  the  ticket. 


WOMEN    PRINTERS.  433 

material  assistance  to  the  organization  of  male  compositors  during 
the  book  and  job  strike  that  commenced  early  in  the  year  1869. 
Miss  Lewis,  as  president  of  the  women's  association,  advertised  on 
January  30th,  while  the  dispute  was  in  progress,  urging  all  female 
compositors  arriving  in  the  city  to  first  call  upon  her  before  seeking 
employment  at  the  case,  thus  enabling  her  to  acquaint  them  as  to 
the  true  state  of  the  printing  trade  at  that  period.  A  leading  concern 
of  book  printers  whose  journeymen  had  struck  had  advertised  that 
"  hereafter  we  shall  pay  full  journeymen's  wages  to  all  first-class 
female  compositors."  Miss  Lewis  was  visited  by  a  number  of 
women  printers,  a  majority  of  whom  had  worked  in  an  office  whose 
men  went  on  strike  in  1867.  These  women  expressed  misgivings. 
They  complained  that  they  had  worked  well  and 
faithfully  dtiring  an  emergency;  they  had  given  up  Women  Refuse 
situations  where  the  pay  was  less  remunerative  in  to  Take  Places 
the  hope  that  they  would  continue  to  receive  the  °*"  Striking  Men. 
larger  wages  that  typesetting  offered,  and  when  the 
exigency  that  called  forth  their  labor  was  over  the  strikers  were 
reinstated  and  the  women  were  turned  away.  They  were,  there- 
fore, loth  to  again  respond  to  appeals  for  their  services  imder  similar 
ciramistances. 

Leaders  of  the  Equal  Rights  party  had  determined  to  make  it 
possible  for  women  to  enter  the  trade  even  though  such  course  proved 
detrimental  to  the  men  who  were  on  strike  in  1869.' 
At  a  meeting  of  master  printers  on  January  29th    guffraeists 
a    communication    addressed    from    the    Revolution    Project  a 
office  on  the  previous  day  was  received  from  Miss    Printers' 
Susan    B.     Anthony.     "  The    Working    Women's    Training  School 
Association  appeals  to  you  to  contribute  liberally         Girls, 
to  it  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  us  to  establish  a 
training  school  for  girls  in  the  art  of  typesetting  at  once,"  wrote 
Miss  Anthony.     "  There  are  hundreds  of  yoimg  women  now  in  this 


'  Even  the  union  of  women  printers  in  New  York  did  not  receive  from  the  equal  rights  advocates 
the  support  that  it  had  reason  to  anticipate.  Miss  Susan  B.  Anthony  sought  admission  to  the 
convention  of  the  National  Labor  Congress  in  Philadelphia  in  August,  1869,  but  her  entrance 
as  a  delegate  was  opposed  by  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  which  on  August  17th,  that  year,  adopted 
this  protest:  "  The  president  of  this  union  and  Alexander  Troup  waited  upon  Miss  Anthony 
in  April  last  and  requested  her  to  pay  the  scale  of  prices  to  female  compositors,  which  she  agreed 
to  do  The  statement  made  by  her  in  the  Labor  Congress  that  the  Independent  and  other  offices 
in  Nes\  York  City  were  not  paying  as  high  prices  as  the  Revolution  is  erroneous,  as  there  are  females 
receiving  10  per  cent  higher  prices  than  are  paid  on  the  Revolution.  The  statement  made  by 
her  in  the  said  Labor  Congress  —  that  she  did  not  know  that  the  president  of  Women's  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  i  was  discharged  from  her  employ  in  the  Revolution  office  —  is  incorrect,  that 
lady  having  had  a  long  interview  with  her  on  the  subject.  Therefore,  we  consider  it  an  insult 
to  our  entire  organization  to  admit  her  as  a  delegate  to  the  National  Labor  Congress."  The 
Congress  voted  —  yeas  63,  nays  28  —  not  to  receive  Miss  Anthony's  credentials. 


434  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

city  —  more  than  50  have  made  personal  appHcation  to  me  — 
who  stand  ready  to  learn  the  trade;  women  who  are  stitching  with 
their  needles  at  starving  prices  because  that  is  the  only  work  they 
know  how  to  do.  Now,  gentlemen,  if  you  will  help  us  to  money 
we  will  at  once  start  a  school.  These  women  must  be  helped  to 
board,  in  part  at  least,  while  learning  the  trade.  Give  us  the  means 
and  we  will  soon  give  you  competent  women  compositors."  Miss 
Anthony  also  appeared  at  the  employers'  meeting  and  addressed 
them  briefly,  concerning  her  plan,  but  no  action  was  then  taken  on 
her  proposal.  On  February  8th,  however,  they  adopted  a  resolution 
that,  "  recognizing  the  importance  of  female  labor  in  our  composing 
rooms,  we  agree  to  employ  females  as  compositors."  As  the  dispute 
between  the  master  book  printers  and  their  journeymen  was 
eventually  adjusted  they  did  not  avail  themselves  of  the  opportunity 
to  profit  by  the  proposition  for  a  school  of  instruction. 

In  June,  1869,  President  Robert  McKechnie  addressed  the  con- 
vention of  the  National  Typographical  Union  in  Albany  on  the 
subject  of  female  printers.  "  The  question  of 
"BipSix"  woman  labor  in  our  business,"  said  he,  "is  one 
Pleads  for  a  which  will  be  brought  before  your  notice  at  this 
Charter  for  meeting,  and  I  hope  the  delegates  will  give  it  the 
Women's  serious   consideration  it  merits.     At   the  fifteenth 

Union  No.  i.  gggg^Qj^  ^f  ^j^g  National  Union,  held  in  Memphis, 
a  minority  report  of  the  committee  to  whom  the 
question  of  the  organization  of  female  labor  was  referred  was  adopted 
referring  the  matter  to  subordinate  unions.  In  accordance  with 
that  resolution  a  Women's  Typographical  Union  has  been  organized 
in  the  City  of  New  York  and  will  make  application  for  a  charter  to 
this  body.  As  the  law  now  stands,  at  present  charters  can  be  granted 
but  to  one  union  in  any  one  place.  I  would  respectfully  recommend 
that  the  law  be  amended  so  as  to  grant  a  charter  to  the  New  York 
Women's  Typographical  Union  and  all  others  duly  qualified  —  and 
this  not  as  a  matter  of  philanthropy,  but  as  one  of  self-interest.  In 
her  last  strike  New  York  union  found  the  great  benefit  of  the  women's 
union;  though  most  liberal  inducements  were  offered  to  women 
compositors  to  take  the  places  of  the  men  on  strike,  not  a  single 
member  of  the  women's  union  could  be  induced  to  do  so.  Offers 
have  been  made  to  the  president  of  their  organization  to  furnish 
women  compositors  to  other  cities  for  the  purpose  of  reducing  the 
wages  of  the  men,  and  in  every  instance  have  been  declined.  Even 
if  sound  policy  did  not  dictate  the  organization  of  woman  labor, 
the  action  of  the  Women's  Typographical  Union  of  New  York  has 
given  it  a  claim,  on  this  body  that  entitles  it  to  recognition." 


WOMEN    PRINTERS.  435 

A  petition  for  a  charter  for  Women's  Typographical  Union  No.  i 
was  presented  to  the  convention  on  June  gth.  It  was  signed  by 
Augusta  Lewis,  president;  Kate  Cuisack,  vice  president;  Christina 
Baker,  recording  secretary;  Susie  Johns,  corresponding  secretary; 
Eva  B.  Howard,  treasurer;  JuHa  Grice  and  Mary  A.  Bartlett,  fund 
trustees.  "  You  have  assembled  together  to  legislate  for  the  interests 
and  advantages  of  the  trade  and  the  welfare  of  those  who  labor  at 
it,"  read  the  prayer  of  the  petitioners.  "  With  such  a  noble  end 
and  aim  in  view,  we  beg  to  call  your  attention  to  the  large  number 
of  women  working  at  the  trade,  whose  neglected  interests,  uncared- 
for  welfare,  and  disorganized  labor  are  obstacles  to  your  perfect 
organization,  a  detriment  to  the  trade,  and  disastrous  to  the  best 
interests  of  printers.  Heretofore  women  compositors  have  been 
used  to  defeat  the  object  for  which  you  have  organized  —  have  been 
the  prey  of  those  philanthropic  persons  who  employ  women  because 
they  are  cheap  —  their  labor  has  been  used  during  strikes  to  defeat 
you.  When  that  object  has  been  accomplished  they  are  sent  adrift, 
disorganized  and  unprotected,  their  necessity  compelling  them  to 
work  for  a  price  at  which  they  cannot  earn  a  living,  and  which  tends 
to  undermine  your  wages.  In  view  of  these  facts,  and  the  injustice 
we  have  done  you,  as  well  as  ourselves,  and  believing  the  interests 
of  Labor  —  whether  that  labor  be  done  by  male  or  female  —  are 
identical,  and  should  receive  the  same  protection  and  the  same  pay, 
we,  the  women  compositors  of  New  York,  have,  by  the  assistance, 
exertions  and  praiseworthy  example  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6, 
taken  the  initiative  in  this,  and  formed  the  Women's  Typographical 
Union  No.  i,  of  New  York.  For  the  recognition  of  this  organization, 
we  present  this  our  petition  for  a  charter,  asking  your  endorsement 
as  individuals,  as  representatives  of  subordinate  unions,  and  as 
members  of  the  National  Typographical  Union.  In  the  name  of 
the  cause  you  advocate,  '  the  elevation  of  Labor,  and  the  protection 
of  the  laborer,'  we  beg  your  honorable  body  will  grant  it  to  us." 

Accompanying  the  petition  was  a  set  of  resolutions  that  had  been 
adopted  by  Typographical  Union  No.  6  at  a  stated  meeting  held 
on  June  ist  indorsing  the  petition  and  requesting 
its  delegates  to  "  use  their  best  endeavors,  consistent  International 
with   the   constitution   and   laws   of   the   National   Union  Consents 
Union,   to  secure  for   the  petitioners  a  favorable   Somen's 
answer  to  their  prayer."     Attention  was  given  to    Organizations, 
these  pleas,   and  on  June   nth  the  International 
Typographical  Union  of  North  America,  to  which  title  the  national 
organization  of  printers  was  changed  at  the  1869  convention,  em- 
bodied in  its  constitution  a  provision  that  accorded  recognition  to 


436  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

women  printers.'*  It  stipulated  that  the  International  "  may  also 
grant  charters  to  seven  or  more  female  printers  in  any  one 
town  or  city;  provided,  that  such  charters  shall  be  granted  by  and 
with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  subordinate  union  or  unions  in 
said  city  or  town;  and  that  female  organizations  shall  be  subject  to 
the  same  restrictions  in  regard  to  scale  of  prices  as  male  unions  estab- 
lished within  the  jurisdiction  of  other  organizations.  And  further 
provided  that  nothing  herein  contained  shall  be  so  construed  as  to 
prevent  women  joining  any  union  subordinate  to  the  International 
Typographical  Union  in  cities  and  towns  where  women's  unions  do 
not  exist  from  local  and  definite  causes;  and  provided  further  that 
the  subordinate  unions  shall  not  legislate  against  women  compositors 
where  they  conform  to  the  laws  and  requirements  of  the  International 
Typographical  Union."  Miss  Lewis  eloquently  expressed  her 
thanks  for  the  action  of  the  convention  in  regard  to  the  organization 
of  female  unions.  "It  is  said  '  from  the  fullness  of  the  heart  the 
mouth  speaketh,'  "  she  observed  in  her  address,  "  but  I  think  there 
are  times  when  the  heart  is  too  full  for  utterance.  My  gratitude 
for  your  just  decision,  in  granting  protection  and  a  charter  to  us, 
not  as  women,  but  as  workers,  and  extending  to  us  yoiir  aid  and  pro- 
tection, not  as  men,  but  as  an  organization  seeking  to  elevate  Labor, 
I  have  not  words  to  express.  By  your  action  in  recognizing  women's 
typographical  unions,  and  their  right  to  receive  a  fair  compensation 
for  their  work,  you  have  removed  temptation  from  the  path  of  those 
'  philanthropic  '  persons  who  advocate  the  employment  of  women 
merely  because  they  are  cheap.  I  think  the  voices  that  will  be  raised 
at  some  future  day  to  thank  and  bless  you  will  echo  what  I  find  it 
impossible  to  express,  and  that  omt  cause  will  be  strengthened  and 
our  labors  lightened  by  the  helping  hand  we  extend  each  other  in 
union.  I  can  assiu^e  you  that  my  companions  and  myself  will  ever 
hold  in  grateful  remembrance  the  many  acts  of  kindness  showered 
upon  us  by  the  members  of  this  convention." 

Women's  Typographical  Union  No.  i  was  chartered  on  July  19, 

1869.     Miss  Lewis,  who  was  a  delegate  at  the  1870 

Miss  Lewis  Chosen^Q^^g^^-Qj^  ^^  ^-^^   International  Union,  was  then 

Secretary  of  elected  its  corresponding  secretary.     She  conducted 

International.         the  affairs  of  that  office  with  energy  and  ability, 
communicating  with  subordinate   imions   through- 
out the  country  and  endeavoring  to  interest  them  in  the  effort  to 
persuade  women  to  affiliate  with  them,  and  through  her  persistent 

■•  Charters,  however,  continued  to  be  issued  in  the  name  of  the  National  Typographical  Union 
for  some  time  afterward,  and  the  one  granted  to  the  union  of  women  printers  bore  that  title. 


WOMEN    PRINTERS.  437 

labors  many  women  were  admitted  to  membership.  In  some  places 
she  tried  to  form  organizations  exclusively  of  female  compositors, 
but  her  work  in  that  direction  did  not  meet  with  success.  At  the 
convention  of  the  International  held  in  Baltimore  in  187 1  Miss 
Lewis  delivered  an  elaborate  and  interesting  report,  among  other 
things  dwelling  upon  the  difficulties  under  which  Union  No.  i 
had  labored  in  New  York,  as  follows: 

A  year  ago  last  January  Typographical  Union  No.  6  passed  a  resolution  admit- 
ting union  girls  in  offices  under  control  of  No.  6.  Since  that  time  we  have  never 
obtained  a  situation  that  we  could  not  have  obtained  had  we  never  heard  of  a 
union.  We  refuse  to  take  the  men's  situations  when  they  are  on  strike,  and  when 
there  is  no  strike  if  we  ask  for  work  in  union  offices  we  are  told  by  union  fore- 
men "  that  there  are  no  conveniences  for  us."  We  are  ostracized  in  many  offices 
because  we  are  members  of  the  union;  and,  although  the  principle  is  right,  dis- 
advantages are  so  many  that  we  cannot  much  longer  hold  together.  No  progress 
has  been  made  during  the  past  year.  Women  receive  40  cents  for  all  kinds  of 
work.  A  strike  among  them  would  prove  disastrous.  *  *  *  It  is  the  general 
opinion  of  female  compositors  that  they  are  more  justly  treated  by  what  is  termed 
"  rat  "  foremen,  printers  and  employers  than  they  are  by  union  men.  Although 
my  own  experience  is  diametrically  opposite  to  this  I  must  say  with  regret  that 
union  men  are  throwing  a  power  in  the  hands  of  their  opponents  which  those 
do  not  fail  to  recognize  and  use  to  their  own  advantage.  There  is  an  office 
employing  union  men  in  New  York  that  boasts  a  branch  office  known  as  the 
"  Woman's  Printing  Office."  I  believe  well-known  authoresses  patronize  this 
office,  intending  to  help  female  compositors;  yet  every  injustice  possible  is  suf- 
fered by  women  compositors  on  account  of  that  office.  In  three  weeks  fifteen 
learners  were  taken  in  that  office.  I  am  informed  that  over  100  girls  were  taught 
the  rudiments  of  typesetting  in  that  office  in  one  year.  No.  6  by  letter  was 
informed  of  the  injustice  we  were  suffering,  as  those  learners  got  all  the  fat,  all 
the  reprint,  and  the  experienced  workers  got  all  the  objectionable  matter.  We 
received  no  official  information  as  to  the  disposition  of  our  communication. 
Learning  to  which  committee  it  had  been  referred,  we  sent  word  to  them  asking 
their  co-operation.  No  notice  has  been  taken  of  it.  In  spite  of  all  this  I  would 
not  have  it  understood  that  No.  6  and  No.  i  of  New  York  are  in  a  state  of  war- 
fare; such  is  not  the  case.  No.  i  is  indebted  to  No.  6  for  great  assistance,  but 
so  long  as  we  are  refused  work  because  of  sex  we  are  at  the  mercy  of  our  employers, 
and  I  can  see  no  way  out  of  our  difficulties. 

Women's  Typographical  Union  No.  i  was  destined  to  encounter 
adversity.     Employers  had  refused  to  pay  its  members  the  same  rates 
that   were   accorded   to   men   for   identical   work. 
Differences  ultimately  arose  between  Union  No.  6    Women's  Union 
and  Union  No.  i  owing  to  the  inability  of  the  latter    Encounters 
to  establish  and  maintain  a  scale  of  prices  equal    Adversity. 
to  that  enforced  by  the  journeymen's  organization. 
President  Lewis  and  Secretary  Bartlett  waited  upon  No.  6  on  Sep- 
tember 5,  1 87 1,  and  urged  the  recognition  of  Union  No.  i  as  a  branch 


438  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

organization.     They  asked  that  when  the  association  of  men  passed 
a  proposed  resolution  against  non-union  men  that  non-union  women 
be  included  in  the  same.     A  committee  that  had  been  appointed 
to  confer  with  a  like  committee  from  the  women's  union  urged  No.  6 
on  November  7  th  to  pass  a  resolve  "  that  the  present  members  of 
No.  I  be  admitted  to  No.  6,  to  work  under  a  scale  not  less  than  that 
now  received  by  members  of  No.  i ;  that  the  said  scale  shall  not  be 
altered  or  amended  except  by  consent  of  No.  6;  that  in  case  the 
above  be  accepted  by  No.  i  they  are  to  surrender  their  charter  to 
No.  6;  and  that  non-union  women  be  placed  in  the  same  position 
as  non-union  men."     The  recommendation  was  postponed  without 
day,  and  the  matter  was  never  revived.     Some  delegates  to  the 
International  convention  in  1872  seriously  questioned  the  wisdom  of 
granting  charters  to  separate  subordinate  unions  of  women.      "  We 
are  convinced  that  the  experiment  of  establishing  separate  tmions 
for  females,"   reported  the  Committee  on  Female  Labor  at  that 
session,  "  has  resulted  unsatisfactorily  to  members  of  both  the  male 
and  female  unions  in  the  city  where  it  has  been  tried,  chiefly  because 
a  difference  has  existed  between  the  two  scales  of 
Women  Printers  prices  in  force  in  that  city."     A  resolution  that  the 
Unable  to  Obtain  g^j.^-^jg  q£  ^-j^q  constitution  providing  for  the  char- 
Same  Wages  .         r  ,         •         ,  -1        r  1      i      • 
as  Men.               tering  of  women  s  unions  be  striken  from  the  basic 

law  was  defeated,  but  the  convention  ordered  "  that 
all  subordinate  unions  are  recommended  to  admit  female  printers 
to  membership  upon  the  same  footing,  in  all  respects,  as  males." 
At  the  Montreal  convention  of  the  International  in  1873  it  was 
decided  not  to  charter  any  more  women's  unions.  Union  No.  6 
on  January  6,  1874,  referred  to  a  committee  a  proposition  "  to  con- 
sider the  expediency  of  nulhfying  "  the  charter  of  Union  No.  i, 
whose  members,  it  was  charged,  "  are  continually  taking  the  places 
of  the  members  of  this  union  for  a  lesser  rate  of  wages."  That 
committee  reported  on  March  3d,  suggesting  "  that  our  delegates 
to  the  next  International  Typographical  Union  convention  be 
instructed  to  demand  the  immediate  revocation  of  their  charter." 

The  recommendation  was  adopted.  Theodore  S. 
Union  No.  6  Conklin,  who  was  one  of  the  representatives  from 

Deman  s  New  York  at  that  general  conclave,  which  was  held 

Revocation  of  .      „      ^       .  °  .    .    ,       ^         .  ,    , . 

Women's  Charter.  ^^  ^t.  Louis,  on  June  3d  introduced  a  resolution 
to  annul  the  charter  of  Union  No.  i,  on  the  ground 
that  it  had  been  granted  in  1869  on  condition  that  the  local  should 
adopt  a  scale  of  prices  and  submit  the  same  for  the  approval  of 
Union  No.  6;  that  it  had  failed  to  comply  with  this  requirement, 


WOMEN    PRINTERS.  439 

"  and  is  working  without  any  fixed  scale  of  prices,  greatly  to  the 
detriment  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  being  frequently  the  cause 
of  throwing  union  men  out  of  work,  or  preventing  them  from  getting 
work."     A  majority  of  the  committee  to  which  the  foregoing  was 
referred  reported  that  the  evidence  which  was  intended  to  show 
that  Union  No.  i  had  not  complied  with  the  provisions  of  its  charter 
was  insufficient  and  that  the  International  did  not  possess  the  power 
to  interfere  with  the  controversy  between  the  two  organizations, 
the  members  of  which,  it  was  recommended,  should  be  advised  by 
the  convention  "  to  act  in  harmony  and  adjust  their  difficulties  in 
an   amicable   manner   between   themselves."     A   minority   report, 
submitted  by  Delegate  Michael  Kivlen,  of  New  York,  declared  that 
Union  No.  i  had  not  complied  with  the  conditions  under  which  it 
had  been  established  and  urged  that  the  charter  be  "  revoked  and 
annulled."     Mrs.   Mary  A.   Danielson,  representing  Union  No.    i, 
claimed  that  the  scale  of  prices  of  her  organization  had  been  sub- 
mitted to  Union  No.  6  and  approved.     After  a  lively  debate  this 
substitute  for  the  two  reports  was  adopted:     "  That,  in  consequence 
of  the  conflicting  statements  between  Typographical  Union  No.  6 
and  Women's  Typographical  Union  No.  i,  a  committee  of  three  be 
appointed  to  send  for  persons  and  papers,  to  investigate  the  matter 
and  report  at  the  next  annual  convention  of  the  International  Union, 
and  in  the  meantime  Women's  Union  No.  i  shall  forward  its  scale 
of  prices  to  Union  No.  6."     The  new  price  list  was  on  January  5, 
1875,  submitted  as  required  by  the  resolution,  but  was  evidently 
unsatisfactory,  as  Union  No.  6  perfunctorily  received  the  commu- 
nication and  ordered  that  it  be  filed.     Further  discussion  of  the 
matter  does  not  appear  in  the  latter's  records  after  that  date.     Busi- 
ness stagnation  caused  by  the  financial  panic  was  then  at  its  height, 
finally  resulting  in  the  suspension  of  the  wage  scale  of  the  journeymen's 
union,  and  that  doubtless  accounts  for  the  fact  that  the  agitation 
against  the  women's  organization  ceased  so  far  as  Union  No.  6  was 
concerned.     In  the  same  year,  however,  the  International,  which 
convened  in  Boston  in  June,  adopted  a  recommendation  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Female  Labor,  of  which  Mrs.  Danielson  was  chairman,  to 
repeal  the  resolution    passed  in  Montreal  in   1873   forbidding  the 
granting  of  charters  to  female  imions.     Thus  the 
matter  remained  until  1878,  when  the  International      Women's 
enacted  a  law  "  that  no  further  charter  be  granted      Union  No.  i 
to  women ;  that  such  women  as  are  now  members  of     Dissolves. 
subordinate  unions  be  not  interfered  with  in  any  of 
the  privileges  which  they  now  enjoy."     Then  it  was  that  Women's 
Union  No.  i  went  out  of  existence,  its  membership  having  been 


440  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

greatly  reduced,  the  last  available  record,  which  was  in  1874,  showing 
that  its  roster  then  contained  28  names,  as  against  40  at  the  time 
it  was  chartered  by  the  International.  Those  who  were  attached 
to  the  union  when  it  lapsed  did  not  immediately  apply  for  member- 
ship in  Union  No.  6,  but  they  began  to  affiliate  with  it  in  1883,  since 
which  year  the  journeymen  have  insisted  upon  and  have  secured 
equal  pay  for  women  members,  192  of  whom  were  on  the  rolls  on 
September  30,  191 1. 

Samuel  B.  Donnelly,^  president  of  the  International  Typographical 
Union,  gave  some  interesting  testimony  before  the  Federal  Industrial 
Commission  on  May  9,  1899,  concerning  women  printers  and  the 
benefit  they  derived  from  affiliation  with  the  union  of  compositors 
in   New   York.      "  The   New   York   Typographical   Union   admits 
women  and  they  get  the  same  scale  of  wages  as  men,"  testified  Mr. 
Donnelly.     "  New   York   employing   printers   con- 
Full  Pay  for  sider  that  1,000  ems  on  a  galley  brought  to  them 
Women  in  Men's  by  a  woman  is  worth  just  as  much  to  them  as  the 
Organization.        same  amount  by  a  man.     One  of  the  fairest,  and 
I   presume,  a   printer  of   the  best  standing  in  the 
United  States,  stated  in  a  conference  with  a  typographical  committee 
in  New  York  City  that  the  women  in  his   composing   room  were 
considered  by  the  establishment  as  men;  that  so  long  as  they  per- 
formed the  work  in  all  its  phases  they  would  be  employed;  that  he 
wanted  competent  printers  who  could  be  employed  in  any  part  of 
the  composing  room,  and  he  would  always  pay  them  the  same  wages 
that  he  paid  men;  that,  when  conditions  were  such  that  he  would  be 
compelled  to  reduce  the  wages  of  women  he  would  not  employ 
them  at  all." 


5  Samuel  B.  Donnelly  served  as  president  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  for  three  terms,  begin- 
ning with  August,  1895.  He  was  elected  president  of  the  International  Typographical  Union  in 
1898,  occupying  that  executive  position  for  two  years.  In  1903  he  was  chosen  secretary  of  the 
General  Arbitration  Board  of  the  New  York  Building  Trades,  remaining  in  that  position  until 
1908,  when  he  was  appointed  Federal  Public  Printer  in  Washington,  D.  C. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

CHAPEL  SYSTEM  ESTABLISHED. 

TYPOGRAPHICAL  Union  No.  6  at  the  beginning  of  its  career 
provided  in  its  laws  for  the  estabHshment  of  chapel  govern- 
ment. The  original  provision  on  the  subject  made  it  "  the 
duty  of  the  hands  in  every  office  to  appoint  from  their  number  a 
chairman,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  report  to  the  Business  Com- 
mittee, in  writing  quarterly,  or  oftener  if  necessary,  the  condition 
of  the  office  in  which  he  may  be  chairman,  the  nimiber  of  men 
and  boys  employed,  and  such  other  matters  as  may  be  deemed  of 
importance  to  the  union."  Amendments  enlarging  the  powers  of 
chapels  and  defining  the  duties  of  their  officials  have  been  made 
to  the  constitution  from  time  to  time.  At  present  the  principal 
provisions  pertaining  to  chapels  are  as  follows: 

In  every  office  where  three  or  more  members  of  this  union  are  employed  they 
shall  form  themselves  into  a  chapel  and  elect  a  chairman  and  a  secretary. 

The  chairman  shall  be  the  direct  representative  of  the  union  in  the  chapel, 
and  shall  see  that  all  union  laws  are  observed  by  members  of  the  chapel. 

The  secretary  shall  keep  a  record  of  proceedings  of  all  meetings  of  the  chapel, 
and  such  record  shall  at  all  times  be  open  to  inspection  by  members  of  the  chapel 
and  officers  of  the  union. 

Every  chapel  shall  regularly  elect  a  Finance  Committee,  whose  duty  it  shall  be 
to  audit  the  accounts  of  the  chairman  and  immediately  report  to  the  Executive 
Committee  any  delinquency  on  the  chairman's  part  in  promptly  turning  over 
to  the  proper  union  officers  all  dues  and  assessments  collected  by  him. 

Chapels  shall  hold  meetings  at  least  once  a  month,  at  which  all  members  shall 
attend. 

Each  chapel  may  adopt  rules  for  its  government,  such  rules  in  no  case  to 
conflict  with  the  constitution  and  by-laws  of  this  union  and  general  laws  of  the 
International  Typographical  Union,  but  any  member  who  may  feel  aggrieved 
by  any  rule  or  decision  of  any  chapel  may  appeal  to  the  president,  whose  decision 
shall  be  binding  until  reversed  (on  appeal)  by  the  Executive  Committee  of  the 
union. 

The  chairman: — 

Shall  immediately  ascertain  from  any  stranger  obtaining  employment  in  his 
office  whether  he  holds  a  union  card. 

Shall  collect  the  dues  of  the  members  of  the  union  employed  in  his  office  every 
month,  and  assessments  as  provided  by  the  union,  turning  the  same  over  to  the 
secretary-treasurer  of  the  union  within  48  hours  and  taking  proper  receipts 
therefor. 

I441] 


442  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Shall  sec  that  the  International  Typographical  Union  laws  governing  foremen 
in  hiring  and  discharging  members  of  this  union  are  enforced,  and  immediately 
report  to  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  union  all  violations  thereof;  he  shall 
also  report  in  writing  all  violations  of  the  constitution  and  by-laws  or  of  the  scale 
of  prices. 

Shall  report  monthly,  in  writing,  to  the  Discipline  Committee  the  condition 
of  his  office,  the  number  of  members  in  good  standing,  the  number  in  arrears, 
and  such  other  matters  as  he  may  deem  of  importance  to  the  union. 

Shall  report  at  once  all  matters  of  dispute  between  the  employer  and  the 
men  employed  in  his  office  to  the  secretary-treasurer,  to  be  referred  to  the 
president. 

Shall  decide  all  disagreements  and  disputes  between  the  members  of  the  union 
employed  in  his  office  as  regards  union  laws  and  the  scale  of  prices,  and  such 
decision  shall  in  all  cases  be  binding  until  reversed  (on  appeal)  by  the  chapel. 
Appeals  from  the  action  of  the  chapel  must  be  made  to  the  president.  When 
the  chairman  makes  a  decision  on  the  laws  of  the  union  or  scale  of  prices  his 
decision  shall  be  binding  until  reversed  by  the  chapel;  if  further  appeal  is  desired 
it  must  be  taken  first  to  the  president  of  the  union ;  if  further  appeal  is  desired 
it  must  be  taken  to  the  Executive  Committee,  and  finally  to  the  union;  but  each 
decision  is  binding  and  must  be  observed  until  reversed. 

Prior  to  the  advent  of  typesetting  machines,  when  piecework  was 
generally  in  vogue  on  newspapers  and  in  book  offices,  the  chapel 
regulated  the  taking  of  copy  by  compositors,  saw  that  the  fat  was 
equally  apportioned,  provided  for  a  suitable  division  of  type  among 
its  members,  and  adopted  other  rules  that  served  to  protect  employees 
of  composing  rooms  against  injustice.  Chairmen  enforced  office 
rules  in  regard  to  having  leads,  dashes,  sorts,  space  rules,  etc.,  placed 
in  their  proper  receptacles,  and  were  empowered  to  fine  violators. 
Then  as  now  there  were  rules  for  correction  of  proofs.  Those  of  a 
typical  newspaper  are  presented  below,  showing  the  provisions  that 
were  extant  in  1889,  a  few  years  previous  to  the  introduction  of 
mechanical  devices  used  in  composition,  and  under  the  present 
system  of  time  work : 

RULES  FOR  PASSABLE  PROOFS. 

Under  Piecework  System  Before  the  Advent  Under  Elxisting  Time- Work  System  on 

of  Machines.  Machines. 

The   changing   of    four    letters    or  The  slug  having  the  most  errors  on 

points;  an  out  or  a  doublet  forming  a  a  galley  shall  correct  the  entire  galley, 

word  of  two  or  more  letters;  the  trans-  unless  two  or  more  faces  of  type  are 

position  of  a  word;  an  error  that  re-  on  a  galley,  in  which  case  he  shall  pass 

quires  the  insertion  of  one  thin  space;  same  to  slug  having  most  errors  in 

an  error  that  requires  more  than  one  that     font.     If     machine     has     been 

and  one-half  ems  spacing   out,  or  an  changed  to  diflferent  font  other  than 

error  requiring  the  compositor  to  leave  on  proof,  the  proof  must  be  placed 

his  stand.  on  hook. 


CHAPEL   SYSTEM    ESTABLISHED. 


443 


Parts  of  words  to  be  taken  out  or 
inserted  shall  count  as  an  error  for 
each  letter,  four  errors  being  pass- 
able. 

Proofreaders'  marks  shall  govern  in 
passing  proofs.  The  chairman's  in- 
terpretation of  this  rule  shall  be  final. 

Proofs  passed  cannot  be  returned  on 
a  change  of  the  proofreader's  marks, 
and  no  new  error  marked  shall  make 
them  passable;  but  the  canceling  of 
the  error  which  would  compel  the 
compositor  to  take  up  the  galley  shall 
relieve  him. 

Marks  repeated  from  the  first  proof 
go  to  the  one  neglecting  them. 

In  the  event  of  a  proof  having  no 
passable  "  take,"  the  one  having  the 
most  errors  shall  take  it  up. 

Regtdations  relative  to  the  engagement  and  employment  of  sub- 
stitutes, usually  termed  "  subs  "  in  the  parlance  of  printers,  have 
always  occupied  a  conspicuous  place  in  chapel  government.  In  the 
newspaper  office  referred  to  above  the  rules  covering  this  subject 
at  two  different  periods  —  1889  and  191 1  —  follow: 

REGULATING  EMPLOYMENT  OF  SUBSTITUTES. 


An  out  or  doublet  which  necessi- 
tates over-running  more  than  two 
lines,  unless  within  four  lines  of  the 
end  of  a  paragraph,  shall  be  con- 
sidered six  lines. 

Commas  only  will  be  cut  off  by  the 
correctors  and  do  not  count  as  an 
error,  unless  at  the  end  of  line. 

One  full-face,  brevier,  elzevir,  Celtic 
or  agate  credit  line  shall  be  considered 
six  lines. 

Regular  machine  thin  spaces  may 
be  used  in  corrections.  Proofreaders 
must  ring '  all  changes  from  copy. 

Wrong  fonts  in  machine  must  be 
rung. 


In  1889,  Under  Hand-Composing  Method. 

No  person  shall  put  on  a  "  sub  "  in 
this  office  and  go  to  work  in  any  other 
office  and  afterwards  return  and  be 
entitled  to  his  former  frame. 

The  hour  for  discharging  "  subs  " 
shall  be  i  o'clock  p.  m. 

When  a  "  sub  "  is  put  upon  a  frame 
without  a  specified  time  he  shall  re- 
main in  charge  of  it  until  the  return 
of  the  principal  thereof,  and  unless  he 
receives  contrary  orders  by  i  p.  m. 
each  day  such  "  sub  "  may  take  the 
cases  for  the  night.  No  regular  shall 
be  allowed  to  change  his  "  sub  "  ex- 
cept for  neglecting  the  frame. 

When  a  regular  puts  on  a  "  sub," 
and  the  "  sub "  puts  on  another 
"sub"  without  having  first  worked 
a  day  on  the  frame,  the  last  "  sub  " 
shall  be  entitled  to  work  on  the  frame 
until  the  regular  returns. 


In  1911,  Under  Machine-Composing  Method. 

Any  regular  who  has  failed  to  re- 
spond to  his  name  when  the  last 
regular  lifts  copy  shall  be  declared 
late,  and  the  chairman  shall  draw  a 
ball  to  cover  the  situation. 

No  "sub"  shall  be  permitted  to 
seek  work  on  the  floor  of  the  com- 
posing room  earlier  than  20  minutes 
before  each  phalanx  is  scheduled  to 
work.  Should  he  ignore  this  rule  the 
chairman  shall  fine  him  $1.  This 
shall  not  apply  to  day  men. 

The  chairman  or  acting  chairman 
shall  handle  all  telephone  calls  for 
"subs."  When  a  telephone  message 
is  received  directing  that  a  "  sub  "  be 
put  on,  the  ball  shall  be  drawn  im- 
mediately, except  when  the  call  is 
received  prior  to  20  minutes  before 
time. 

A  regular  may  engage  a  "  sub  "  24 


'  A  ring  consists  of  an  encircled  correction  or  mark  on  the  margin  of  a  proof. 


444 


NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 


When  a  "  sub  "  is  put  on  a  "  slid  " 
frame  by  the  office  his  right  to  such 
frame  ceases  with  his  day's  work. 

A  slide  being  posted  by  the  office 
shall  stand  as  a  slide  even  if  recalled, 
and  the  frameholder  shall  not  work 
if  a  "  sub  "  be  obtainable. 

A  "  sab  "  shall  be  entitled  to  all 
matter  or  time  work  which  may  belong 
to  the  frame  for  the  current  day  pre- 
vious to  his  going  to  work,  whether 
set  by  the  frameholder  or  any  other 
"  sub." 

No  unemployed  "  sub  "  will  be  al- 
lowed to  remain  in  the  office  for  the 
purpose  of  seeking  engagements  be- 
tween the  hours  of  2:30  p.  m.  and  5:30 
P.  M.,  nor  after  composition  commences 
for  the  night,  with  the  exception  of 
Friday  and  Saturday  and  chapel 
meeting  days. 

The  chapel  does  not  recognize  any 
engagement  made  between  a  regular 
and  "  sub  "  more  than  24  hours  ahead. 


hours  ahead,  except  where  a  frame  is 
slid,  then  48  hours. 

When  a  "  sub  "  refuses  to  go  to 
work  for  a  regular  he  cannot  go  to 
work  for  any  other  man  or  for  the 
office. 

When  a  "  sub  "  draws  a  ball  for  a 
machine  or  frame,  he  holds  such  ma- 
chine or  frame  until  relieved  by  the 
regular. 

"  Subs"  cannot  be  changed  except 
in  the  absence  of  the  original  "  sub." 

No  unemployed  "  sub  "  will  be  al- 
lowed to  remain  in  the  office  for  the 
purpose  of  seeking  engagement  after 
the  last  phalanx  goes  to  work. 

No  "  sub  "  shall  put  on  a  "  sub  " 
in  the  office  and  go  to  work  in  any 
other  office  and  afterward  return  and 
be  entitled  to  his  former  frame  or 
machine. 

When  a  regular  puts  on  a  "  sub  " 
and  the  "  sub  "  puts  on  another  "  sub  " 
without  having  first  worked  a  day  on 
the  frame  or  machine,  the  last  "  sub  " 
shall  be  entitled  to  work  on  the  frame 
or  machine  until  the  regular  returns. 

The  time  for  relieving  a  "  sub " 
shall  be  20  minutes  before  the  first 
phalanx  goes  to  work,  unless  pre- 
viously released.  The  time  for  reliev- 
ing a  "  sub  "  on  Saturday  shall  be 
before  12  midnight  on  Friday.  This 
does  not  apply  to  the  day  or  mid- 
night force.  The  time  for  relieving 
a  "  sub  "  on  the  midnight  force  shall 
be  not  later  than  9:30  A.  m.  the  previous 
day. 

When  a  regular  on  the  day  force 
working  on  Sunday  puts  on  a  "  sub  " 
he  must  relieve  "sub"  on  Saturday; 
failing  in  which  the  "  sub  "  shall 
claim  Sunday's  work. 

When  a  regular  situation  holder 
fails  to  put  on  a  substitute,  it  shall  be 
the  duty  of  the  chairman  to  have  the 
substitutes  on  the  floor  of  the  office 
draw  a  ball  from  the  box  provided  for 
that  purpose  to  decide  who  shall 
receive  the  night's  work,  the  highest 
number  to  count. 


CHAPEL    SYSTEM    ESTABLISHED.  445 

Plenary  authority  has  never  been  delegated  by  the  union  to  chapels 
in  the  matter  of  ordering  strikes.  Perhaps  the  nearest  approach 
to  granting  such  powers  was  in  i8Si,  during  the  suspension  of  the 
scale  of  prices,  when  newspaper  chapels  were  permitted,  "  if  the 
majority  deemed  it  to  their  interest,"  to  demand  an  increase  of  wages. 
It  was  then  directed  "  that  where  chapels  leave  their  frames  to  enforce 
such  demands,  in  accordance  with  the  rules  of  the  union,  no  member 
of  this  union  shall  be  permitted  to  fill  the  places  of  those  who  go  out." 
In  the  original  by-laws  the  power  to  order  strikes  was  vested  in 
the  organization  itself  and  its  Business  Committee.  For  many  years 
the  constitution  has  required  that  a  declaration  to  strike  can  be 
made  only  at  a  specially  called  meeting  by  "  a  three-fourths  vote 
and  the  presence  of  200  members  who  have  been  in  good  standing 
for  the  six  months  immediately  preceding."  Seldom  has  a  chapel 
taken  upon  itself  the  questionable  prerogative  of  calling  out  its 
members.  It  was  done  in  the  office  of  the  Recorder,  a  morning 
newspaper,  in  1891.  William  J.  Brennan  was  then  president.  The 
foreman  had  been  discharged  by  the  management  for  business 
reasons,  and  early  one  evening  the  chapel  decided  to  walk  out  because 
of  a  refusal  to  reinstate  the  dismissed  composing-room  overseer. 
When  the  attention  of  the  executive  officer  of  the  union  was  called 
to  the  illegal  action  of  these  printers  he  immediately  organized  a 
new  force  of  union  workmen,  installed  them  in  the  typesetting 
department,  and  thus  caused  the  issuance  on  time  of  the  various 
editions  of  the  journal.  His  coiirse  was  promptly  and  emphatically 
sustained  by  Union  No.  6. 

One  may  gain  a  clear  idea  of  the  characteristics  and  internal 
workings  of  a  modem  chapel  by  perusing  this  statement,  made  by 
one  whose  knowledge  of  the  subject  stamps  him  as  an  authority: 

In  a  shop  employing  three  or  more  men  a  chapel  is  formed.  The  chapel 
elects  a  chairman  and  secretary,  and  the  chairman  of  the  chapel  transacts  the 
general  business  of  the  employees  as  between  the  employees  and  employer.  He 
is  considered  the  representative  of  the  employees  in  all  business  which  they  may 
have  to  transact  with  the  employer.  If  a  man  in  the  chapel  receives  what  we 
call  a  short  envelope  through  mistake  of  the  bookkeeper,  he  does  not  go  to  the 
bookkeeper  or  employer;  he  states  his  case  to  the  chairman  of  the  chapel,  who 
makes  complaint  for  him.  His  duties  are  defined  by  the  constitutions  of  the 
local  unions.  They  invariably  are  to  see  that  union  regulations  are  complied 
with;  that  no  discharges  are  made  for  what  is  known  as  upholding  union  prin- 
ciples; that  no  discharges  are  made  that  are  considered  wrongful  on  the  part 
of  the  men;  that  there  is  no  violation  of  the  scale  of  orices  of  the  union,  and  that 
there  is  no  overtime  work  that  is  not  paid  for,  and  that  the  sanitary  conditions 
of  the  office  are  fair.  He  is  generally  the  representative  of  the  union  in  the  shop. 
The  chairman  makes  his  report  of  the  condition  of  the  shop  to  the  union  meet- 


446  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

ings.  In  the  smaller  unions  he  makes  his  report  verbally  to  the  union  meet- 
ings. In  the  larger  unions,  such  as  New  York  and  Chicago,  he  goes  to  the  oflfice 
of  the  union  and  submits  his  report  in  writing.  That  monthly  report  shows  the 
number  of  men  employed  in  the  office,  number  of  men  in  the  composing  room, 
number  of  men  in  the  pressroom,  number  of  apprentices,  errand  boys,  etc.; 
as  to  whether  the  employees  are  all  members  of  the  union,  and  if  not,  how  many 
are  not  members  of  the  union;  as  to  whether  all  departments  are  organized, 
and  if  not,  as  to  what  can  be  done  by  his  union  that  will  result  in  the  organi- 
zation of  all  departments;  as  to  the  number  of  machines  in  use,  and  a  general 
statement  as  to  the  condition  of  the  office.  The  chapel  is  the  unit  of  organi- 
zation in  the  typographical  union.  The  individual  member  is  the  unit  in  the 
organization,  but  so  far  as  the  enforcement  of  organization  rules  are  concerned 
the  unit  in  division  of  the  organization  is  the  chapel.^ 


2  Extract  from  testimony  given  by  Samuel  B.  Donnelly,  president  of  the  International  Typo- 
graphical Union,  before  the  United  States  Industrial  Commission  in  Washington,  D.  C,  May  9, 
1899,  Volume  VII,  page  271. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

REPRESENTATIVE  FORM  OF  GOVERNMENT  IN  UNION 

AFFAIRS. 

THRICE  has  Typographical  Union  No.  6  put  into  practice  the 
system  of  legislating  by  delegates,  and  an  equal  number  of 
times  has  it  admitted  the  impracticability  of  transacting 
its  business  by  such  method.  The  sudden  rise  in  the  member- 
ship in  1869  to  the  then  unparalleled  figure  of  2,105,  ^  gain 
in  a  single  year  of  879,  induced  discussion  as  to  the  advisability 
of  adopting  a  plan  that  would  secure  a  suitable  representation 
from  each  chapel  to  perform  the  functions  of  the  members, 
who  had  been  accustomed  to  assemble  en  masse,  the  reason 
for  such  change  being  that  there  was  not  a  lodge  room  in 
the  city  large  enough  to  accommodate  those  who  desired  to  attend 
the  sessions  of  the  union.  By  1870  the  nimiber  of  m.embers  had  in- 
creased to  2,228,  and  on  March  ist  the  question  was  brought  up  for 
consideration,  but  it  did  not  meet  with  much  encouragement  at  that 
meeting,  for  the  resolution  which  was  then  presented,  "  that  a 
committee  be  appointed  to  report  to  the  union  a  plan  by  wliich  the 
business  of  the  union  can  be  conducted  by  delegates,"  was  laid  upon 
the  table.  The  matter  was  again  taken  up  on  November  ist,  a 
committee  of  nineteen,  seven  of  whom  were  from  newspaper  chapels, 
seven  from  book  offices,  and  five  from  job  rooms,  being  selected  to 
examine  and  report  upon  the  feasibility  of  the  plan.  The  outcome 
was  that  the  scheme  was  submitted  to  the  referendum,  and  on  May 
2,  187 1,  the  secretary  notified  the  union  that  the 
proposition  had  been  carried  by  a  majority  of  420.  Pronouncement 
A  committee  that  was  appointed  on  June  6th  to  for  Delegate 
draft  rules  for  the  conduct  of  affairs  by  the  Board  System iniSyi. 
of  Delegates  reported  on  October  17th,  recommend- 
ing that  every  union  office  employing  10  members  or  less  be  entitled 
to  one  delegate;  over  10  and  under  20,  two  delegates;  over  20  and 
under  30,  three;  over  30  and  under  40,  four;  over  40  and  under  50, 
five;  and  in  the  same  ratio  for  all  workers  in  excess  of  the  latter 
number.  It  was  also  provided  that  delegates  should  be  instructed 
by  their  chapels  as  to  the  course  they  ought  to  pursue  at  meetings; 

I447J 


448  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

that  they  shotdd  not  have  power  to  impose  assessments,  levies  or 
extra  taxation  on  the  members  without  first  taking  the  vote  of  each 
chapel  on  the  question;  that  their  functions  at  meetings  should  be 
similar  to  those  exercised  by  members  at  general  meetings.  They 
were  also  prohibited  from  altering  the  scale  of  prices  or  ordering  a 
general  strike  before  consulting  their  respective  chapels  and  obtain- 
ing the  "  yeas  "  and  "  nays  "  on  the  subject  at  issue.  Delegates 
were  to  serve  for  three  months  and  hold  monthly  meetings,  at  which 
2  5  were  to  constitute  a  quorum.  Two  general  meetings  of  the  union 
were  to  be  held  yearly  —  in  January  and  July.  But  most  of  those 
who  attended  that  session  were  evidently  not  in  sympathy  with  the 
designated  change,  and  they  disposed  of  the  matter  for  a  long  period 
by  ironically  carrying  a  motion  to  postpone  action  on  the  report 
until  "  January,  1890."  The  union,  however,  did  not  wait  until 
that  year  to  reanimate  the  question,  but  on  October  14,  1877,  it 
"  resolved  that  the  votes  of  the  members  of  the  union  be  taken  in 
their  chapels  on  the  principle  of  meeting  by  delegates."  By  popular 
vote  the  proposition  was  approved  —  416  favoring  it  and  92  being 
recorded  in  the  negative,  yet  the  project  met  with  opposition  at  the 
meeting  of  December  4th  and  was  again  side-tracked  by  the  defeat 
of  a  resolution  to  amend  the  constitution  so  that  it  might  conform 
to  the  delegate  system. 

Eight  more  years  elapsed  before  the  proposition  was  again  dis- 
cussed. It  came  to  the  fore  through  a  report  submitted  by  a  Com- 
mittee on  Itemized  Accounts  on  November  8,  1885.  "As  shown  by 
the  minutes  of  the  union  at  a  meeting  held  November  25,  1883,  at 
which  a  vote  was  taken  on  the  question  of  closing  the  assessment, 
210  members  voted,"  began  the  argument  of  the  committee  in  favor 
of  union  government  by  representatives.  "  On  February  3,  1884, 
the  vote  shows  an  attendance  of  about  200  at  a  meeting  voting  on 
an  assessment.  On  September  7,  1884,  there  were  present  254 
members  who  voted  on  the  same  question.  At  other  times  there 
have  been  on  occasions  of  excitement  as  high  as  800  or  1,000  mem- 
bers present.  The  committee  present  these  facts  as  showing  the 
inadequate  means  afforded  by  mass  meetings  for  obtaining  the  expres- 
sion of  the  sentiment  of  the  union  upon  questions  of  the  first  import- 
ance. It  is  at  times  urged  as  an  argument  against  the  efficiency 
of  the  union  and  as  groimds  for  a  doubt  of  the  wisdom  of  its  proposed 
steps,  that  it  is  not  controlled  by  the  wishes  of  a  majority  of  the 
members,  the  one-tenth  of  the  membership  generally  attending 
legislating  rather  for  themselves  than  for  the  whole  session.  Mem- 
bers who  remain  away  from  union  meetings  feel  that  they  are  not 


REPRESENTATIVE    FORM    OF    GOVERNMENT.  449 

represented,  and  that  it  is  their  right  that  they  should  be  represented 
by  men  of  their  own  choosing.  This  could  be  fully  and  satisfac- 
torily done  and  the  business  of  meetings  performed  with  system, 
and  with  legislators  in  possession  of  all  the  information  necessary 
to  intelligent  action  by  delegates.  It  can  hardly  be  expected  that 
3,500  workingmen,  living  in  an  area  bounded  by  Morrisania  and 
Staten  Island,  Paterson  and  East  New  York,  can  stand  ready  at  all 
times,  either  on  a  working  day  or  on  their  only  weekly  holiday,  to  attend 
union  meetings."  A  recommendation  of  the  com- 
mittee that  the  constitution  be  so  amended  as  to  pirst 
provide  for  a  Board  of  Delegates  was  decided  in  Board  of 
the  affirmative  by  the  referendum  —  the  vote  for  Delegates, 
the  proposition  standing  1,294  in  favor,  to  565 
against.  To  prepare  a  code  a  committee  of  fifteen  was  chosen  on 
January  3,  1886,  and  on  February  7th  it  suggested  alterations  in 
the  fundamental  law  to  provide  for  the  government  of  such  board. 
Representation  was  similar  to  that  stipulated  in  the  plan  proposed 
in  187 1.  Delegates  had  full  power  in  all  matters  respecting  the 
good  and  welfare  of  the  imion,  with  these  exceptions:  Altering  or 
amending  the  constitution,  by-laws  or  scale  of  prices,  levying  assess- 
ments, appropriating  a  larger  sum  than  $100,  other  than  for  the 
legitimate  expenses  of  the  organization,  and  removing  or  expelling 
its  officers.  Questions  involving  these  excepted  powers  had  to 
originate  in  the  board,  and  if  approved  by  one-third  of  those  present 
were  then  submitted  to  the  entire  membership  for  sanction  or  dis- 
approval. Apart  from  the  representatives,  meetings  were  open  to 
all  good-standing  members  of  the  imion  as  visitors  only.  A  presiding 
officer  was  elected  at  each  regular  monthly  session  and  delegates 
were  chosen  for  a  quarterly  term.  The  first  Board  of  Delegates 
convened  on  March  6,  1886,  96  chapels  being  represented  by  212 
members,  and  President  Everett  Glackin  was  chosen  chairman. 
The  new  mode  of  procediire  did  not  remain  popular  very  long, 
two-thirds  of  the  board  itself  declaring  it  a  failure  on  November  7th 
by  proposing  that  it  be  abolished.  Later  the  recommendation  was 
approved  by  the  chapels,  and  on  July  3,  1887,  the  board  went  out 
of  existence. 

This  initial  failure,  however,  was  not  disheartening  to  those  who 
believed  that  the  plan  could  be  made  a  success  if  it  were  accorded 
a  fair  trial.  Members  of  the  Times,  Press  and  Evening  Sun  chapels 
at  the  beginning  of  1892  petitioned  the  Executive  Committee  to 
"  recommend  to  the  union  that  the  question  of  meeting  by  the 
delegate  system  be  submitted  to  a  popular  vote  at  the  annual  election 
15 


450  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

in  March."     The  union  gave  countenance  to  this  on  February  14th, 
and  it  was  announced  on  April  3d  that  the  vote  on  the  proposition 
was:    For,  1,850;  against,  1,039.     An  article  was  incorporated  in  the 
constitution  to  govern  the  workings  of  the  board.     These  provisions 
were  about  the  same  as  those  that  regulated  its  predecessor,  but  to 
abrogate  the  institution  it  required  a  two-thirds  majority  on  a  general 
vote  of  the  members.     The  second  Board  of  Dele- 
Second  gates  was  organized  on  October  4,  1892,  but  in  1893 
Board  of  an  attempt  was  made  to  abolish  it,  on  September 
Delegates.       5^^^  j^  being  announced  that  the  referendum  had 
cast   1,301   votes  in  favor  of  doing  so  and   1,014 
against.     As  the  majority  was  less  than  the  necessary  two-thirds 
the  resolution  was  not  carried.     Two  subsequent  efforts  at  abolition 
were  also  defeated  —  in  December  the  vote  recorded  in  favor  being 
1,541,  to  832  against,  while  in  January,  1894,  it  was  1,578  ayes  and 
873  nays;  but  in  the  following  April  the  resolution  to  extinguish  the 
board  was  adopted  and  the  old  system  of  mass  meetings  was  substi- 
tuted. 

Even  the  futility  of  the  second  trial  of  the  plan  did  not  discourage 
its  advocates.  They  induced  the  Executive  Committe  to  recommend 
to  the  union  on  February  7,  1897,  that  it  "  return  to  the  delegate 
system  of  meetings,  and  that  a  committee  be  appointed  to  devise 
some  feasible  scheme  for  the  carrying  out  of  the  same,  eliminating 
if  possible  the  objectionable  features  said  to  have  existed  when  that 
system  was  before  in  operation."  The  proposal  was  tabled,  but  on 
September  5th  of  that  year  the  Press  chapel  caused  to  be  introduced 
at  a  regular  meeting  of  the  union  a  resolution  "  that  our  chairman 
be  and  he  is  hereby  instructed  to  give  notice  of  a  motion  to  amend 
the  constitution  so  as  to  provide  for  the  delegate  system."  Under 
the  rules  the  matter  was  laid  over  until  October  3d,  when  it  was 
decided  to  inaugurate  the  system  for  the  third  time.  Constitutional 
amendments  pertaining  to  the  subject  were  in 
Third  November  adopted  by  the  referendum  —  the  vote 

Board  of  being  1,650  for,  to  1,259  against  —  and  on  December 

Delegates.  ^^  1897,  the  board  convened.  Rules  for  its  guidance 
were  practically  the  same  as  those  that  governed 
the  two  previous  Boards  of  Delegates.  The  secretary-treasurer  was 
authorized  to  "  issue  credential  cards  to  the  regularly  elected  dele- 
gates from  each  chapel,  on  proper  certification  from  the  chairman 
thereof,  and  admission  to  the  floor  during  sessions  shall  be  had 
only  on  presentation  of  such  cards  to  the  sergeant-at-arms,  who  shall 
punch  them  for  each  meeting  and  keep  a  record  of  attendance." 


REPRESENTATIVE    FORM    OF    GOVERNMENT.  45 1 

Chapels  were  given  the  privilege  to  recall  their  delegates  at  any- 
time and  elect  others  to  take  their  places.  Dissatisfaction  with 
the  system  began  openly  on  August  21,  1898,  when  a  resolution  was 
introduced  to  amend  the  constitution  and  by-laws  **  by  striking  out 
everything  in  relation  to  the  Board  of  Delegates  and  re-enact  the 
constitution  and  by-laws  as  they  previously  existed."  This  was 
not  passed,  but  on  December  29,  1900,  when  the  question  of  abolition 
was  submitted  to  the  popular  judgment  the  membership  declared 
for  the  proposition —  1,603  voting  "  yes  "  and  1,277  "  ^lo."  Open 
meetings  commenced  on  January  7,  1901,  and  have  since  continued, 
albeit  on  July  i,  1906,  notice  was  given  of  a  motion  "  for  a  committee 
of  five  or  more  to  arrange  details  of  a  plan  for  the  union  to  do  busi- 
ness through  a  Board  of  Delegates."  It  was,  however,  laid  upon 
the  table  on  August  5th,  and  was  not  further  pursued.  Obviously 
enough  the  full  membership  cannot  assemble  under  one  roof  in  New 
York  and  consequently  business  of  large  importance  is  usually 
referred  to  the  chapels  for  final  disposition. 

An  experienced  member'  of  the  union  who  for  a  long  time  had 
been  a  representative  in  the  Board  of  Delegates,  therefore  familiar 
with  its  workings,  and  who  has  given  much  thought  to  the  theme, 
imparts  these  reasons  for  the  non-success  of  the  institution: 

The  delegate  system  was  given  three  fair  trials  in  No.  6,  but  proved  less  satis- 
factory every  time.  The  main  reason  in  my  opinion  was  that  a  good  man  might 
have  opposition  in  his  office  sufficient  to  prevent  his  election  as  delegate ;  another 
reason  was  that  one  set  of  men  did  not  want  to  do  all  the  work,  and  when  those 
most  familiar  with  the  affairs  dropped  out,  and  an  almost  new  set  of  delegates  were 
chosen,  the  business  of  the  meetings  seemed  to  lack  continuosity  —  or  something 
nearly  as  bad.  But  the  main,  and  to  my  mind  the  best,  reason  was  that  mem- 
bers at  meetings  who  might  not  be  delegates  had  no  say  —  any  such,  however 
well  informed  he  might  be,  and  willing  to  give  the  meeting  of  delegates  the  benefit 
of  his  experience,  was  liable  to  have  a  point  of  order  raised  against  his  speaking. 
This  happened  so  often  that  the  Board  of  Delegates  came  to  be  regarded  as  a 
House  of  Lords,  and  since  it  was  so  branded  it  has  not  been  resuscitated. 


'  Owen  J.  Kindelon. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 
HOUSE  OF  CALL  CREATED. 

ON  April  4,  1869,  at  the  session  of  the  Conference  Committee 
that  settled  the  book  and  job  strike  it  was  agreed  to  recom- 
mend the  creation  of  a  House  of  Call  for  the  accommodation 
of  unemployed  printers,  to  be  supplied  with  books,  magazines  and 
newspapers,  the  cost  to  be  borne  equally  by  Typographical  Union 
No.  6  and  the  Typothetas.  The  opinion  was  then  expressed  that 
if  properly  conducted  the  House  of  Call  would  be  a  great  accom- 
modation to  all  concerned,  as  it  would  give  the  idle  compositor  an 
opportunity  to  improve  his  mind  by  reading  while  waiting  for  an 
application  for  his  services,  instead  of  wandering  the  streets,  as  had 
been  his  wont,  and  employers  could  conveniently  obtain  a  force  of 
printers  on  short  notice.  It  was  proposed  that  an  ofiEicer  of  the  union 
should  have  charge  of  the  establishment,  he  to  keep  a  list  of  all 
unemployed  persons,  and  when  an  employer  was  in  want  of  extra 
help  he  coiild  be  furnished  at  once  with  the  number  of  workers 
required.  While  the  union  opened  a  permanent  business  head- 
quarters, with  the  secretary  in  control,  at  No.  22  Duane  street,  in 
1869,  its  first  move  to  establish  a  House  of  Call  did  not  take  place 
until  May  14,  1872,  it  being  then  determined  to  do  so  at  its  own 
expense,  when  a  committee  was  appointed  to  make  the  necessary 
arrangements  incidental  to  installing  such  employment  bureau,  and 
the  secretary  was  directed  to  "  take  measiires  to  provide  for  using 
the  present  rooms  of  the  union  for  that  purpose  until  the  committee 
complete  their  arrangements."  Upon  recommendation  of  the  com- 
mittee the  union  adopted  the  following  on  August  6th : 

1.  That  a  printers'  reading-room  be  established  in  one  of  the  rooms  at  the 
secretary's  office. 

2.  That  a  record  book  be  kept  by  the  secretary  of  the  union  for  the  purpose 
of  entering  the  names  of  compositors  unemployed,  according  to  application. 

3.  That  employers,  foremen,  and  others  be  requested  to  apply  for  compositors 
at  the  reading-room  only. 

4.  That  the  secretary  of  the  union  be  directed  to  apply  to  publishers  for  read- 
ing matter. 

5.  That  the  union  subscribe  for  one  copy  of  the  daily  Herald  and  Sun. 

6.  That  the  secretary  of  the  union  be  empowered  to  employ  help  to  clean, 
open  and  close  the  reading-room. 

[452] 


HOUSE  OF  CALL  CREATED.  453 

It  was  also  resolved  at  the  same  meeting  that  the  reading-room 
be  supplied  "  with  all  the  price-paying  morning  papers,"  and  that 
these  rules  of  order  be  posted  in  the  House  of  Call: 

The  room  will  be  opened  on  week  days  at  8  a.  m.  and  close  at  8  p.  M. 

Members  in  good  standing  only  shall  have  use  of  the  room. 

Unemployed  members  will  sign  the  blank  book  in  the  order  of  their  arrival 
in  the  room ;  and  when  answering  a  call  for  work  shall  erase  their  names  therefrom. 

As  members'  names  appear  on  the  book  they  shall  have  priority  of  employment. 

No  gambling  or  drinking  will  be  permitted,  and  any  person  under  the  influence 
of  liquor  shall  not  be  allowed  to  remain  in  the  room. 

Any  member  acting  disorderly  or  otherwise  violating  these  rules  shall  be  fined 
$1  for  each  offense. 

The  secretary  of  the  union  shall  exercise  a  vigilant  supervision  over  every- 
thing connected  with  the  room. 

The  union  abolished  the  House  of  Call  on  June  5,  1877,  but  it 
was  restored  on  January  3,  1878,  "  for  the  purpose  of  affording  shelter 
and  rest  to  the  unemployed."  Thenceforth  it  became  a  fixture, 
having  been  connected  with  the  secretary's  office  until  April,  1906, 
at  which  time  it  was  separated  from  the  regular  headquarters,  and 
is  at  present  at  No.  9  Jones  street,  tmder  the  direction  of  the  clerk 
of  the  Benefit  Board. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

APPRENTICESHIP  QUESTION. 

LIKE  other  subordinate  organizations  of  printers  Typographical 
Union  No.  6  has  been  governed  always  by  the  apprentice- 
ship laws  of  the  general  association  —  first  the  National 
Typographical  Union,  afterward  the  International  Typographical 
Union.  The  New  York  union  originally  legislated  upon  the  ques- 
tion when  it  enacted  its  first  scale  of  prices  in  1851, 
Regulation  of  making  a  rule  that  not  only  regiilated  the  number 
Apprenticeship  of  learners,  but  provided  for  their  instruction.  It 
at  the  Beginning.  j.gq^ij.g(j  ^^a^  "apprentices  shall  in  no  case  be 
allowed  to  exceed  the  proportion  of  one  to  four 
men.  They  shall  invariably  be  bound  to  the  employer  by  a  regular 
legal  indenture  for  a  term  of  not  less  than  five  years,  and  shall  be 
placed  under  the  care  of  a  competent  workman  for  instruction  in 
the  trade;  such  workman  to  receive  from  the  employer  such  com- 
pensation for  his  extra  trouble  as  they  might  mutually  agree  upon." 
In  pursuing  such  course  it  followed  the  injunction  contained  in  the 
address  issued  by  the  national  convention  of  journeymen  printers  in 
1850,  urging  "  the  enforcement  of  the  principle  of  limiting  the  ntim- 
ber  of  apprentices;  by  which  measure  a  too  rapid  increase  in  the 
number  of  workmen,  too  little  care  in  the  selection  of  boys  for  the 
business,  and  the  employment  of  herds  of  half  men  at  half  wages, 
to  the  detriment  of  good  workmen,  will  be  effectively  prevented." 
Competency  has  been  the  paramoimt  requisite  for  affiliation  with 
the  Metropolitan  organization  from  the  start.  An  early  constitu- 
tional provision  clearly  specified  the  terms  of  admission  to  member- 
ship, stipulating  that  "  any  printer  who  has  attained  the  age  of  21 
years  may  become  a  member  of  this  union  by  making  proper  applica- 
tion," which  had  to  be  done  in  writing,  the  application  to  be  accom- 
panied by  an  initiation  fee  of  $1.  "If  three  members  in  good  stand- 
ing," ran  the  section,  "  after  due  inquiry,  vouch  for  his  qualification, 
and  it  shall  satisfactorily  appear  that  he  is  qualified,  the  union  shall 
immediately  go  into  an  election  by  ball  ballot,  and  if  he  receive  three- 
fourths  of  all  the  ballots  cast  he  shall  be  declared  by  the  presiding 
officer  duly  elected."     The  National  Typographical  Union  first  took 

[454] 


APPRENTICESHIP    QUESTION.  455 

cognizance  of  the  apprenticeship  subject  in  1852,  when  it  passed  a 
resolve  "  that  the  employing  printers  of  the  United  States  be  urgently 
requested  to  have  their  apprentices  indentured  for  a  term  of  not  less 
than  five  years,"  and  "  that  subordinate  unions  be  recommended 
to  use  their  influence  as  far  as  possible  to  do  away  with  the  employ- 
ment of  apprentices  on  daily  papers."  There  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  any  general  movement  to  carry  out  either  of  the  resolves 
mentioned.  By  1869  the  term  of  service  at  the  trade  had  been 
reduced  to  four  years,  Union  No.  6  then  embodying 
in  its  constitution  a  section  that  "any  printer  Fixing  the 
(which  shall  be  deemed  to  include  any  one  who  is  Term  of 
directly  engaged  in  the  printing  of  books,  news-  Service. 
papers,  etc.,  whether  as  compositor,  pressman, 
feeder,  stereotyper,  or  proofreader,  who  has  attained  the  age  of  21 
years  and  has  worked  not  less  than  four  years  at  the  business,  may 
become  a  member."  In  that  year  a  provision  was  also  inserted  in 
the  basic  law  with  regard  to  the  admission  of  apprentices  on  pro- 
bation, as  follows :  "  Apprentices  in  the  last  year  of  their  apprentice- 
ship, who  are  not  less  than  20  years  old,  and  have  been  at  the  business 
not  less  than  four  years,  may  become  probationary  members  on  the 
payment  of  the  usual  initiation  fee,  but  not  be  liable  to  any  dues  or 
assessments,  or  be  entitled  to  vote,  until  the  expiration  of  their 
term  of  probation.  They  shall  also  be  entitled  to  the  protection 
of  chapels."  This  requirement  is  still  in  force,  but  at  present  the 
initiation  fee  required  to  be  paid  by  such  applicants  is  $2.50  apiece, 
while  originally  the  entrance  charge  for  each  was  $5,  the  same  as 
that  paid  by  journeymen. 

In  the  union's  1869  agreement  with  the  book  and  job  employing 
printers  there  was  not  any  provision  concerning  the  regulation  or 
limitation    of    apprenticeship.     A    State    law    was 
enacted  in  187 1  that  declared  it  to  be  unlawful  for      State  Law 
any  person  "  to  take  as  an  apprentice  any  minor     Relative  to 
person  to  learn  the  art  or  mystery  of  any  trade      Apprentices, 
or  craft  without  first  having  obtained  the  consent 
of  such  person's  legal  guardian  or  guardians;  nor  shall  any  minor 
person  be  taken  as  an  apprentice  aforesaid  unless  an  agreement  or 
indenture  be  drawn  up  in  writing  and  duly  executed  under  seal  by 
the  person  or  persons  employing  said  apprentice  and  also  by  the 
parents  or  parent,  if  any  be  living,  or  by  the  guardian  or  guardians 
of  said  apprentice,  and  likewise  by  said  minor  person  so  becoming 
an  apprentice."     Term  of  apprenticeship  was  fixed  at  not  less  than 
three  years,  nor  more  than  five  years.     Suitable  board,  lodging  and 


456  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

medical  attendance  for  bound  boys  were  required  to  be  provided 
by  employers.  The  act  prevented  an  indentured  apprentice  leaving 
his  employment  "  dtuing  the  term  for  which  he  shall  be  indentured," 
and  runaways  could  be  compelled  to  return  to  their  employer,  whose 
neglect  or  refusal  «o  "  teach  or  cause  to  be  taught  to  said  apprentice 
the  art  or  mystery  "  of  the  trade  to  which  he  had  been  indentured, 
or  who  failed  to  furnish  him  with  proper  board,  lodging  and  med- 
ical attendance,  was  punishable  by  a  fine  of  not  exceeding  $i,ooo  nor 
less  than  $ioo.  The  custom  of  apprentices  living  in  the  homes  of 
their  employers  had  become  obsolete,  and  that  especial  provision  of 
the  law  was  therefore  unenforceable.  There  were  also  other  features 
of  the  statute  that  soon  caused  it  to  be  relegated  to  the  dead-letter 
class  of  enactments.  It  has  been  officially  observed  that  "  the 
inherent  defects  of  the  law,  its  antiquated  phraseology  and  the 
natural  repugnance  of  Americans,  both  parents  and  minors,  to  any- 
thing which  savors  of  '  service  '  or  '  bondage  '  and 
Why  the  such  terms  as  'master,'   are  assigned  as  reasons 

Statute  Was  for  its  failure.  Of  course  its  observance  is  imprac- 
Unenforceable.  ticable  in  large  cities,  where  the  independence  of  the 
average  boy  borders  on  insolence,  where  but  little 
control  or  restraint  is  exercised  over  him  by  the  employer,  and  where 
there  are  many  emplojnnents  more  attractive  and  better  paying  than 
the  slow-going  apprenticeship.  The  boy  is  hired  with  the  distinct 
understanding  that  he  can  be  discharged  whenever  it  suits  the  pur- 
pose of  the  employer,  and  he  can  discharge  himself  when  his  place 
does  not  please  him.  This  custom  is  so  universal  that  an  imder- 
standing  or  agreement  of  any  kind  regarding  the  time  of  employ- 
ment is  rarely  referred  to  or  entered  into.  Indeed,  so  indifferent  has 
the  general  public  become  that  the  term  apprentice  has  lost  its 
original  meaning  to  most  employers."  ^  While  the  law  was  not  gen- 
erally enforced  it  nevertheless  directed  attention  to  the  apprenticeship 
question.  The  Workingmen's  Union  gave  the  topic  some  delibera- 
tion and  sent  a  communication  respecting  it  to  labor  organizations 
in  the  city,  among  them  the  Typographical  Union,  which  caused  it 
to  be  read  at  its  regular  meeting  of  October  3,  187 1.  The  central 
body  stated  that  it  believed  the  law  was  "  calculated  to  secure  and 
provide  a  better  class  of  skilled  mechanics  than  has  been  ftimished 
under  the  former  system,"  and  it  recommended  "  that  all  trade 
societies  make  and  keep  a  correct  register  of  the  apprentices  em- 
ployed at  their  trade  or  calling,"  further  urging  the  trade  associa- 


1  Fourth  report  of  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  for  1886,  page  99. 


APPRENTICESHIP   QUESTION.  457 

tions  "to  take  measures  for  the  purpose  of  supplying  and  furnishing 

copies  of  said  law  to  all  employers  doing  business  in  their  respective 

trades,  and  also  to  appoint  committees  or  adopt 

other  efficient  measures  to  secure  the  enforcement     Legislating 

of  the  law,  and  prosecute  violations  of  the  same."     for  Limitation 

The  printers  referred  the  subject  to  a  "  committee     of  Boy  Labor. 

of  three  with  instructions  to  report  a  plan  of  action." 

Serious  consideration  of  the  matter  was  deferred  until  July  2,  1872, 

when  the  union  adopted  this  scale  to  regulate  the  employment  of 

apprentices  in  book  and  job  offices: 

An  office  employing  less  than  5  men,  i  apprentice;  5  and  less  than  10  men, 
2  apprentices;  10  and  less  than  15  men,  3  apprentices;  15  and  less  than  20  men, 
4  apprentices;  20  men,  5  apprentices.  No  office  shall  be  entitled  to  more  than 
five  apprentices;  the  number  of  apprentices  to  be  based  on  the  number  of  men 
permanently  employed.  This  does  not  include  reader  boys,  errand  boys,  or 
others  not  employed  at  stone  or  case.  This  amendment  to  go  into  effect  on  Sep- 
tember I,  1872,  or  sooner  if  practicable. 

The  "  runaway  apprentice  "  or  "  half-way  jotimeyman  "  of  the 
early  nineteenth  century  was  termed  a  "  two-thirder  "  40  years  ago. 
Many  of  these  latter,  who  worked  for  one-third  and 
occasionally  one-half  of  regular  wages,  found  em-     Restrictive 
ployment  in  a  number  of  establishments,  and  were     Measures 
thus   brought   into   competition   with   journeymen     Cause  Strike. 
printers.     There  was  complete  lack  of  control  over 
apprentices,  and  the  union  was  of  the  opinion  that  by  restricting  the 
number  of  learners  a  better  opportunity  would  be  afforded  those  en- 
gaged under  a  regulated  apprenticeship  system  to  be  taught  the  art  in  a 
proper  maimer.     Some  large  employers  in  the  book  and  job  branches, 
however,  refused  to  consider  the  proposition  submitted  to  them  by 
the  union,  and  a  strike  of  about  200  workers  in  five  shops  to  enforce 
the  nile  was  the  restilt,  in  September,  1872.     It  was  the  first  and  last 
dispute  of  its  Idnd  in  the  annals  of  the  New  York  printers'  organi- 
zation.    A  protest  was  made  by  the  master  printers  involved  against 
the  action  of  the  union  in  ordering  the  strike,  claiming  that  it  con- 
travened  the   terms   of   the    1869   agreement.      The   Typothetas's 
commimication  on  the  subject  was  read  at  a  meeting  of  the  work- 
men's association  on  October  25th,  and  was  as  follows: 

That  in  April,  1869,  the  employers  and  journeymen  represented  by  your 
union,  at  the  close  of  a  strike  in  which  each  party  had  severely  suffered,  did  by 
a  joint  committee  enter  formally  into  the  following  agreement: 

This  scale  shall  not  be  altered  except  by  a  call  for  a  mutual  conference  between  a  joint  committee 
of  employers  and  journeymen,  and  no  alterations  shall  take  effect  except  upon  one  month's 
notice  of  either  party  to  the  other,  unless  by  mutual  consent.  In  case  of  a  dispute  as  to  the 
meaning  or  intention  of  any  part  of  this  scale,  it  shall  be  settled  by  reference  to  a  joint  committee 
of  employers  and  journeymen. 


4S8  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

Under  this  arrangement  neither  party  could  enforce  any  change  in  the  scale 
without  a  conference  with  the  other,  and  that  in  case  of  irreconcilable  difference 
a  month's  notice  should  precede  the  attempt  to  initiate  any  new  arrangement. 
That  when  in  June  last,  in  strict  conformity  with  this  agreement,  your  union 
appointed  a  Committee  of  Conference  and  asked  of  the  employers  that  eight 
hours  should  constitute  a  day's  work  for  time  hands  and  an  advance  of  20  per 
cent  for  piecework,  the  employers  appointed  their  part  of  the  Committee  of  Con- 
ference and  with  your  committee  discussed  the  matter  freely  and  fully,  and  at 
last  announced  that  the  employing  printers  could  not  accede  to  the  request  of 
the  union. 

That  said  Committee  of  Conference  was  appointed  and  acted  with  only  one 
definite  purpose  —  to  consider  eight  hours  and  20  per  cent.  That  the  conference 
adjourned  finally  with  no  notice  from  your  union  that  any  change  whatever  in 
the  scale  was  demanded;  and  that  your  members  have  gone  on  working  under 
said  unaltered  scale.  That  in  spite  of  this  agreement  your  union  has  attempted 
to  enforce  in  some  offices  a  by-law  undertaking  to  determine  the  number  of 
apprentices  in  each  office,  and  directing  its  members  to  strike  in  certain  offices 
if  the  provisions  of  this  by-law  were  not  complied  with;  notwithstanding  no  Com- 
mittee of  Conference  on  the  matter  proposed  to  be  incorporated  in  the  scale  had 
been  called  for,  much  less  any  month's  notice  given. 

That  the  attempted  enforcement  of  any  modification  of  the  scale  of  April 
27,  1869,  or  any  interference  in  any  way  with  its  arrangements,  whether  in  regard 
to  price,  time  or  anything  else  whatever,  without  a  Committee  of  Conference 
appointed  to  consider  the  very  matter  thus  sought  to  be  incorporated  in  the  scale, 
is  a  clear  violation  of  the  scale.  And  that  we  cannot  resist  the  conclusion  that 
the  new  movement  about  apprentices  is  an  attempt  by  some  members  of  the 
union  to  escape  from  the  obligations  of  an  agreement  which  has  become  irksome 
to  them,  and  to  obtain  undisputed  control  of  composition  in  this  city,  and  power 
to  enforce  arrangements  and  prices  by  one  party,  in  the  settling  of  which  the 
other  party  can  have  no  voice.  How,  otherwise,  are  we  to  account  for  the  fact 
that  your  men  who  struck  from  some  of  our  offices  have  been  allowed  by  you 
to  work  in  other  offices  where  the  proportion  of  apprentices  is  much  larger  than 
in  the  offices  from  which  they  struck;  and  that  in  other  like  offices  no  strike,  or 
attempt  to  strike,  has  taken  place? 

And  we  submit  that  justice  requires  that  you  recede  from  your  attempt  to 
enforce  your  by-laws  as  to  apprentices;  and  that  you  recognize  the  fact  that  no 
regular  notice,  as  called  for  in  the  agreement,  demanding  eight  hours  and  20 
per  cent  has  been  given. 

This  action  having  been  taken  by  you  the  employing  printers  of  this  city 
will  be  ready  in  the  future,  as  they  have  been  in  the  past,  to  take  up  any  modi- 
fication of  the  scale  which  your  union  may  regularly  bring  before  them  for  joint 
consultation  and  action,  and  to  appoint  their  Committee  of  Conference  to  meet 
yours. 

The  memorial  was  received  and  it  was  declared  to  be  the  sense  of 
the  union  that  the  apprenticeship  law  was  not  a  part  of  the  scale 
of  prices.  At  the  same  meeting  it  was  reported,  presumably  to 
show  that  the  employers  were  partial  to  unrestricted  boy  labor,  that 
in  one  of  the  offices  affected  seventeen  boys  were  then  employed  at 


APPRENTICESHIP    QUESTION.  459 

the  case.  A  committee  appointed  to  prepare  a  response  to  the 
employers'  statements  presented  on  November  4th  a  draft  of  its 
reply,  setting  up  a  denial  of  each  contention  of  the  other  side  to  the 
controversy.  The  answer,  which  was  returned  to  the  committee 
with  full  power  regarding  its  issuance,  was  couched  in  these  terms: 

Relative  to  agreement  as  to  altering  scale:  It  is  evident  that  when  you  claim 
that  the  question  concerning  boy  labor  is  a  part  of  the  scale  you  dispute  the  mean- 
ing or  intention  of  the  agreement.  Not  one  letter  of  the  scale  has  been  altered. 
We  contend  that  the  question  of  boy  labor  is  foreign  to  the  agreement,  and 
that  we  are  no  more  bound  to  give  you  notice  of  any  change  in  regard  to  appren- 
tices than  we  have  to  notify  you  of  a  change  in  our  time  or  place  of  meeting, 
as  the  agreement  between  yourselves  and  our  union  was  solely  in  regard  to  any 
change  in  the  scale. 

When  in  June  last  a  Committee  of  Conference  was  had,  according  to  the  pro- 
visions of  the  agreement,  and  a  question  of  the  reduction  of  the  hours  of  labor  and 
an  advance  in  the  price  of  composition  was  requested  by  the  union,  the  matter 
now  in  dispute  was  freely  discussed.  Although  we  felt  that  the  question  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  scale  under  discussion,  as  the  union  by  unanimous  vote 
decided,  still  we  did  not  wish  to  take  any  step  that  might  lead  to  a  disagreement 
without  first  getting  an  expression  of  opinion  from  you.  Instead  of  then  object- 
ing to  the  course  you  knew  we  were  about  to  pursue,  you  encouraged  us,  and  led 
us  to  believe  that  the  movement  would  meet  with  your  hearty  approval.  Every 
opportunity  was  seized  upon  to  express  approbation  of  the  law  and  its  intent. 
On  every  hand  we  had  assurances  that  it  was  a  reform  much  needed,  and  that,  to 
quote  the  words  of  one  of  the  signers  of  your  protest,  "  they  (the  employers) 
would  go  heart  and  head  with  us  in  any  movement  that  would  tend  to  make 
better  workmen  and  bring  about  an  equalization  in  the  cost  of  composition." 

The  imputation  is  thrown  out  that  the  strike  was  gotten  up  by  or  in  the  interest 
of  some  proprietor  or  class  of  proprietors.  The  law  was  made  to  apply  to  every 
book  and  job  office  in  the  city.  If  there  are  any  offices  where  its  provisions  are 
not  complied  with  we  desire  to  hear  them  named,  as  justice  to  the  fair  employer 
demands  that  the  rule  should  be  adhered  to  by  all. 

In  regard  to  the  question  whether  the  notice  called  for  by  the  agreement 
concerning  a  change  in  the  scale  has  been  given,  we  simply  refer  you  to  the  con- 
versation that  occurred  at  the  last  meeting  of  the  conference.  When  the  chair- 
man of  the  union  committee  asked  the  acting  chairman  of  the  conference  if  the 
union  had  fulfilled  every  obligation  entered  into  and  complied  with  every  require- 
ment that  justice  to  you  demanded,  the  reply  was:  "  You  have  complied  with 
the  provisions  of  the  agreement  and  now  are  at  liberty  to  act  in  the  premises  as 
you  deem  best."     To  this  decision  no  one  objected. 

Our  union  has  always  acted  in  a  fair  and  conciliatory  spirit  toward  the  employ- 
ing printers  of  this  city,  ever  striving  to  maintain  that  friendly  feeling  between 
employer  and  employee  which  is  essential  to  the  best  interests  of  both.  With 
this  object  in  view,  our  union  will  be  ready  in  the  future,  as  it  has  been  in  the  past, 
to  meet  a  committee  from  your  body  and  discuss  any  matter  in  dispute. 

Three  of  the  five  offices  remained  out  but  a  short  time  and  then 
accepted  the  union's  terms,  but  the  other  two  establishments  were 
on  December  12  th  declared  closed  "  and  no  union  man  shall  be 


460  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

allowed  to  work  therein."  For  sixteen  weeks  strike  benefits  to  the 
amount  of  $12,037.96  were  paid  by  the  union,  which  also  incurred 
an  expense  of  $1,316.52  in  conducting  the  affair,  making  the  total 
cost  $13,354.48.  At  the  end  of  that  year  102  offices  were  working 
under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  union. 

An  International  law  forbidding  local  unions  to  recognize  appren- 
tices, unless  indentured,  on  morning  newspapers,  became  effective 
in  1887.     Union    No.   6,  on  September   4th,  that 

Regulations  in    year,  amended  its  rules  to  conform  to  the  above. 

Later  Years.  In  those  busy  workshops,  where  piecework  then 
prevailed,  neither  the  journeymen  nor  the  pro- 
prietors cared  to  assume  the  responsibility  of  teaching  the  trade 
to  boys,  who  could  not  under  such  circumstances  receive  suitable 
instruction.  A  rule  applicable  only  to  evening  newspapers  was 
passed  on  November  25th,  every  boy  working  in  such  composing 
rooms  being  "  considered  an  apprentice,  and  that  one  apprentice 
shall  be  allowed  to  every  ten  men,  but  that  six  boys  shall  be  the  maxi- 
mum limit  in  any  office."  In  the  previous  month  the  proportion 
in  book  and  job  offices  was  fixed  at  "  one  apprentice  for  every  ten 
men,  and  one  for  every  additional  ten  men." 

A  special  committee  on  apprentices  reported  to  the  union  on 
November  i,  1891,  that  its  inquiry  having  revealed  the  fact  that 
240  boys  were  at  that  time  employed  in  the  various  union  offices, 
"  concluded  that  it  would  be  advisable  to  have  a  plan  adopted  which 
would  bring  those  boys  in  closer  contact  with  the  union,  and  tend  to 
bring  them  to  a  certain  extent  under  its  control."  As  a  step  in 
that  direction  and  to  make  the  laws  of  the  union  on  the  subject 
consistent  these  recommendations  of  the  committee  received  the 
approval  of  the  association: 

First  —  That  Section  7  of  the  morning  newspaper  scale  be  amended  to  read : 
"  Every  boy  working  on  a  morning  newspaper  who  corrects,  distributes,  or  sets 
type  shall  be  considered  an  apprentice,  and  one  apprentice  shall  be  allowed  to 
every  ten  men;  but  six  boys  shall  be  the  maximum  limit  in  any  one  office." 

Second  —  That  the  secretary  be  instructed  to  have  cards  printed,  to  be  known 
as  "  apprentice  cards,"  which  shall  be  issued  through  the  various  chairmen  to 
boys  entitled  thereto,  and  said  cards  shall  be  stamped  quarterly,  upon  the  pay- 
ment of  5  cents  by  the  holders. 

We  would  suggest  that  this  card  system  be  put  into  effect  on  January  i,  1892, 
and  that  the  secretary  enter  in  a  book  to  be  provided  for  the  purpose  the  names 
of  boys  to  whom  they  have  been  issued,  and  that  he  credit  each  applicant  with 
the  time  he  has  served  up  to  that  date. 

More  legislation  was  enacted  on  the  subject  after  the  general 
introduction  of  composing  machines  in  newspaper  offices  —  on  No- 


APPRENTICESHIP    QUESTION.  461 

vember  i  o,  1895,  the  scale  being  amended  so  as  to  provide  that  ' '  every 
person  working  on  a  morning  or  evening  newspaper  who  cuts  or  sorts 
copy  before  it  is  set,  corrects  or  distributes  type,  or 
who  in  any  manner  handles  dead  or  live  type  or  Apprentices 
linotype  matter,  either  on  or  off  galleys,  shall  be  Not  Allowed 
considered  an  apprentice,  and  one  apprentice  shall  °°  Daily  Papers, 
be  allowed  to  ten  men,  but  six  apprentices  shall  be 
the  maximum  in  any  one  office."  The  newspaper  scale  adopted 
on  June  i,  1897,  stipulated  "  that  boys  who  are  now  considered 
apprentices  shall  not  be  allowed  to  set  any  live  matter  until  the  last 
year  of  their  apprenticeship.  Apprentices  shall  not  be  allowed  to 
set  any  live  matter  on  machines  until  the  last  six  weeks  of  their 
apprenticeship,  which  is  in  accordance  with  and  subject  to  the  pro- 
visions of  Section  140,  General  Laws  of  the  International  Typo- 
graphical Union,  1894."  Considering  that  in  the  rush  work  which 
was  constantly  going  on  in  newspaper  offices  neither  journeymen 
nor  foremen  could  devote  the  necessary  time  to  instruct  beginners 
at  the  printing  trade.  Union  No.  6  on  the  same  date  resolved  that 
"  hereafter  no  apprentices  shall  be  received  or  recognized  by  the 
union  on  morning  or  afternoon  newspapers."  This  did  not  elicit 
any  protest  from  the  publishers  and  the  rule  remained  in  force  for 
ten  years.  A  wage  scale  was  provided  on  June  i,  1897,  for  appren- 
tices holding  probationary  cards  in  the  last  year  of  their  term,  it 
being  decided  that  they  "  shall  receive  not  less  than  two-thirds  of 
the  regular  time  scale  of  the  union."  Book  and  job  apprentices,  it 
was  also  then  decreed,  "  shall  be  under  the  protection  of  the  union, 
inasmuch  as  they  shall  be  guaranteed  an  opporttmity  to  become 
competent  printers." 

The  book  and  job  scale  that  became  operative  on  January  6,  1902, 
having  been  endorsed  by  the  Typothetae,  contained  important  alter- 
ations in  the  apprenticeship  rules.     The  proportion 
of    learners    was    increased  —  one    apprentice    was      Machine- 
allowed  to  eight  journeymen  and  one  to  each  addi-      Tenders' 
tional  eight  or  majority  fraction  thereof,  with  not      Apprentices, 
more  than  seyen  in  any  office.     Copyholders  and 
errand  boys,  who  were  not  included  in  the  apprentice  class,  were 
permitted  "to  sort  and  put  away  leads,  furniture,  cuts  and  plates; 
to  set  pi,  or  handle  and  prove  galleys;  but  not  to  set  or  distribute 
type,  make  up  pages,  break  up  forms,  nor  act  as  bankmen."     It  was 
not  permissible  for  apprentices  to  read  or  revise  proof,  this  being 
applied  to  all  excepting  probationary  members  of  the  union,  and  they 
were  given  leave  to  "  revise  proofs,  if  so  required,  but  shall  not  be 


462  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

allowed  to  do  first  reading."  Only  in  the  last  three  months  of  their 
term  could  apprentices  practice  on  machines.  Offices  were  entitled 
to  one  apprentice  to  each  machine-tender,  who  was  directed  to  "  in- 
struct the  apprentice  in  all  branches  pertaining  to  typesetting  ma- 
chines," the  term  of  apprenticeship  being  four  years,  and  the 
wage  scale  was  as  follows: 

Weekly  Rate  of  Wages. 

-,  First  Second  Third  Fourth 

Number  of  Machines. 

year.  year.  year.  year. 

I  to  5 $900         Jig  GO         J12  00  I13  SO 

6  to  IS 1000  1200  1350  IS  00 

IS  or  over 12  og  13  So  15  00  18  00 

The  general  newspaper  scale  that  was  revised  on  October  5,  1903, 
provided  that  "all  offices  of  four  machines  or  more  shall  be  entitled 
to  employ  one  apprentice  to  each  machine-tender  employed,"  and 
that  "  offices  of  three  machines  or  less  shall  be  entitled  to  employ 
an  apprentice,"  these  learners  to  be  under  the  direct  supervision  of 
the  machinists  in  charge.  Wages  of  apprentices  were  similar  to  the 
rates  that  prevailed  in  book  and  job  shops. 

After  discouraging  the  entrance  of  apprentices  to  the  newspaper 
branch  of  the  trade  for  a  decade,  for  reasons  already  stated,  and 
in  order  to  give  youths  and  men  who  were  engaged 
Newspaper  in  such  composing  rooms  at  other  occupation  than 

Apprenticeship    the  actual  mechanical  part  of  the  trade  an  oppor- 
Revived.  tunity   to   prepare   themselves   for   journey   work, 

Union  No.  6  in  its  scale  that  went  into  effect  on 
May  I,  1907,  adopted  the  following  provisions  regarding  the  employ- 
ment of  apprentices,  these  regulations,  which  still  prevail,  having 
received  the  sanction  of  the  National  Board  of  Arbitration: 

In  newspaper  offices  declared  as  such  by  the  union  apprentices  may  be  em- 
ployed in  the  ratio  of  one  to  every  20  men  or  a  majority  fraction  thereof, 
but  no  more  than  four  shall  be  permitted  in  any  office. 

In  the  first  year  an  apprentice  may  be  required  to  perform  general  work  in 
the  composing  room  at  the  discretion  of  the  foreman. 

In  the  second  year  an  apprentice  shall  be  employed  at  least  50  per  cent  of 
his  time  at  hand  composition  and  distribution. 

In  the  third  year  an  apprentice  shall  be  employed  at  least  75  per  cent  of  his 
time  at  hand  composition  and  distribution,  and  shall  receive  one-half  of  the 
regular  scale. 

In  the  fourth  year  an  apprentice  shall  be  employed  at  least  seven  hours  each 
day  on  hand  composition  and  distribution,  and  shall  receive  one-half  of  the  regular 
scale. 

In  the  fifth  year  an  apprentice  shall  be  employed  at  least  seven  hours  each 
day  at  hand  composition  and  distribution,  and  in  machine  offices  may  practice 
on  the  machine,  and  shall  receive  two-thirds  of  the  regular  scale. 


APPRENTICESHIP    QUESTION.  463 

Apprentices  shall  be  registered  on  the  books  of  the  union  and  shall  at  all  times 
be  under  the  supervision  of  the  chairman. 

All  registered  apprentices  shall  be  between  the  ages  of  16  and  21.  This  age 
limitation  shall  not  apply  to  any  person  employed  on  newspapers  who  shall 
register  his  desire  to  become  an  apprentice  within  60  days  after  the  adoption 
of  this  scale. 

Office  boys  (not  apprentices)  will  be  allowed  to  work  proof  presses,  carry 
proofs  and  copy,  and  type  on  galleys,  but  shall  not  be  allowed  to  handle  type, 
proofs,  copy  or  any  printing  material  in  any  other  manner  whatever. 

The  Committee  on  Regulation  of  Apprentices  reported  to  the  union 
on  December  i,  1907,  that  thirteen  newspapers  had  taken  advantage 
of  the  apprenticeship  sections  of  the  scale  of  prices,  and  from  these 
offices  32  apprentices  had  been  registered.  "  We  think  a  resolution 
should  be  passed  prohibiting  apprentices  from  working  overtime," 
suggested  the  committee  on  that  occasion,  "as  to  work  more  than 
eight  hours  is  detrimental  both  to  their  health  and  morals,  especially 
on  morning  newspapers."  That,  as  well  as  a  question  relative  to 
the  employment  of  young  men  who  had  completed  their  term  of 
service,  was  referred  to  Ervin  Wardman,  for  the  New  York  News- 
paper Publishers'  Association,  and  President  James  J.  Murphy,  for 
Typographical  Union  No.  6,  and  those  arbitrators  interpreted  the 
matter  on  December  20th,  declaring  "  that  apprentices  shall  be  pro- 
hibited from  working  overtime  or  more  than  six  days  in  any  one 
week,"  and  "  that  on  the  completion  of  the  term  of  service  of  an 
apprentice  and  his  admission  into  the  union  he  be  placed  at  the  bottom 
of  the  priority  list  in  the  office  in  which  he  is  working."  Former 
President  Murphy,  speaking  with  reference  to  the  reasons  that 
prompted  Union  No.  6  to  enact  the  1907  apprenticeship  law  on  news- 
papers, recently  infomied  the  writer  that  as  the  executive  officer 
of  the  association  he  was  authorized  in  the  latter  part  of  1906  to 
appoint  a  committee  to  revise  the  newspaper  scale  of  prices.  "  This 
committee,"  said  he,  "  consisted  of  all  the  chairmen  of  the  various 
newspaper  offices.  As  the  scale  had  remained  stationary  for  a 
number  of  years,  the  committee's  deliberations  covered  a  period 
of  some  months,  with  the  specific  object  in  view  of  determining 
questions  aside  from  the  matter  of  hours  and  wages  —  questions 
beneficial  or  prejudicial  to  the  membership.  One  of  these  related 
to  apprentices.  It  was  contended  by  the  conferees  that  with  the 
abolishment  of  apprentices,  numbers  of  '  boys  '  had  accumulated  in 
the  various  offices,  doing  everything  but  the  work  of  a  printer,  until 
their  number  had  so  increased  as  to  become  an  injustice  to  the  '  boys,' 
the  employers  and  the  union.  It  was  shown  that  many  of  these 
*  boys  '  were  married  men ;  some  over  3  5  years  of  age ;  quite  a  few 


464  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

with  a  superficial  knowledge  of  printing;  quite  a  number,  more  pro- 
gressive than  the  others,  practically  *  stealing  '  their  knowledge  of 
the  business,  others  with  a  slight  knowledge,  and  seeing  no  oppor- 
tunity for  advancement  in  place  of  employment,  determined  to  go 
from  job  office  to  job  office  until  they  attained  sufficient  knowledge, 
in  their  opinion,  to  justify  them  in  applying  for  full  membership 
in  No.  6.  There  can  be  no  question  of  the  great  injustice  done  the 
deserving  *  boys  '  in  prohibiting  them  from  gaining  the  knowledge 
essential  to  competency.  All  these  conditions  were  considered  by 
the  committee  and  culminated  in  its  report  to  the  Committee  of  the 
Whole  of  the  union  recommending  the  present  apprentice  law.  This 
recommendation  met  with  the  practically  unanimous  indorsement 
of  the  membership.  In  the  subsequent  arbitration  proceedings 
with  the  publishers'  association  it  was  mutually  agreed  that  the 
enforcement  of  this  provision  should  be  optional  with  the  individual 
publishers." 

For  several  months  prior  to  January  27,  19 10,  the  officers  of  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  6  and  of  the  Printers'  League  of  America  dis- 
cussed  the   subject   of   improving    the   conditions 
Broadening         under  which  apprentices  in  the  book  and  job  trade 
Apprenticeship    were  then  working,  with  the  object  of  formulating 
Regulations.        regulations  that  would  permit  such  apprentices  to 
become  proficient.     A  written  agreement  covering 
the  matter  was  signed  on  the  above  date  by  the  two  parties,  and 
the  salutary  measures  that  were  embodied  in  that  compact  became 
a  part  of  the  revised  scale  of  prices  that  began  to  operate  on  October 
10,  1910.     Under  these  provisions  each  office  is  allowed  at  least  one 
apprentice,  and  the  maximum  number  in  any  establishment  has  been 
increased  from  seven  to  ten.     Five  years  is  the  term  of  apprentice- 
ship.    During  the  first  year  an  apprentice  is  "  required  to  perform 
general  work  in  the  composing  room  at  the  discretion  of  the  fore- 
man at  any  work  which  he  may  be  deemed  capable  of  doing.     The 
foreman  is  required  to  test  the  ability  of  all  apprentices  under  his 
charge  during  the  first  year  of  their  service,  to  determine  the  fitness 
of  such  apprentices  for  the  trade.     Any  dispute  arising  through  this 
measvire  with  any  office  not  in  the  Printers'  League  may  be  laid 
before  the  Joint  Conference  Committee  of  the  Printers'  League  and 
Typographical  Union  No.  6,  at  which  all  parties  concerned  shall  be 
present."  2     In  his  second  year  a  boy  must  be  employed  at  least  one- 

2  In  the  union's  agreement  with  the  Printers'  League  it  was  provided  that  a  dispute  on  this  question 
arising  with  one  of  the  latter's  members  shall  be  likewise  adjudicated  by  the  Joint  Conference 
Committee  of  the  two  associations. 


APPRENTICESHIP    QUESTION.  465 

half  of  his  time  at  hand  composition  and  distribution  and  be  given 
an  opportunity  to  set  reprint  advertisements  and  job  work.  At 
least  three-fourths  of  his  working  time  in  the  third  year  has  to  be 
devoted  to  hand  composition  and  distribution,  with  the  privilege  of 
composing  advertisements  and  job  work  from  manuscript,  also  being 
required  to  assist  on  make-up  and  imposition.  For  not  less  than 
three  months  nor  more  than  six  months  of  that  year  he  acts  as  copy- 
holder and  assistant  to  the  proofreader,  but  cannot  do  first  reading. 
Not  less  than  seven  hours  each  day  in  the  fourth  year  he  engages  at 
typesetting  by  hand,  distribution,  make-up  and  stone  work.  In 
his  fifth  year  the  apprentice  is  employed  full  time  at  floor  work,  and 
during  the  last  three  months  may  be  allowed  to  set  live  matter  on 
a  machine,  receiving  two-thirds  of  a  journeyman's  wages.  Other  pro- 
visions in  the  apprenticeship  law  governing  book  and  job  offices  are: 

Apprentices  shall  be  registered  on  the  books  of  the  union  and  shall  at  all  times 
be  under  the  direction  of  the  foreman  and  supervision  of  the  chairman  in  regard 
to  carrying  out  these  rules. 

Registered  apprentices  shall  be  required  by  the  union  to  attend  classes  for 
practice  and  instruction  in  the  work  they  are  engaged  in,  if  such  classes  be  estab- 
lished and  endorsed  by  the  union. 

No  apprentice  shall  leave  one  office  and  enter  the  service  of  another  employer 
without  the  written  consent  of  his  first  employer,  indorsed  by  the  president  of 
Typographical  Union  No.  6. 

A  form  of  indenture  shall  be  prepared,  to  be  approved  by  the  employer  and 
Typographical  Union  No.  6,  for  the  signature  of  each  apprentice  registered  in 
shops. 

Any  apprentice  who  wilfully  neglects  the  duties  which  he  is  required  to  attend 
to  under  these  rules  may  be  brought  up  and  disciplined  by  the  Discipline  Com- 
mittee of  the  union. 

The  wage  scale  for  machine-tenders'  apprentices  that  prevailed  in 
book  and  job  offices  for  some  years  was  abrogated  in  19 lo,  and  in 
its  stead  a  provision  was  made  establishing  a  rate  of  payment  for 
the  last  year  only,  the  amount  being  placed  at  $16.50  weekly,  while 
the  term  of  such  apprenticeship  was  increased  to  five  years. 

Interest  in  supplemental  trade  education  was  strongly  manifested 
at  the  annual  convention  of  the  International  Typographical  Union 
in  1907,  when  the  Executive  Council  was  instructed 
to  appoint  a  commission  of  three,  "  whose  duty  it     international 
shall  be  to  formulate  some  system  for  the  technical     Course  in 
education  of  our  members  and  apprentices."     The     Printing, 
commission  was  chosen  in  due  time  and  adopted  a 
correspondence  course  of  instruction  in  printing  that  is  meeting  with 
merited  success.     It  advertises  that  the  course  "  is  designed  to  over- 


466  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

come  some  of  the  evil  effects  of  specialization  in  the  printing  trade 
by  teaching  compositors  the  principles  of  display  and  decorative 
typography.  Though  the  instruction  is  imparted  by  correspond- 
ence, practical  work  is  reqmred,  as  the  student  learns  by  doing. 
After  students  have  acquired  the  scientific  conceptions  embraced  in 
these  lessons  they  are  given  work  in  all  kinds  of  display  composition." 
President  James  M.  Lynch  at  the  yearly  session  of  the  International 
Union  in  August,  191 1,  announced  that  nearly  2,500  journeymen  and 
apprentices  had  enrolled  in  the  course,  and  that  hundreds  of  printers 
of  all  degrees  of  proficiency  were  at  that  time  taking  the  lessons. 
Said  he:  "  The  system  of  education  we  have  —  and  the  only  system 
worthy  of  Labor's  support  —  broadens  the  mind,  tends  to  develop 
the  initiative  and  otherwise  mitigates  the  evils  of  specialization.  We 
should  let  the  world  know  that  the  International  Typographical 
Union  is  not  opposed  to  efficiency  —  in  fact,  it  is  the  advocate, 
promoter  and  supporter  of  real  efficiency.  We  are  opposed  to  so- 
called  efficiency  schemes  that  have  no  regard  for  the  worker  as  a 
man  or  social  entity.  As  for  our  trade,  the  apprentice  and  the 
victim  of  specialization  are  in  a  jungle,  and  the  union  is  systematically 
and  effectively  assisting  them  out  of  it.  And  we  invite  every  em- 
ployer to  lend  a  hand  in  any  or  all  of  the  many  ways  open  to  him." 

At  first  the  International  technical  course  in  printing  did  not 

receive  the  encouragement  of  New  York  journeymen  and  employers 

to  which  it  was  entitled,  but  a  more  hearty  support 

Diflaculties  j^g^g  been  given  to  the  plan  within  the  past  year. 

T    h  ^^  T^^^     ^^  August,  1908,  Union  No.  6  appointed  an  auxiliary 

Training.  committee  to  aid  in  the  work  of  securing  apprentice 

and  journeymen  students  for  the  International 
course.  That  committee  reported  in  June,  1909,  that  there  had  been 
little  response  from  employers  and  chapels.  "  Your  committee 
regards  its  experience  in  this  matter,"  read  the  report,  "  as  one  of 
disappointment  and  one  showing  a  distinct  lack  of  interest  on  the 
part  of  employers  w^hich  does  not  comport  favorably  with  the  pre- 
tended anxiety  regarding  the  training  of  those  who  are  to  carry  on 
the  work  of  printing  in  the  future.  As  for  the  attitude  of  the  chair- 
men of  chapels  and  the  membership  of  our  union,  it  may  be  character- 
ized as  one  of  apathy  that  is  somewhat  difficult  to  understand  if 
one  grants  that  our  membership  is  cognizant  of  the  fact  that  the 
International  Typographical  Union  course  in  printing  offsets  in 
large  degree  the  havoc  now  in  progress  in  our  craft  by  some  very 
unfavorable  influences  which  may  be  briefly  pointed  out."  The 
committee  then  explained  the  reasons  for  its  contention  as  follows: 


APPRENTICESHIP    QUESTION.  467 

First  —  The  typesetting  machines  are  operated  by  adults.  This  condition 
takes  away  from  the  apprentice  the  opportunity  of  gaining  certain  necessary 
knowledge  that  need  not  be  detailed  here. 

Second  —  The  serious  inroads  made  by  the  many  non-printer  artist  designers. 
This  condition  is  forcing  the  job  compositors  to  be  mere  layout  followers  instead 
of  creators  of  style  in  display  work. 

Third  —  The  "daily  time  ticket,"  which  records  the  compositor's  time  on 
work  for  every  minute  in  the  day.  This  condition  makes  it  utterly  impossible 
for  a  compositor  to  pause  in  his  work  —  no  matter  how  willing  he  might  be  — 
to  instruct  the  apprentice. 

Fourth  —  In  every  printing  establishment  there  are  on  file  many  applications 
for  f oremanship.  This  condition  keeps  the  man  who  happens  to  be  the  incumbent 
"on  the  jump."  He  is  busy  "  making  good  "  to  hold  his  job.  Therefore,  he 
has  little  or  no  time  to  instruct  apprentices. 

Fifth  —  The  specialization  of  work,  which  has  been  going  on  for  some  years, 
has  caused  many  of  our  members  to  forget  much  of  their  "  picked-up  "  craft 
skill,  so  that  when  the  average  printer  is  out  of  employment  he  is  forced  to  wait 
for  an  opening  in  his  specialty  instead  of  being  able  to  take  hold  of  anything 
"  on  the  hook."  ^ 

"It  is  with  this  bad  state  of  things,"  proceeded  the  committee, 

"  that  the  International  Typographical  Union  is  now  dealing.     It 

offers  a  means  of  acquiring  craft  knowledge  in  a 

scientific  way  —  a  way  that  eliminates  all  guessing    Acquirement  of 

and  makes  of  a  workman  one  who  can  be  made  use    .  ^^  ^  .°°T.^  ^® 

in  a  Scientific 
of  in  all-around  work  according  as  occasion  may    -yy^y^ 

arise;  for  the  workman,  having  mastered  the  method, 
proceeds  according  to  rule.  Furthermore,  and  no  doubt  most  import- 
ant of  all,  is  the  fact  that  a  scientifically  educated  body  of  craftsmen 
are  more  likely  to  feel  an  esprit  de  corps  that  m.akes  for  that  solidarity 
so  necessary  for  the  maintenance  of  proper  working  conditions  and 
proper  compensation  for  work  performed.  A  laissez-faire  attitude 
invites  serious  trouble,  if  not  disaster." 


•Meaning  the  file  on  which  all  copy  is  placed  for  compositors. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 
FUNDS  OF  THE  UNION. 

FOR  general  disbursements,  including  the  regular  capitation  tax 
required  by  the  International  Union,  the  revenues  of  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  6  have  been  always  derived  from  initia- 
tion fees  and  dues,  while  for  many  years  it  has  been  the  rule  to  levy 
assessments  on  earnings  for  special  purposes  —  such  as  out-of-work 
relief,  pensions,  defense,  etc.     Since  the  adoption  of 
Sources  from        the  old-age  pension  system  in  1907  the  income  tax 
Which  Revenues  has  been  the  source  whence    appropriations  have 
are  Derived.         come  for  the  payment  of  International  and  local 
superannuation  benefits.     Prior  to  the  creation  of 
that  beneficial  feature  the  union  for  nearly  twelve  years  kept  its  per- 
manent unemployment  fund  supplied  by  a  weekly  assessment  of  i 
per  cent  upon  the  wages  earned  by  its  members.     One-half  of  i  per 
cent  on  incomes  is  now  imposed  for  International  pensions  and  a 
similar  rate  is  levied  periodically  to  raise  the  required  cash  for  local 
old-age  benefits.     Money  for  hospital  beds  is  drawn  largely  from  the 
proceeds  of  an  annual  entertainment  given  under  the  auspices  of  the 
union.     Early  in  the  history  of  the  association  the  initiation  fee  was 
$1  and  yearly  membership  dues  were  $6.50,  payable  quarterly,  but  by 
1859  dues  had  been  reduced  to  $3  per  annum.     Gradually,  however, 
the  amounts  have  been  augmented,  until  at  present  applicants  for 
admission  pay  $5,  and  yearly  dues  are  $9.60,  collected  in  monthly 
instalments  of  80  cents,^  while  for  apprentices  in  the  last  year  of 
service  the  entrance  fee  is  one-half  the  sum  required  of  journejmien. 
To  be  reinstated  applicants  who  have  been  dropped  from  the  roll 
for  non-pa3mient  of  dues  or  assessments  must  pay  their  full  indebted- 
ness.    Working  cards  have  been  issued  to  good- 
Working  Cards     standing  members  ever  since  the  inception  of  the 
and  International       .  -r\   .•        r  r  t   ^         ^-        1 

^       J.  union.     Datmg  from  January  i,  1901,  International 

Certificates.  -^^^  ^^^  required  the  placing  of  an  adhesive  stamp 

upon  each  of  these  cards  when  dues  are  paid.     The 

stamps  are  furnished  by  the  general  union  at  the  face  value  of  the 

per  capita  tax  that  every  member  is  obliged  to  pay.    When  this 


'Monthly  dues  were  advanced  to  85  cents  on  October  i,  191 1. 

[468] 


FUNDS    OF    THE    UNION.  469 

method  was  inaugurated  the  capitation  tax  was  30  cents,  while  at 
present  it  is  45  cents.  At  the  introduction  of  the  traveHng  card 
system,  a  rule,  which  is  still  in  operation,  was  established  that  mem- 
bers in  good  standing  desirous  of  leaving  the  jurisdiction  of  the  union 
must  receive  these  International  certificates,  "  which  shall  be  fur- 
nished upon  payment  of  the  current  month's  dues,  signed  by  the 
president  and  attested  by  the  secretary- treasurer."  Provision  was 
made  many  years  ago  by  Union  No.  6  that  "  any  member  from  a 
printers'  union  beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  this  union  shall  be  received 
as  a  member  on  presenting  a  duly  attested  and  valid  card;  and  no 
person  shall  be  admitted  as  a  member  who  comes  from  a  place  where 
a  tmion  existed  at  the  time  of  his  leaving,  unless  he  can  produce  such 
card,  or  his  application  receive  the  endorsement  of  said  union.  And 
no  person  admitted  as  a  member  under  the  last  provision  of  this 
section  shall  be  entitled  to  receive  a  certificate  of  good  standing  in 
this  union  until  three  months  after  he  shall  have  signed  the  consti- 
tution. This  union  shall  not  receive  members  on  cards  issued  by 
any  other  association  than  that  chartered  by  the  National  Union; 
provided,  that  this  shall  not  apply  to  cards  from  typographical 
societies  not  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States.  No  person 
applying  for  admission  into  this  imion  who  has  resided  in  this  city 
for  a  term  of  one  year  previous  to  such  application  shall  be  entitled 
to  a  card  of  withdrawal  before  he  shall  have  been  a  member  three 
months."  Such  provision  for  the  interchange  of  cards  was  abrogated 
as  soon  as  the  general  organization  of  printers  established  the  rule 
concerning  the  granting  of  traveling  cards,  and  nowadays  a  person 
holding  such  certificate  is  received  as  a  member  "  of  this  union  on 
presentation  to  the  secretary-treasurer  or  chairman  of  a  chapel  of 
a  duly  attested  and  valid  International  certificate."  Its  treasury 
from  the  beginning  has  been  safeguarded  in  various  ways  by  the 
union.  At  first  the  financial  secretary,  immediately  upon  their 
receipt,  had  to  deposit  all  moneys  with  the  treasurer, 
who  gave  a  bond,  on  which  were  two  sureties,  Treasury 
pledging  himself  upon  leaving  office  "  to  refund  the  Amply 
amount  of  all  moneys  "  belonging  to  the  union.  Safeguarded. 
Then  there  was  a  fund  trustee,  also  bonded,  who 
was  empowered  to  receive  "  all  moneys  from  the  treasurer  above 
the  amount  provided  for  by  the  constitution,  and  deposit  the  same 
in  such  bank  or  other  institution  as  the  union  may  designate;  whence 
it  shall  be  removed  only  by  a  warrant  drawn  on  him  by  the  president 
and  countersigned  by  the  recording  secretary."  Quarterly  reports 
were  made  by  these  fiscal  officers.     Present  laws  of  the  union  provide 


470  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

that  the  secretary-treasurer  and  his  assistant  shall  give  bonds  in 
suitable  amounts  to  the  Board  of  Trustees  pledging  themselves  to 
faithfully  perform  the  duties  of  those  positions.  The  secretary- 
treasurer  makes  a  monthly  report,  and  since  August  25,  1898,  his 
accounts  have  been  examined  once  a  month  by  a  certified  public 
accountant,  appointed  by  the  trustees,  who  also  furnish  bonds,  make 
deposits  in  designated  banks  and  report  the  financial  condition  of 
the  union  at  least  semi-annually,  while  their  chairman  signs  all  bills 
that  he  finds  to  be  correct  before  being  paid  by  the  secretary-treas- 
urer. Widest  publicity  is  given  to  the  fiscal  transactions  of  the 
association  through  the  medium  of  the  Monthly  Bulletin,  which  the 
union  began  to  publish  on  October  2,  1896,  and  which  is  distributed 
among  the  entire  membership.  This  contains  full  details  of  receipts 
and  expenditures,  and  shows  the  exact  financial  standing  of  the 
union  at  the  close  of  every  month.  Chairmen  of  chapels,  who  collect 
dues  and  assessments  from  members,  must  turn  the  same  over  to 
the  secretary-treasurer  within  48  hours.  Every  chapel  has  a  Finance 
Committee,  which  audits  weekly  the  accounts  of  the  chairman  and 
at  once  reports  to  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  union  any  delin- 
quency on  the  part  of  such  chairman  to  promptly  make  returns  to 
the  proper  officers  of  all  moneys  collected  by  him. 

Valuable  records  of  Union  No.  6  were  consumed  by  a  fire  that 
devastated  its  headquarters,  then  at  Nos.  16-20  Chambers  street, 
in  the   spring   of    1906.     Owing   partially  to  that 
Receipts  unfortunate  occurrence  and  to  the  fact  that  some 

and  books  containing  its  accounts  had  been  previously 

Expenditures.  Jqs^  qj.  destroyed,  it  is  not  possible  to  present  here 
a  statement  of  the  total  receipts  and  disbursements 
of  the  organization  from  the  date  of  its  establishment  to  the  end  of 
September,  191 1.  It  was  stated  in  1878  that  up  to  that  time  the 
receipts  of  the  union  from  its  formation  in  1850  had  amounted  to 
some  $400,000.^  Complete  figures  are,  however,  available  from  the 
beginning  of  October,  1896,  to  the  end  of  September,  191 1, —  a 
period  of  exactly  fifteen  years  —  in  which  time  the  receipts  of  the 
union  from  all  sources  amounted  to  $2,604,535.14,  while  the  expendi- 
tures for  all  purposes  aggregated  $2,581,868.36. 

The  chief  administrative  officer  of  the  organization  is  the  secretary- 
treasurer.     At  the  opening  of  permanent  quarters  in  1869  the  salary 


'  "  In  various  ways  the  union,  since  its  formation,  has  disbursed  over  $400,000,  the  larger  part, 
of  course,  for  charitable  purposes." — From  a  brief  history  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  in  New 
York  Sun,  December  4,  1878. 


FUNDS    OF    THE    UNION.  47I 

of  the  secretary,  which  position  was  not  then  merged  with  that  of 
treasurer,  was  fixed  at  $1,200  per  annum,  payable  monthly,  but  be- 
fore the  association  began  to  benefit  by  the  revival  of 
prosperity  in  the  seventies  it  reduced  the  compensa-  Compensation  of 
tionto$2o  per  week  on  November  12,  1878.  Several  Oflficers  and 
times  since  that  year  the  pay  has  been  increased  Committeemen, 
and  at  present  the  secretary-treasurer  receives  $40 
per  week  for  his  services.  A  similar  amount,  together  with  neces- 
sary expenses,  is  paid  to  the  president,  who  during  recent  years  has 
been  obliged  to  devote  his  whole  time  to  the  affairs  of  the  union. 
Other  salaried  officers  are  the  assistant  secretary,  who  receives  $25 
per  week,  and  the  organizer  and  the  benefit  clerk,  they  being  paid, 
respectively,  $28  and  $25  weekly,  in  addition  to  necessary  expenses. 
The  sergeant-at-arms  and  reading  clerk  each  receives  $3  for  work 
performed  at  each  meeting  of  the  union.  Its  delegates  to  Interna- 
tional Typographical  Union  and  other  conventions  are  allowed  rail- 
road and  sleeping-car  fare  and  each  receives  $15  a  day  while  engaged 
in  such  official  duties.  Being  a  consistent  exponent  of  the  principle 
that  "  the  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire  "  the  association  recompenses 
those  of  its  members  who  are  called  upon  to  do  committee  work  in 
its  behalf,  a  by-law  establishing  the  rates  of  payment  as  follows: 
"  Members  of  standing  committees  shall  be  entitled  to  50  cents  per 
meeting.  Members  of  special  committees  shall  be  entitled  to  50 
cents  per  meeting,  but  the  aggregate  for  such  service  shall  not  exceed 
$5.  In  addition,  where  loss  of  work  is  occasioned  by  such  committee 
duties,  members  shall  receive  compensation  at  the  rate  per  day  at 
which  they  are  regularly  employed  and  all  necessary  expenses. 
Members  of  the  Executive  Committee  from  the  book  and  job  branch 
and  evening  newspapers  shall  be  paid  at  the  rate  of  50  cents  an  hour 
for  attendance  at  said  committee." 


CHAPTER    XXVII. 
BENEFICIAL    FEATURES. 

IN  large  degree  Typographical  Union  No.  6  has  promoted 
the  comfort  and  happiness  of  its  distressed  members  and  suc- 
cored the  dependents  of  those  who  have  been  removed  by  death. 
Its  beneficent  works  have  been  carried  on  almost  from  the  moment 
that  it  became  an  entity  in  the  movement  of  Labor.  Not  alone  has 
it  alleviated  the  sufferings  of  its  own  membership, 
Relieving  New  but  it  has  often  extended  benevolences  to  others  far 
Orleans  Yellow  removed  from  the  scenes  of  its  activities.  Yellow 
Fever  Sufferers,  fever  ravaged  New  Orleans  in  the  autumn  of  1853 
and  New  York's  union  printers  convoked  a  mass 
meeting  on  September  2  5th  for  the  purpose  of  devising  means  to  aid 
their  afflicted  brethren  in  the  Southern  city.  Thomas  N.  Rooker 
was  chairman  of  the  assemblage.  A  committee  of  ten  was  selected 
to  raise  funds,  and  to  the  journeymen  of  the  city  it  issued  an  address 
to  aid  in  successfully  carrying  out  the  objects  contemplated  by  its 
appointment.  "  No  one  class  of  the  community  in  that  ill-fated 
city  have  to  lament  greater  inroads  upon  their  number  than  the 
printers,"  declared  the  committee,  "  and  it  has  frequently  happened 
that  he  who  to-day  set  the  types  which  announced  the  deaths  of  his 
fellow-citizens  has  to-morrow  had  the  same  sad  office  performed  for 
himself  by  the  one  who  yesterday  worked  by  his  side.  Many  and 
mournful  are  the  cases  of  sorrow  and  suffering  among  our  fellow- 
craftsmen,  the  tidings  of  which  have  reached  our  ears;  much  has  been 
done  to  alleviate  it  by  the  typographical  union  of  that  city,  but  their 
treasury  is  exhausted,  and  upon  us  who  are  enjoying  the  blessings 
of  health  and  prosperity  devolves  the  duty  of  caring  for  our  less 
fortunate  brothers  and  friends.  Fully  one-sixth  of  their  nimiber 
have  been  carried  off  by  the  dreadful  scourge,  and  many  now  lie 
upon  beds  of  anguish  and  distress.  To  alleviate  this  distress  and 
to  provide  suitably  for  those  unable  to  work  from  the  effects  of  sick- 
ness is  the  motive  which  actuates  us  in  calling  upon  you  for  aid." 
A  generous  response  to  the  appeal  came  from  all  the  chapels.  Within 
a  week  they  contributed  $795.84,  which  was  immediately  dispatched 
to  the  New  Orleans  Typographical  Union. 

[472] 


BENEFICIAL    FEATURES.  473 

Another  conspicuous  instance  in  which  the  union  promptly  and 
liberally  extended  pecuniary  relief  to  people  in  distress  was  on  the 
occasion  of  the  great  fire  in  Chicago.     An  emergency 
meeting  was  held  on  October  ii,  187 1,  at  which  it    Assisting 
was  resolved  "  that  a  great  calamity  has  befallen    Chicago 
our  brother  craftsmen  in  Chicago  through  a  serious    ^^^^  Sufferers. 
and  unprecedented  conflagration;  that  the  printers 
of  that  city  have  been  left  penniless  and  homeless  by  the  same ;  that 
Typographical  Union  No.  6  present  the  sum  of  $2,000  to  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  16,  for  the  piu-pose  of  alleviating  their  sufferings 
and  distress,  and  that  the  funds  of  this  union  be  placed  at  their 
disposal."     Further  relief  was  voted  by  the  union  at  its  regular 
session  of  October  1 7th.     The  president  stated  that  there  were  several 
members  of  the  Chicago  union  then  in  the  city  with  informal  cer- 
tificates signed  by  the  secretary  of  that  organization,  whose  supply 
of  traveling  cards  had  been  destroyed  by  the  fire,  and  some  of  the 
men  were  in  need  of  pecuniary  assistance.     It  was  ordered  that  the 
cards  be  accepted  and  $100  appropriated  from  the  treasury  and  placed 
at  the  disposal  of  the  secretary  to  relieve  the  necessities  of  those 
who  had  come  from  the  devastated  city. 

During  the  yellow  fever  plague  in  the  South  in  1878  the  New 
York  union  sent  as  "  contributions  for  the  relief  of  worthy  fellow- 
craftsmen  and  their  families  $200  to  New  Orleans,  $100  to  Memphis 
and  $100  to  Vicksburg."  In  1901,  when  an  extensive  conflagration 
in  Jacksonville,  Fla.,  partially  demolished  the  city  and  obliterated 
every  printing  office  but  one.  Union  No.  6  directed  that  $100  be 
forwarded  to  the  members  of  Jacksonville  Typographical  Union  No. 
162.  And  annually  at  the  Christmas  season  the  Salvation  Army 
and  other  institutions  are  the  recipients  of  its  bounty. 

Frequently  has  the  union  of  compositors  donated  money  to  men 
on  strike  in  other  trades.     A  few  examples  of  this  spirit  of  helpful- 
ness will   suffice  here.     The   Hatters'   Association 
of  New  York  in  1859  struck  against  an  attempt  of    Financial 
"  some  of  the  more  acquisitive  employers  in  their    Aid  to 
trade  to  reduce  their  pay  —  even  in  the  face  of  as    Other  Trades. 
brisk  business  as  usual  and  increased  cost  of  living 
on  the  part  of  their  workmen."     At  a  meeting  of  the  printers  on 
August  20th  the  hatters  asked  for  a  loan,  stating  "  that  about  200 
of  their  men  had  been  recalled  to  work  at  former  rates  —  thus 
acknowledging  the  justness  of  their  position;  that  near  200  yet  re- 
mained idle;  that  their  funds  were  about  exhausted;  that  those  of 
their  association  who  are  now  at  work  had  voluntarily  imposed  an 


474  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

assessment  of  25  per  cent  on  the  amount  of  their  weekly  earnings  to 
aid  in  sustaining  those  yet  out  of  employment."  A  resolution  was 
offered  "  to  place  the  sum  of  $300  in  the  hands  of  the  union  officers, 
with  power  to  lend,  without  interest,  which  was  passed  without  a 
single  dissenting  vote,"  recounts  the  record  of  the  proceedings. 
Shortly  afterward  the  controversy  was  settled  in  favor  of  the  journey- 
men hatters,  and  at  the  October  session  of  Union  No.  6  President 
Charles  W.  Colburn  announced  that  the  loan  had  been  repaid.  On 
June  6,  1 87 1,  the  union  voted  $500  to  the  Pennsylvania  coal  miners, 
whose  long  dispute  had  reduced  their  families  to  destitution  and 
want.  A  like  amount  was  given  in  1883  to  the  Brotherhood  of 
Telegraphers  to  aid  its  members  who  struck  that  year.  To  the 
freight  handlers  of  the  MetropoUs  in  1882  it  donated  "  $50  per  week 
until  the  close  of  their  strike,"  and  in  that  year  it  also  appropriated 
$100  to  aid  "the  struggles  of  the  wire  weavers  and  what  they  are 
contending  for."  In  1884  it  gave  the  New  York  bricklayers  $200; 
in  1886  it  let  the  striking  plumbers  of  that  city  have  $500;  in  1892 
it  sent  $250  to  the  Homestead  strikers,  besides  ordering  that  "  one 
thousand  marks  be  donated  to  the  striking  printers  in  Germany ; ' ' 
in  1895  it  provided  $1,000  for  the  relief  of  the  Brooklyn  street  car 
employees,  while  in  1902  diuing  the  great  coal  strike  in  the  anthracite 
region  it  donated  $6,010.75  to  the  United  Mine  Workers  of  America 
to  reHeve  the  latter's  members  who  were  engaged  in  that  dispute; 
and  in  1909  it  subscribed  $1,183.45  to  the  fund  for  the  benefit  of 
members  of  the  United  Hatters  of  North  America  then  on  strike 
in  several  sections  of  the  country. 


I. 

Unemployment  Benefits. 

Ever  soHcitous  for  the  well-being  of  its  unemployed  members 

Union  No.  6  has,  when  occasion  demanded  it,  devised  ways  and 

means  to  sufficiently  supply  their  needs.     Days  of 

Helping  Its       adversity  were  first  encountered  in  1857,  and  the 

Unemployed      panic  that  began  to  sweep  over  the  country  in 

in  1857-8.  August    of    that    fateful  twelvemonth    threw    into 

idleness  many  printers  in  the  great  city.     It  was  a 

dismal  period  for  them.    ' '  During  the  dark  hours  of  last  winter, ' '  spake 

President  William  Cuddy  in  opening  the  seventh  annual  session  of 

the  National  Typographical  Union  in  Chicago  on  May  3,  1858,  "I 

had  many  fears  that  the  suspension  of  extensive  business  operations 


BENEFICIAL    FEATURES.  475 

and  the  many  blighting  effects  of  the  great  panic  would  tend  to  lessen 
the  attendance  at  this  convention,  but  I  find  myself  agreeably  dis- 
appointed. We  meet,  gentlemen,  after  a  season  of  financial  disaster 
such  as  the  world  may  not  see  again  for  half  a  century  —  a  crisis, 
springing  up  in  the  commercial  centre  of  this  flourishing  continent, 
from  causes  which  few  can  explain,  and  spreading  its  devastating 
influences  to  the  most  remote  cities  of  the  civilized  world.  Though 
its  results  have  been  fatal  to  the  prospects  of  many,  yet  it  has  tended 
to  impress  other  nations  with  a  full  sense  of  the  important  position 
America  occupies  in  the  commercial  affairs  of  the  universe."  The 
New  York  imion  met  the  situation  in  a  practical  manner,  appointing 
a  Relief  Committee  that,  beginning  on  December  14, 1857,  assembled 
daily  between  4  and  7  o'clock  in  the  evening  at  No.  143  Fulton 
street,  and  until  the  panic  ceased  distributed  out-of-work  benefits 
among  those  of  the  members  who  required  such  financial  assistance. 
During  the  sittings  of  the  committee  "proprietors  of  country  news- 
papers in  want  of  good  printers  "  were  informed  that  they  could 
obtain  them  upon  application  to  the  chairman. 

But  a  more  distressful  and  prolonged  event  was  the  industrial 
panic  that  burst  upon  the  nation  in  1873.     Attention  was  called  by 
the  secretary  of  the  union  on  November  4th  to  the 
deplorable  state  of  the  trade  and  he  tirged  that    Succoring  Idle 
something    be    done    to    relieve    the    unemployed.    Members  in 
The  matter  was  referred  to  a  conference  of  chapel    *^®  Seventies. 
chairmen,    who    on    November    i8th   made    these 
recommendations,  which  were  adopted  by  the  organization:    "  That 
the  union  donate  $1,000  for  the  following  purposes:     (i)  To  assist 
deserving  unemployed  printers.     (2)   All  printers  who  have  been 
members  since  August  16,  1873,  desiring  to  leave  the  city  shall  be 
assisted  to  do  so  to  an  amount  not  exceeding  $15,  but  should  such 
person  so  assisted  return  to  the  city  inside  of  six  months  from  the 
date  of  leaving  he  shall  pay  the  amount  so  loaned  into  the  treasury 
of  the  union  and  shall  not  be  entitled  to  a  working  card  until  such 
sum  is  paid.     (3)  That  the  president  and  secretary  be  authorized, 
with  discretionary  power,  to  remit  the  dues  of  those  wishing  to  leave 
the  city,  as  above  stated,  to  the  amoimt  of  $4,  to  be  refunded  to  the 
union  if  they  should  return  within  six  months.     (4)  That  the  chair- 
man of  each  office  be  requested  to  consult  his  chapel,  and  report  to 
the  secretary  as  soon  as  possible  how  many  men,  if  any,  can  be 
quartered  in  their  respective  offices ;  and  in  all  offices  where  men  can- 
not be  given  subbing  that  a  collection  be  taken  every  week,  the  pro- 
ceeds of  which  to  be  used  in  the  same  manner  as  the  $1,000  donated 


476  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

by  the  union.  (5)  That  a  committee  of  five  be  appointed  to  have 
full  power  to  disburse  the  money."  Twice  afterward  the  out-of- 
work  fund  was  replenished,  an  appropriation  of  $250  having  been 
made  on  January  5,  1875,  and  $1,000  on  April  9,  1876,  in  which  latter 
month  $945.55  was  expended  to  relieve  160  members.  Another 
course  was  pursued  by  the  union  on  December  5,  1876,  to  help  the 
unemployed.  It  appealed  to  the  chapels  to  make  arrangements 
whereby  some  portion  of  the  work  could  be  shared  with  the  unem- 
ployed. '  *  Recognizing  the  fact  that  hundreds  of  our  members  are  un- 
able to  secure  employment  sufficient  to  maintain  them  and  their  families 
and  have  every  prospect  of  a  hard  winter  before  them,  while  others 
are  working  full  time,  and  in  some  cases  overtime,  and  are  therefore 
unaffected  by  the  general  stagnation  in  business,"  ran  the  plea  of 
the  association;  "  and  believing  it  will  be  to  the  best  interest  of  our 
union  to  assist  the  unemployed  members  by  distributing  the  surplus 
work  as  evenly  as  possible,  we  request  the  different  chapels  to  take 
such  action  in  this  matter  as  will  in  some  measure  assist  these  men 
endeavoring  to  maintain  union  principles." 

Depression  in  business  in  1885  caused  much  idleness  among  com- 
positors, and  on  February  15th  steps  were  taken  to  give  temporary 
relief  to  men  who  were  then  without  work.     In  a 
Temporary      set  of  resolutions  the  union  viewed  "  with  regret 
Aid  Given       the  great  stagnation  existing  in  the  printing  trade 
in  1885.  Q^  ^jjg  present  time,  and  deems  it  detrimental  to  its 

best  interests  that  many  of  its  members  should  be 
in  a  state  of  destitution  while  others  are  working  six  and  in  some 
cases  seven  days  a  week;"  following  this  with  an  order  "  that  no 
member  employed  on  a  morning  or  evening  newspaper,  either  as 
regular  or  sub,  shall  be  allowed  to  work  more  than  five  days  or  nights 
a  week,  and  that  this  resolution  shall  apply  to  compositors,  proof- 
readers and  time  hands  generally,  foremen  and  assistant  foremen  alone 
excepted,  and  shall  remain  in  force  during  the  pleasure  of  the  union." 
Having  served  its  purpose  this  rule  was  in  due  time  repealed. 

Restriction  of  a  week's  employment  to  six  days  formed  a  part  of 

the  legislation  enacted  by  the  International  Typographical  Union 

in  1 89 1,  and  was  quite  helpful  to  the  unemployed. 

Six-Day  Law      ^^  provided  that   "no  member  of  a  subordinate 

Decreases  union  shall  work  on  a  morning  newspaper  more 

Unemployment,  than  six  days  in  any  one  week,  nor  more  than  59 

hours,  where  a  substitute  can  be  obtained."     Long 

before  that  time  Sunday  labor  had  received  much  attention,  and  New 

York  printers  figured  prominently  in  the  original  discussion  of  the 


BENEFICIAL    FEATURES.  477 

subject.  It  was  prior,  however,  to  the  advent  of  the  seven-day 
newspaper.  The  matter  was  first  acted  upon  by  the  National  Typo- 
graphical Union  in  1852,  that  convention  on  May  5th  going  on  record 
in  opposition  to  seven-day  work.  "A  custom  has  generally  obtained 
among  the  printers  engaged  on  the  daily  press  of  the  United  States, 
whereby  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath  has  been  disregarded," 
declared  the  union,  which  continued:  "  The  evils  attending  the 
observance  of  said  custom  are  manifold  and,  in  the  opinion  of  this 
convention,  uncalled  for,  and  have  a  tendency  to  injure  the  morals 
and  social  reputation  of  those  engaged  in  and  dependent  upon  the 
art.  Proprietors  and  printers  of  several  cities  of  the  United  States, 
acting  conjointly,  have  abolished  a  system  so  pernicious;"  so  it 
was  resolved ' '  that  the  subordinate  unions  and  printers  and  proprietors 
of  the  daily  press  of  the  United  States  are  hereby  recommended  to 
initiate  and  perfect  some  plan  or  agreement  whereby  the  evils  attend- 
ing said  system  may  be  abolished,  it  being  the  sense  of  this  union 
that  the  abolition  of  Sunday  labor  would  be  attended  with  beneficial 
results  to  all  concerned."  The  proposition  was  carried  by  a  vote 
of  2  7  to  I ,  the  three  New  York  delegates  being  registered  in  the  affirm- 
ative. At  the  eighth  yearly  session  of  the  national  organization  in 
1859  Delegate  Charles  W.  Colbum,  of  Union  No.  6,  introduced  the 
question  again,  and  succeeded  in  persuading  that  convention  to 
pass  his  proposal  "  that  it  would  be  advisable,  whenever  practicable, 
to  do  away  with  what  is  commonly  called  Sunday  labor."  With  the 
inauguration  of  seven-day  editions  of  New  York  newspapers  some 
compositors  acquired  the  practice  of  worldng  an  entire  week,  but 
the  strict  enforcement  by  the  union  of  the  six-day  law  of  1891  caused 
an  instant  cessation  of  that  usage. 

Great  distress  prevailed  among  a  large  proportion  of  the  member- 
ship in  the  fall  of  1893.     Composing  machines  had  come  into  per- 
manent use,  depriving  many  compositors  of  employ- 
ment.i     The  industrial  panic  which  developed  in  Permanent  Benefit 
that  year  further  complicated  the  already  serious  ^^yent  of 
situation  that  confronted  the  union.     It  was  the  Machines. 
most  critical  period  that  it  had  ever  experienced. 
Idleness  was  on  every  side  and  the  minds  of  the  foremost  thinkers 
among  its  members  were  severely  taxed  to  evolve  a  plan  that  would 


*  By  1894  fourteen  offices  had  installed  266  composing  machines,  which  within  a  short  period 
displaced  480  printers,  many  of  whom  were  finally  forced  to  retire  from  the  trade  owing  to  their 
inability  (caused  principally  by  advancing  age)  to  cope  with  the  changed  conditions.  Under  the 
hand-set  system  these  concerns  had  1,45s  compositors,  but  immediately  after  establishing  the 
new  method  they  employed  but  975.  Eventually,  however,  these  devices  materially  benefited 
the  craft.     In  the  first  place  they  have  lessened  the  cost  of  production,  which  has  resulted  in  a 


478  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

lastingly  solve  the  problem.  All  sorts  of  suggestions  as  to  how  to 
relieve  the  destitution  were  made,  but  none  seemed  so  practical  as 
an  out-of-work  fund  to  satisfy  the  physical  requirements  of  the  men 
who  had  been  suddenly  forced  into  the  ranks  of  the  unemployed. 
On  September  6,  1893,  the  Board  of  Delegates  first  interested  itself 
in  the  matter.  After  listening  to  representatives  of  several  chapels 
in  regard  to  their  instructions  as  to  the  methods  that  should  be  pur- 
vSued  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  their  unfortunate  fellow-members, 
the  board  decided  that  an  assessment  of  10  per  cent  upon  weekly 
earnings  in  excess  of  $10  should  be  levied  on  all  members,  and  it 
suspended  for  two  months  the  constitutional  provision  invalidating 
a  member's  standing  in  case  his  dues  were  not  paid  "on  or  before 
the  first  of  the  following  month."  A  general  meeting  held  by  the 
union  on  September  17  th  endorsed  the  above  action  by  a  vote  of 
500  to  9.  The  Relief  Committee  that  had  been  selected  to  disburse 
the  money  reported  on  December  3d  that  it  had  expended  $5,542.39. 
Then  on  January  14,  1894,  the  Board  of  Delegates  renewed  the  assess- 
ment plan  of  raising  funds  for  the  idle  ones,  fixing  the  rate  at  5  per 
cent  on  all  wages  over  $10.  It  preceded  that  resolve  with  a  preamble 
that  "  the  introduction  of  machinery  into  the  printing  business, 
together  with  the  depressed  condition  of  trade,  has  caused  large 
numbers  of  our  fellow-members  to  be  thrown  out  of  employment. 
The  number  of  the  unemployed  is  bound  to  increase  during  the  tran- 
sition from  hand  to  machine  composition.  Until  the  conditions  of 
our  trade  shall  have  readjusted  themselves  it  is  only  the  plain  duty 
of  our  employed  members  to  extend  substantial  aid  to  their  unem- 
ployed brothers,  and  so  carry  out  the  true  principles  of  our  union  and 
preserve  its  usefulness  and  solidity."  ^    Such  was  the  beginning  of 


decrease  in  the  selling  prices  of  publications,  thereby  creating  a  greater  demand  for  books  and 
periodicals,  while  newspapers  have  enlarged  in  both  size  and  volume.  As  a  consequence  composing- 
room  forces  have  been  gradually  augmented.  Direct  benefit  has  come  to  journeymen  through 
reductions  in  the  hours  of  labor  and  higher  wages.  Growth  of  the  trade  is  reflected  in  the  statis- 
tics from  two  leading  newspaper  offices.  Before  those  journals  put  in  machines  their  typesetting 
departments  contained  545  printers.  Within  six  months  after  the  installation  of  linotypes  to 
the  number  of  90  they  employed  399  members  of  the  union.  At  present  the  same  dailies  operate 
143  machines  and  employ  685  journeymen  —  an  increase  of  140  employees  as  compared  with  the 
number  at  work  prior  to  the  introduction  of  composing  devices.  Development  of  the  business 
is  also  indicated  in  the  rise  of  the  union's  membership.  In  1891,  when  the  first  machine  scale  was 
adopted,  previous  to  the  general  use  of  linotypes  and  other  mechanical  contrivances  for  com- 
position, the  organization  had  4,487  members,  while  now  it  has  6,969  on  its  roster,  showing  a  gain 
of  2,482,  or  55.3  per  cent.  There  were  329  printing  shops  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  union 
at  the  close  of  September,  1911,  and  in  159  of  these  offices  1,277  machines  were  then  in  use,  their 
operators  numbering  1,985. 

2  A  special  Relief  Committee  reported  on  July  7. 1895.  "  that  in  the  past  six  months  471  members 
have  made  3,372  applications,  on  which  1,086  weeks'  relief  was  paid  to  single  men  and  2,286  weeks' 
relief  to  married  men.  Paid  in  26  weeks  $13,286;  the  receipts  for  the  fund  having  been  $13,874 
for  that  period.". 


BENEFICIAL    FEATURES.  479 

an  unemployment  benefit  project  that  was  carried  on  successfully 
for  neariy  fourteen  years.  Temporary  measures  were  adopted  on 
several  other  occasions  to  supply  the  funds  necessary  to  make  pay- 
ments to  the  needy,  but  on  January  i8,  1896,  a  committee  was 
chosen  to  prepare  a  durable  out-of-work  benefit  scheme,  and  on 
March  15th  it  proposed  these  additions  to  the  constitution,  which 
were  approved  by  the  referendum  and  went  into  effect  on  April  5th : 

Section  i.  The  out-of-work  fund  shall  be  maintained  by  an  assessment  of  i 
per  cent  on  the  earnings  of  all  members,  to  be  collected  weekly  —  the  assessment 
to  be  considered  a  part  of  a  member's  dues.  The  officers  of  the  union  shall 
suspend  the  assessment  when  the  surplus  in  the  fund  shall  amount  to  $2,500, 
and  shall  renew  it  when  said  surplus  shall  have  been  reduced  to  $500. 

Section  2.  Any  unemployed  member  of  the  union  in  good  standing,  who  has 
been  a  member  for  at  least  one  year  previous  to  his  application,  shall  be  entitled 
to  relief.  No  applicant  shall  receive  more  than  $4  per  week,  nor  more  than  four 
payments  in  any  six  weeks,  nor  more  than  fifteen  payments  in  a  year.  Only 
those  out  of  employment  for  an  entire  week  shall  be  entitled  to  benefit. 

Section  3.  Any  member  over  60  years  of  age  who  has  been  20  years  consecu- 
tively a  member  of  No.  6  shall  be  entitled  to  regular  weekly  relief  while  unem- 
ployed. 

Section  4.  Superannuated  members  and  inmates  of  the  Home  shall  be  paid 
from  the  out-of-work  fund. 

Section  5.  Any  member  who  attempts  to  obtain  relief  through  fraud  shall 
have  charges  preferred  against  him  before  the  union. 

Section  6.  The  fund  shall  be  disbursed  under  the  supervision  of  a  Relief  Com- 
mittee, which  shall  be  a  standing  committee  of  the  union.  All  expenses  incurred 
by  direction  of  the  committee  shall  be  chargeable  to  the  fund. 

Explaining  its  recommendations  in  regard  to  the  above  alterations 

in  the  fundamental  law  of  the  union,  the  committee  stated  that  it 

had ' '  endeavored  to  eliminate  all  semblance  of  charity 

from  the  fund  and  make  the  payment  of  relief  a  Making  Benefits 

constitutional  right,  to  which  each  member  is  en-  _,.  . ,  „  , 

°  .  Right,  Not  a 

titled."     It  was  also  set  forth  in  the  report  that  charity. 

"  a  permanent  out-of-work  fund  having  been  estab- 
lished by  the  referendum,  it  is  evident  that  the  revenue  of  this  fund 
must  be  collected  from  the  members  of  the  union,  either  by  increased 
dues  or  by  assessment.  The  committee  is  unanimously  of  the 
opinion  that  a  plan  based  upon  assessment  is  the  most  practical, 
equitable  and  feasible.  Comparison  of  the  receipts  from  assessments 
levied  during  the  past  two  years,  and  applications  for  relief  during 
the  same  period,  furnishes  ample  evidence  that  a  i  per  cent  assessment 
on  the  earnings  of  the  members  of  the  union  for  nine  months  of  the 
year  —  with  restrictions  as  recommended  —  will  meet  all  the  demands 
of  the  fund.     The  average  receipts  under  such  an  assessment  for 


480  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

the  past  six  months  were  about  $540  per  week  —  $2,333  per  month  — 
$28,000  per  year.  Nine  months'  assessments  at  this  rate  would  net 
to  the  fund  $21,000.  This  would  provide  relief  for  100  members 
weekly,  wliich  is  about  the  demand  made  during  the  past  year.  It 
is  apparent  that  some  restriction  as  to  the  aggregate  amount  of  relief 
to  be  paid  from  a  permanent  fund  is  an  absolute  necessity.  The 
restriction  of  not  more  than  four  payments  of  relief  in  any  six  weeks, 
and  a  maximum  of  fifteen  payments  ($60)  provides  relief  to  each 
applicant  at  the  rate  of  $10  per  month  for  six  months.  A  pension 
clause  in  the  plan  scarcely  needs  comment,  the  intention  being  to 
provide  relief  for  those  members  who  are  incapacitated  by  age,  and 
whose  services  to  the  union  entitle  them  to  at  least  this  amount  of 
recognition." 

In  the  revised  constitution  of  August  6,  1899,  the  duties  and  powers 
of  the  ReHef  Committee  were  transferred  to  a  Benefit  Board  of  five 
members,  chosen  by  the  president.  It  also  provided  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  benefit  clerk,  who  acted  as  secretary  to  the  board.  The 
out-of-work  relief  law  was  repealed  by  the  union  on  July  24,  1907, 
and  in  its  stead  provision  was  made  for  the  payment  of  $4  per  week 
to  members  who  had  reached  the  age  of  60  years  and  were  in- 
capacitated for  duties  at  the  printing  trade.  The  final  payment 
from  the  unemployed  fund  was  made  on  August  13,  1907,  and  up  to 
that  date  the  total  disbursements  from  October  i,  1893,  were 
$520,645.25,  being  as  follows  by  years: 

Unemployment  Benefits  Disbursed  from  October  1,  1893,  to  August  13,  !907. 

Year  ended  September  30, —  Amount. 

1894 |l8, 259 • 04 

189s 17,779-05 

1896 25 , 36s • 20 

1897 30, 211. 70 

1898 35 , 169 . 24 

1899 37,274- 13 

1900 40 , 323 . 65 

1901 40,451.46 

1902 40,715.75 

1903 44,510.86 

1904 45,458. 12 

190S 50,385-80 

1906 54,701.69 

Ten  months,  plus,  ended  August  13, — 

1907 40,039.56 

Total $520,645.25 


Special  out-of-work  benefits,  amounting  altogether  to  $9,380.09, 
have  been  paid  by  the  union  on  several  occasions  since  the  abolition 


BENEFICIAL    FEATURES.  48 1 

of  the  permanent  plan,  one  of  these  payments  having  been  made  as 
late  as  September  i6,  191 1,  bringing  the  whole  sum  expended  in  this 
kind  of  relief  work   since  October  i,  1893,  up  to 
$530,025.34.     Instances  are  also  numerous,  during    Unemployment 
the   transition  from  hand   typesetting  to  machine    Benefits  Paid  in 
composition,  of  regularly  employed  printers  volun-    Eighteen  Years. 
tarily  stopping  work  for   one  or  more   days   each 
week  with  the  sole  object  of  engaging  their  unemployed  fellows  as 
substitutes.     It  is  not  possible,  however,  to  measure  with  figures 
the  beneficial  results  that  accrued  from  such  sacrifice  on  the  part  of 
situation  holders,  but  the  wages  thus  relinquished  by  these  generous 
workers  amounted  to  many  thousands  of  dollars.     And  while  the 
City  of  New  York  was  then,  as  at  present,  expending  millions  of 
dollars  for  charitable  purposes,  not  a  member  of  Union  No.  6  was 
the  recipient  of  any  of  those  public  moneys  in  the  entire  period  of 
transition  and  depression. 

Several  times  the  union  has  limited  the  emplo3rment  of  regulars 
to  five  days  a  week  in  order  to  give  work  to  its  unemployed  members, 
but  the  pursuance  of  such  covirse  was  of  short  duration,  as  it  tended 
to  attract  idle  printers  from  other  localities.  As  a  further  means 
of  aiding  the  unemployed  the  union  on  December  6,  1896,  enacted 
for  newspaper  chapels  an  overtime  law,  which  provided  "that  when 
a  regular  has  earned  monetary  consideration  of  a  day's  pay  in  over- 
time he  shall  take  an  extra  day  off."  This  rule  was  afterward 
amended  so  as  to  read:  "When  a  member  accimiulates  overtime 
equivalent  to  a  day's  pay  in  a  newspaper  office  he  shall  take  a  day 
off  within  the  next  financial  week  and  put  on  a  substitute." 

There  were  other  propositions  to  relieve  the  distress  among  mem- 
bers of  the  union  who  had  been  displaced  by  composing  machines 
and  other  causes.     "  It  is  necessary  to  create  work 
for  those  at  present  unemployed,"  read  one  of  these   Proposal  to 
resolutions,  which  was  introduced  at  the  meeting   Establish  a 
of  September  2,  1894,  and  it  called  for  the  appoint-  ^^^^y  Newspaper, 
ment  of  a  committee  "  to  formulate  suitable  plans 
for  the  establishment  of  a  seven-day,  six-page,  42-colimin  afternoon 
newspaper,  devoted  to  labor  and  local  news  matter,  and  to  be  set 
in  minion  and  nonpareil  type;  the  work  in  the  composing  room  of 
which  shall  be  done  entirely  by  hand  and  by  printers  who  must 
have  been  associated  in  good  standing  with  this  imion  for  at  least 
three  months  previous  to  the  initial  issue  of  said  journal."     The 
committee  was  directed  to  ascertain  the  cost  of  the  plant,  the  sum 
required  to  maintain  it,  and  the  probable  revenue  to  be  derived  from 
16 


482  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

the  enterprise.  It  was  also  empowered  to  invite  other  labor  organi- 
zations to  co-operate  financially  and  otherwise  in  the  project.  Re- 
porting on  November  4th,  the  committee  was  unanimously  opposed 
to  the  undertaking.  The  members  averred  that  they  recognized 
the  distress  that  prevailed  in  the  craft  "  and  would  cheerfully  recom- 
mend any  plan  that  would  be  practical  and  within  the  power  of  this 
union  to  carry  out  with  benefit  to  all  of  its  members."  Continuing, 
the  committee  reasoned  as  follows: 

Your  committee  have  carefully  considered  whether  the  plan  proposed  in  the 
resolutions  would  afford  in  any  measure  the  relief  desired.  The  small  percentage 
of  our  members  to  whom  the  publication  of  a  daily  newspaper  would  afford  relief 
would  still  leave  hundreds  in  their  present  condition  unable  to  be  assisted  by 
the  strain  on  our  finances  which  such  an  enterprise  would  necessitate.  Even 
by  a  continuous  assessment  on  our  membership  of  25  per  cent  on  all  wages  or  5 
per  cent  on  all  sums  over  $10  per  week  the  income  would  be  totally  inadequate 
to  pay  the  running  expenses  of  a  daily  newspaper  that  would  command  public 
support.  Under  the  assessments  that  have  been  made  for  relief  purposes  the 
income  per  week  has  averaged  about  $1,100,  and  this,  even  with  the  addition 
of  a  tax  on  all  sums  earned,  would  fall  far  short  of  the  demands  required  to  estab- 
lish a  creditable  journal.  The  remedy  for  distress  sought  by  the  proposed  under- 
taking would,  therefore,  rather  intensify  than  relieve  the  situation.  It  would 
place  a  burden  on  our  union  which  it  could  not  sustain  and  which  would  demand 
the  sacrifice  of  greater  interests.  Should  such  an  enterprise  be  established  as  a, 
joint  stock  concern  with  the  union  as  the  corporator  the  union  would  exceed  its 
rights  under  its  present  charter.  Its  State  grant  would  have  to  be  changed  to 
conform  to  the  law  of  corporate  organizations  issuing  stock.  But  with  such  right 
secured  it  is  not  probable  that  the  men  willing  and  able  to  buy  stock  in  such  a 
concern  are  those  whom  the  project  is  designed  to  benefit.  It  is  only  natural 
to  expect  that  many  of  those  who  would  buy  stock  would  demand  employment 
on  the  paper  and  insist  upon  their  rights  in  its  management  and  their  share  of 
profits,  if  any. 

The  committee  have  considered  the  question  of  inviting  other  labor  organi- 
zations to  co-operate  financially  and  otherwise  with  the  project,  and  it  is  the 
unanimous  opinion  of  the  committee,  based  on  the  experiences  of  years,  that  no 
adequate  support  could  be  expected  from  other  organizations.  No  guarantee 
could  be  given  of  permanent  financial  assistance,  and  no  one  could  insure  a  cir- 
culation among  working  people.  Many  attempts  have  been  made  in  this  city 
to  interest  workingmen  in  a  newspaper  devoted  to  their  interests.  But  all  have 
been  failures.  Workingmen  are  not  united  on  the  political  issues  of  the  day, 
and  many  American  workingmen  are  opposed  to  separation  into  a  distinct  class, 
on  the  Old  World  basis,  and  calling  for  special  legislation  distinct  from  the 
common  welfare.  It  would  be  impossible  to  so  conduct  a  newspaper  as  to  meet 
the  varied  shades  of  opinion  among  workingmen  and  command  their  support. 
If  too  radical,  it  would  be  condemned  by  the  conservative;  if  too  conservative, 
it  would  be  condemned  by  the  radical;  and  hence  the  impossibility  of  reaching 
a  happy  medium  in  the  discussion  of  social  and  political  problems. 

Workingmen  will  not  be  bound  to  the  support  of  a  newspaper  ostensibly  in 
their  interest,  unless  it  gratifies  their  mental  demands.  The  establishment  of  a 
non-partisan  paper  would  not  satisfy  those  who  believe  in  independent  political 


BENEFICIAL   FEATURES.  483 

action;  and  a  political  journal  under  the  control  of  the  union  would  be  a  constant 
cause  of  contention  in  our  ranks  and  weaken  its  influence  and  destroy  its  purpose. 
Information  on  the  labor  movement  is  now  supplied  by  the  daily  press  and  the 
weekly  journals  devoted  to  our  interests,  and  from  the  insufficient  support  already 
given  labor  papers  it  is  evident  that  the  present  supply  of  labor  news  fully  covers 
the  demand. 

The  committee  opined  that  the  cost  of  a  suitable  plant  and  its 
maintenance  presented  grave  reasons  against  the  project.  It  had 
endeavored  to  estimate  as  nearly  as  possible  the  expense  involved 
in  publishing  such  evening  newspaper  and  concluded  that  the  initial 
outlay  would  be  $12,600  and  the  weekly  expenses  $4,200,  which  sum 
did  not  include  allowances  for  incidentals,  payment  of  interest  on 
mortgage  on  a  printing  press  and  periodical  payments  to  reduce  the 
mortgage  itself.  "  To  obtain  $4,200  a  week,  the  simi  required  to 
meet  the  bare  running  expenses,"  ran  the  argument,  "  it  would  be 
necessary  to  levy  an  assessment  of  an  average  of  Si  a  week  on  every 
paying  member  now  on  the  books  until  such  time  as  the  property 
became  a  paying  one,  and  it  would  require  at  least  one  year  to  do 
this."  The  committee  stated  that  in  competition  with  other  after- 
noon papers  the  editions  of  the  union's  daily  would  have  to  be  on  the 
street  with  equal  promptness.  It  was  likewise  pointed  out  that  the 
same  enterprise  that  characterized  the  evening  press  would  have  to 
be  observed  to  command  support;  that  such  management  would  de- 
mand the  services  of  energetic  and  capable  men  trained  in  the  school 
of  business  and  in  newspaper  work  and  that  the  essential  talent  could 
not  be  secured  without  great  expense.  As  to  the  probable  revenue 
to  be  derived  from  the  enterprise,  the  committee  said  it  was  con- 
vinced that  it  would  be  impossible  of  calculation.  "  Except  on  the 
supposition  of  a  definite  number  of  advertisements  and  a  fixed  circu- 
lation," went  on  the  report,  "  it  could  not  be  done.  It  would  require 
a  daily  sale  of  50,000  copies  at  one-half  cent  each,  which  would  net 
$250  a  day,  or  $1,750  per  week,  and  70  columns  of  advertisements 
at  $36  per  coltmin,  making  an  income  of  $2,520  per  week,  to  reach 
a  total  of  $4,270,  or  about  the  sum  estimated  to  meet  the  weekly 
expenses.  The  great  expenses  involved,  the  very  doubtful  prospect 
of  success,  and  the  comparatively  few  who  would  be  relieved  of 
distress  by  the  pubHcation  of  a  daily  newspaper  are  the  reasons 
why,  in  the  opinion  of  the  committee,  the  plan  for  reHef  is  considered 
impractical  and  unwise,  and  against  which  the  committee  unani- 
mously reports."  After  recei\dng  and  ordering  the  report  to  be 
filed,  the  union  virtually  sustained  the  committee's  attitude  by 
allowing  the  question  to  remain  dormant  on  its  records,  and  a  daily 
newspaper  was  not  estabhshed  under  its  auspices. 


484  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

II. 

Farm  Project  for  Idle  Printers. 

A  member  of  long  standing  in  the  union  addressed  the  meeting 
of  March  7,  1897,  on  the  subject  of  unemployment,  stating  that  the 
large  expenditure  for  relief  annually  to  those  who 
An  Offer  had  been  forced  into  idleness  was  a  condition  that 

of  Land  in  "  should  engage  the  serious  attention  of  those  inter- 

Pennsylvania,  ested  in  the  maintenance  of  the  union,  its  high 
prestige  and  unquestionable  benefits."  With  such 
object  in  view  he  submitted  an  offer  of  land  for  utilization  by  the 
union  in  aid  of  its  idle  members;  recommending  its  acceptance,  with 
the  privilege  of  rejection  should  it  be  found,  upon  investigation  by  a 
committee,  to  be  an  unwise  undertaking.  "  In  Potter  County, 
Pennsylvania,  a  few  hours  from  New  York  City,"  said  he,  "a  farm 
of  5,000  acres  can  be  had  for  the  asking  upon  the  following  condi- 
tions: (i)  That  1,000  of  the  5,000  acres  shall  be  held  by  Typograph- 
ical Union  No.  6  free  for  use  by  any  of  its  members  in  good  standing 
for  one  year.  (2)  The  balance  to  be  sold  in  plots  not  to  exceed 
fifteen  acres.  (3)  The  development  of  the  land  to  be  under  the  direc- 
tion of  a  practical  and  up-to-date  farmer."  He  informed  the  union 
that  in  addition  to  the  land,  which  was  valued  at  $25,000,  the  donor, 
who  desired  to  make  a  success  of  the  enterprise,  would  donate  $10,000, 
provided  the  organization  would  appropriate  a  like  sum,  toward  the 
development  of  the  land.  "  Not  more  than  100  members  of  the 
union  will  be  provided  for  dtiring  the  first  year,"  he  said,  "  but  100 
members  will  be  provided  for  annually  thereafter.  A  governing 
council  of  three,  composed  of  two  members  of  Typographical  Union 
No.  6  and  one  selected  by  the  donor,  will  direct  affairs  for  the  first 
three  years,  after  which  an  annual  election  will  take  place,  when,  it 
is  anticipated,  the  enterprise  will  yield  a  revenue  to  the  tmion.  All 
revenues  from  privileges  or  franchises  will  revert  to  the  imion.  No 
inducements  will  be  held  forth  for  any  one  to  go,  but  here  an  oppor- 
tunity to  make  a  living  awaits  those  who  are  willing  to  work  for  it, 
while  Typographical  Union  No.  6  may  find  in  this  proposition  a  plan 
for  the  prospective  termination  of  the  present  taxation  for  the  relief 
of  its  unemployed  members,  which  benefits  sooner  or  later  will  be 
abolished." 

A  committee  that  had  been  chosen  to  inquire  into  the  matter 
reported  on  May  2d  that  it  had  investigated  several  propositions, 
in  addition  to  the  original  one,  which  latter  had  been  waived  by  the 


BENEFICIAL  FEATURES.  485 

member  who  had  recommended  it,  and  was  of  the  opinion  that  some 
plan  could  be  adopted  from  the  many  proposed  that  would  result  in 
preparing  the  way  to  help  unemployed  members  outside  of  the  trade. 
One  of  the  proposals  that  seemed  to  be  the  most  feasible  came  from 
the  Mayor's  Committee  for  the  Cultivation  of  Vacant  Lands  by 
the  Unemployed.  Prominent  and  active  members  of  that  committee 
were  J.  W.  Kjelgaard  and  Bolton  Hall,  the  latter  being  a  well-known 
lawyer,  author  and  lecturer  on  fundamental  reforms,  who  in  1896 
was  treasurer  of  the  Longshoremen's  Union.  Mr.  Hall  addressed 
the  union  of  printers  on  Jiily  11,  1897,  on  the  successful  operation  in 
difEerent  cities  of  the  plan  to  reHeve  the  distress  among  the  unem- 
ployed of  the  community  by  cultivating  the  vacant  lands  in  such 
municipalities  and  raising  farm  products  that  found  a  ready  sale  and 
a  fair  remuneration  in  return  for  the  labor  performed.  He  said  that 
there  were  then  25,000  persons  so  occupied  in  50  cities  of  this  country, 
and  cited  cases  in  which  men  who  had  no  previous  training  had  during 
a  season  earned  from  $1.25  to  $4  every  day  they  had  worked  on  the 
land.  The  committee  stated  that  Mr.  Kjelgaard,  with  its  assistance, 
had  obtained  from  the  Park  Board  a  grant  of  the  use  of  321  acres 
of  land  in  Bartow,  in  Pelham  Bay  Park,  city  property,  for  cultiva- 
tion in  the  ensuing  summer  by  members  of  the 
union.  This  land,  reported  the  committee,  "is  in  Proposition  from 
excellent  condition  for  intensive  cultivation.  There  ®  ^^J^^  ^ 
is  no  other  like  area  elsewhere  near  the  city  that  is  conunittee 
obtainable  and  that  Mr.  Kjelgaard,  as  a  practical 
farmer,  wotdd  advise  the  committee  to  take.  In  the  park  are  several 
buildings  which  may  be  occupied  by  some  of  the  cultivators.  Should 
others  of  the  party  wish  to  stay  for  a  few  days  at  a  time  on  the  tract 
during  the  season  temporary  structures  could  be  erected.  Close  at 
hand,  in  Long  Island  Sound,  may  be  found  good  fishing  and  crabbing; 
and  in  the  park  are  picnic  grounds.  Mr.  Kjelgaard  offers  the  union 
any  sum  up  to  $2,500  to  assist  in  the  experiment,  providing  that  the 
union  shall  also  contribute  dollar  for  dollar  up  to  $2,500."  These 
conditions  were  submitted  by  the  committee  a,s  part  of  the  plan : 

1.  The  money  necessary  is  to  be  paid  into  a  common  treasury,  in  instalments, 
by  the  two  parties.  Each  instalment  is  to  be  $500;  the  first  to  be  paid  when  it  is 
reasonably  certain  that  50  members  of  the  union  wiU  go  to  work  on  the  tract 
and  the  time  has  come  to  incur  expense  in  furtherance  of  the  plan.  No  money 
is  to  be  put  out  until  50  members  are  ready.  The  first  step  is  to  have  this  number 
of  responsible  members  to  signify  their  intention  of  doing  this  work.  If  they 
fail  to  respond  the  plan  is  to  be  abandoned. 

2.  Mr.  Kjelgaard,  at  the  expense  of  the  fund,  is  to  employ,  at  $20  per  week, 
one  instructor  in  truck  farming;  is  to  have  the  land  to  be  used  by  our  members 


486  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

ploughed,  and  is  to  buy  the  necessary  tools,  seed,  and  fertilizers.     The  treasurer 
of  the  Mayor's  committee  will  give  vouchers  for  all  such  expenditures. 

3.  The  union  at  the  expense  of  the  fund  is  to  employ  one  of  its  members  as 
a  supervisor,  who  will  maintain  discipline,  take  charge  of  the  books,  keep  tally 
on  the  day's  work  done  by  each  man,  and  in  general  act  in  the  capacity  of  foreman 
or  chairman. 

4.  The  supervisor  is  to  give  at  least  one  meal  per  day  to  every  cultivator,  is 
to  safeguard  the  park  property  occupied  by  our  members,  and  to  see  to  the  pro- 
tection of  the  crops  while  growing.     He  will  give  vouchers  for  all  his  expenditures. 

5.  In  every  case  possible  each  cultivator  is  to  work  a  plot  for  himself.  He  is 
to  work  under  directions  of  the  instructor.  All  the  produce  he  raises  is  to  be  his 
own. 

6.  A  common  plot  is  to  be  reserved  for  those  members  who  cannot  work  upon 
the  tract  regularly,  but  who  may  wish  to  do  a  day's  work  from  time  to  time. 
The  produce  from  this  tract  is  to  be  sold  by  the  foreman,  under  sanction  of  Mr. 
Kjelgaard  and  your  committee,  and  the  money  is  to  be  divided  pro  rata  per  day's 
work  among  the  men  who  do  the  work. 

7.  The  disposal  of  the  produce  of  the  individual  plot  cultivators  is  to  be  at 
their  own  pleasure;  they  may  take  it  away,  or  sell  it  themselves,  or  consign  it  to 
the  foreman  for  sale. 

The  Pelham  Bay  Park  project  was  afterward  approved  by  the 
union,  which  in  February,  1898,  appropriated  $2,500  for  the  farm. 
Cold  and  wet  weather  caused  a  postponement  of 
Tilling  the  operations  in  the  first  season,  but  on  May  4,  1898, 

Soil  in  Pelham    agricultural  labor  was  begun  by  54  members,  and 
Bay  Park.  {^  ^j^g  succeeding  few  weeks  a  total  of  96  men  com- 

menced to  till  the  soil.  "  Thirty  gave  up  the  work 
in  a  short  time,"  said  the  Land  Committee  in  its  initial  report  on  Jan- 
uary 8,  1899.  "  Some  of  these  got  jobs  at  the  trade,  some  fell  sick, 
and  others  found  the  farm  work  beyond  their  will  or  strength.  The 
nimiber  of  plots  cultivated  was  67;  the  number  of  members  holding 
half  acres  or  more  at  potato  digging  time  was  61.  As  the  number  of 
men  drawing  relief  during  last  May  averaged  264  the  proportion 
trying  the  farm  work  was  about  40  per  cent  and  of  those  staying  25 
per  cent.  To  infer,  however,  that  60  per  cent  of  the  men  then  on 
relief  were  averse  to  hard  work  wotild  not  be  true.  The  farm  was 
begun  under  ridicule,  the  weather  was  bad  enough  to  keep  even 
strong  men  away,  the  indoor  worker  finds  labor  on  the  soil  strange  and 
uninviting,  and  the  sincerity  of  both  committees  was  doubted.  To 
decide  to  go  to  work  on  the  farm  required  more  than  ordinary  will 
and  independence.  The  farm  members  worked  in  good  spirit.  Rain 
had  fallen  throughout  April;  it  rained  27  days  in  May,  and  it  con- 
tinued raining  until  June  7th.  But  the  men  went  up  —  20,  40,  60 
a  day.    At  first  much  of  the  work  was  done  in  cold  mud,  between 


BENEFICIAL    FEATURES.  487 

showers  or  storms.  The  farm  director  had  estimated  that  20 
trips  would  be  more  than  enough  to  enable  a  member  to  raise  both 
potatoes  and  the  small  crops  —  beans,  peas,  sweet  com,  etc.  But 
when  the  potatoes  were  planted  he  announced  that  it  was  too  late 
to  put  in  the  small  crops.  Few  members  got  any  money  out  of  small 
crops;  no  one  got  any  from  the  hay  of  the  meadows,  as  had  been  ex- 
pected, and  nothing  came  from  other  estimated  sources  of  revenue. 
The  potato  tract,  with  its  long  rows  of  green  vines,  looked  well  in 
June.  Practical  farmers  said  that  the  crop  was  worth  $4,000  to 
$5,000.  But  in  July  a  month  of  drouth  set  in;  springs  and  a  well  on 
the  grounds  ran  dry  for  the  first  time  within  the  knowledge  of  the 
neighbors.  In  August  the  potatoes  were  struck  by  a  blight.  In 
early  September  the  farm  director,  after  digging  samples,  confidently 
estimated  the  coming  yield  at  1,500  barrels  or  more.  He  was  mis- 
taken. The  wet  weather  of  the  spring  had  prevented  the  seed  from 
fully  germinating,  and  the  drouth  had  ended  the  growth  of  most  of 
the  potatoes  that  had  come  to  a  head."  Notwithstanding  these 
drawbacks  the  committee  considered  that  the  work  was  not  without 
encouraging  developments.  "  The  physical  and  moral  benefits 
reaped  by  the  members  are  past  estimate,"  it  was  declared.  "  In 
general  they  report  a  marked  improvement  in  health;  they  gained 
in  practical  ideas  and  in  hopes  through  new  possibilities.  The  farm 
members  have  demonstrated  their  willingness  and  capacity  for  work ; 
the  membership  of  the  union  in  general,  from  all  appearances,  have 
been  won  to  a  thoughtful  consideration  of  the  farm  scheme,  as  the 
only  one  thus  far  proposed  which  gives  good  promise  of  some  outlet 
for  our  unemployed  and  a  local  Home  for  our  infirm  and  aged.  The 
Vacant  Lot  Committee  put  in  more  than  dollar  for  dollar  with  us  for 
our  members.  Its  itemized  account  for  the  past  year  shows  an  outlay 
of  more  than  $3,500.  Deducting  from  this  simi  its  salaries  previous 
to  April  and  the  cost  of  farming  its  tract  of  three  acres  and  the  seven 
half-acre  plots  of  outsiders,  more  than  $2,500  is  left  as  spent  directly 
for  members  of  No.  6.  This  was  for  seed,  teams,  keep  of  team,  extra 
ploughing,  implements,  fertilizers,  unclassified  expenses,  and  salaries 
of  the  two  instructors  and  the  farm  hand."  The  Land  Committee 
stated  that  it  had  expended  $2,295.40.  Answering  its  own  query, 
"  Did  the  returns  justify  this  outlay?  "  it  averred  that  "  the  yield  of 
the  farm  to  our  members  in  crops  sold,  eaten  and  taken  home,  and 
in  rent  or  lodging  saved  was  $1,676.70.  In  addition,  our  men  re- 
ceived in  meals  $435.25  and  were  given  potato  sacks  that  cost  $50.60. 
Nor  is  it  to  be  overlooked  that  the  $600  agent's  salary  went  to  farm 
members,  and  the  camp  outfit,  which  cost  more  than  $200,  is  still 


488  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

fit  for  use.  As  it  is,  our  crops  were  better  than  the  average  in  West- 
chester County  or  up  the  Hudson.  Farming  is  a  business  which  one 
year  may  yield  ten-fold  or  twenty-fold  and  the  next  less  than  the 
seed.  We  struck  a  bad  year.  Once  established  a  colony  or  a  Home 
of  farm  workers  could  be  maintained  at  a  low  cost  as  compared  with 
our  present  unproductive  methods  of  relieving  or  supporting  our 
members  out  of  work.  At  least  three  seasons  are  necessary  to  prove 
the  scheme  good  or  bad.  Meantime  it  opens  up  no  new  form  of 
outlay  to  the  union." 

The  committee's  report  was  accepted  by  the  union,  which  on  Feb- 
ruary 19,  1899,  appropriated  $2,500  to  continue  the  farm  experiment 
during  that  year.  To  this  was  added  $1,000  that 
Experiences  in  had  been  donated  by  two  subscribers,  besides  an 
Bound  Brook,  extra  sum  of  $500  that  the  union  subsequently 
New  Jersey.  voted.  It  having  been  found  impracticable  to 
utilize  the  only  space  available  in  Pelham  Bay  Park, 
the  Land  Committee  had  to  seek  a  suitable  place  elsewhere,  so  it  rented 
166  acres  in  Bound  Brook,  N.  J.,  for  a  year,  with  the  privilege  of  re- 
newing the  lease  annually  during  a  period  of  five  years.  The  distance 
from  New  York  and  the  cost  of  transportation  rendered  it  necessary 
to  provide  suitable  sleeping  quarters  and  furnish  meals  for  all  the 
printers  associated  with  the  farm  colony.  Only  partial  success 
crowned  the  efforts  of  the  committee,  which  did  not  view  the  tract 
until  April  5th,  and  the  first  group  of  men  did  not  settle  upon  the 
land  until  the  twenty-eighth  of  that  month.  This  late  beginning 
caused  the  bean  and  com  crops  to  enter  the  glutted  markets  of  the 
season,  and  these  were  the  only  products,  excepting  the  potatoes, 
that  amounted  to  much.  A  drouth  of  seven  weeks'  duration  de- 
stroyed eleven  acres  of  produce,  and  the  loss  disheartened  some  of 
the  plotholders.  Other  reasons  for  the  unfavorable  result  of  the 
second  year's  venture  were  also  stated  by  the  committee  in  its  report 
on  December  3d.  Forty-six  compositors  engaged  in  the  work.  "  The 
men  were  but  breaking  in  at  farming,  most  of  them  not  in  sound 
health,"  it  informed  the  union,  "About  half  the  force  had  tried  the 
work  in  Bartow  last  year,  but  not  half  a  dozen  besides  knew  anything 
of  the  work.  Fifteen  might  be  classed  as  old  men.  Four  came  direct 
from  hospitals  to  the  farm  and  others  had  recently  been  hospital 
patients.  Fully  one-half  were  suffering  visibly,  and  mostly  past  a  fair 
day's  work,  from  irregular  living.  Nearly  aE  of  them  learned  to 
manage  the  horse-cultivator  and  shovel-plough,  and  a  dozen  learned 
ploughing.  The  hoe  had  a  remarkable  influence  on  their  health. 
With  no  live  stock  to  begin  with,  no  orchard,  no  chance  to  double 


BENEFICIAL    FEATURES.  489 

crops,  no  fine  vegetables,  such  as  celery  and  asparagus,  no  small 
fruits,  no  hotbeds,  and  building  up  land  that  had  been  worked  by 
tenant  farmers  for  a  decade,  the  output  from  the  farm  this  bad  year, 
it  must  be  evident,  was  hardly  half  of  what  it  might  be  in  an  ordinary 
year  when  thoroughly  worked.  It  must  be  remembered  that  all 
the  farm  plant,  excepting  about  $20  worth  used  in  Bartow  last  year, 
had  to  be  bought,  and  that  the  ploughing  and  hauling  were  done 
by  contract."  Yet  with  these  disadvantages  the  total  value  of  the 
crops  was  $3,075.27,  their  cost  being  $2,516.22,  leaving  a  profit  of 
$559-oS-  "  The  Home  kept  the  men  better  fed,  better  housed,  in 
better  health,  and  under  better  moral  and  physical  condition  than 
most  of  them  had  been  for  years,"  observed  the  committee,  in  speak- 
ing of  the  housing  conditions  at  the  farm,  and  concluded:  "  The 
medicine  bill  averaged  less  than  a  dollar  a  week  and  only  twice  in 
the  six  months  was  there  a  visit  to  the  house  from  a  doctor.  With 
hardly  an  exception  the  men  who  worked  to  the  close  of  the  season 
earned  enough  from  their  labor  to  buy  their  winter's  clothing  and 
pay  their  board  at  the  farm  ($33)  from  October  28th  until  the  first 
of  next  April  —  22  weeks." 

How  the  printer-farmers  themselves  regarded  the  enterprise  may 
be  judged  from  their  own  expressions,  contained  in  this  communi- 
cation, approved  by  the  farm  chapel  in  the  early  spring  and  presented 
to  the  Board  of  Delegates  on  May  3d:  "  The  farmers  down  in 
Jersey  already  feel  rejuvenated  and  hope  to  be  able  at  the  end  of 
the  season  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  contact  with  '  mother  earth,'  i.  e., 
a  plethoric  piu-se,  and  last,  but  not  least,  better  health  than  can 
be  secured  on  'the  Row.'  ^  The  bathing,  fishing  and  the  first-class 
table  d'hdte  are  enjoyed  with  true  zest  by  all  hands,  and  the  chair- 
man of  the  Land  Committee  is  doing  everything  that  man  can  do  to 
make  the  *  hayseeds'  of  No.  6  comfortable.  The  condition  of  the 
farm  land  is  splendid,  and  the  surroundings  everything  that  can  be 
desired;  in  fact,  we  only  lack  our  coach-and-four  and  footman  to 
make  us  feel  as  though  we  were  satisfied  with  the  world  at  large. 
The  sleeping  accommodations  are  all  that  could  be  desired  —  large 
airy  rooms,  good  beds;  and  the  morning  song  of  the  *  robin  and  the 
frog,'  the  sunshine  and  the  truly  rural  homestead  are  really  immense." 

The  agricultiiral  experiment  was  extended  through  the  season  of 
1900  by  the  union,  which  appropriated  $5,000  for  that  year's  con- 
tinuation of  the  project,  while  from  an  outside  source  the  sum  of 
$400  was  contributed.     Although  the  farm  was  prepared  for  the 


'  Park  Row,  New  York  City,  a  conspicuous  thoroughfare  in  the  center  of  the  printing  industry. 


490  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

reception  of  members  on  April  ist  the  average  of  45  workers  main- 
tained throughout  the  season  was  not  attained  until  May  15th. 
Departing  shghtly  from  the  practice  of  the  two  previous  years  the  Land 
Committee  of  1900  tried  the  co-operative  experiment  to  a  limited 
extent,  and  plots  were  not  assigned  until  sufficient  space  had  been 
planted  to  give  each  man  one  and  a  quarter  acres.  Up  to  that  time 
the  men  were  assigned  to  tasks  for  which  their  respective  physical 
conditions  qualified  them.  "It  is  not  possible  to  state  the  exact 
value  that  each  man  received  for  his  crop,"  reported  the  committee 
in  November,  "  as  few  complete  reports  were  turned  in.  A  fair 
average  of  each  man's  rations  would  be  between  $3  5  and  $40.  Taking 
the  lower  figure  for  40  men,  this  would  show  a  return  of  $1,400,  or 
taking  the  larger  amount  he  would  have  a  total  of  $1,600.  In  esti- 
mating the  returns  of  the  season  there  are  other  tilings  to  be  taken 
into  consideration  besides  the  individual  cash  return  to  the  members 
of  the  farm  chapel,  or  the  value  of  the  product  raised  for  the  supply 
of  the  house  and  to  feed  the  stock  during  the  winter  months.  Among 
these  are  the  excellent  care  that  our  men  receive  at  the  Home  and 
the  very  good  food  supplied  at  a  low  price.  Beginning  June  15th 
our  own  garden  began  to  furnish  vegetables  and  these  with  our  own 
dairy  products  enabled  us  to  supply  an  excellent  bill  of  fare  for  $1.50 
per  week.  With  the  labor  which  members  of  the  farm  chapel  con- 
tribute it  would  be  possible  to  maintain  all  our  unemployed  mem- 
bers and  their  families  for  a  fractional  part  of  the  annual  allowance 
of  $60  per  year.  In  order  to  do  this  it  would  be  necessary  for  the 
union  to  purchase  its  own  farm.  It  is  imperative  that  this  farm 
have  consecutive  management  for  a  series  of  years  in  order  to  obtain 
the  best  results.  No  business  or  industrial  concern  expects  a  divi- 
dend for  one  or  two  years  after  it  is  established,  and  it  is  unreason- 
able to  expect  the  farm  to  be  self-sustaining  or  nearly  so  until  it 
is  placed  upon  a  sound  financial  basis." 

A  special  committee  that  had  been  created  to  institute  an  inquiry 
and  report  whether  or  not  it  would  be  advisable  to  continue  the 
farm  communicated  its  conclusions  to  the  union  on  November  11, 
1900.  The  judgment  of  the  investigators  was  opposed  to  the  proj- 
ect as  it  had  been  conducted  —  along  transient  lines.  They  were, 
however,  inclined  to  favor  a  permanent  enterprise.  "  The  soil  is 
not  adapted  to  the  service  to  which  it  is  most  desired  that  we  should 
put  it,"  critically  observed  the  committee.  "  For  a  man  of  wealth 
who  desired  a  large  plot  of  land  convenient  to  New  York  it  could 
not  be  improved  upon.  For  a  rented  truck  farm  it  is  not  suited. 
We  advise  against  continuing  the  farm  project  unless  the  union 


BENEFICIAL    FEATURES.  49I 

decides  to  establish  a  permanent  farm  and  Home  and  proceeds  to 
purchase  the  same,  so  that  what  money  is  expended  from  year  to 
year  for  improvements  would  not  be  wasted.  We  are  unanimously 
of  the  opinion  that  the  plot  system  is  not  successful.  On  a  well-regu- 
lated farm  on  which  40  or  45  men  share  the  work  necessary  to  prop- 
erly cultivate  120  acres  the  results  should  be  an  acreage  free  from 
rubbish,  weeds  and  rocks,  from  which  all  crops  would  be  harvested 
the  day  they  mature,  new  crops  planted  or  sown  immediately,  and 
a  consequent  increase  in  the  product.  Such  is  not  the  case  now. 
Each  man  has  a  plot.  If  Providence  is  kind  to  him  and  he  works 
at  least  occasionally  he  gets  some  kind  of  a  return.  Should  mis- 
fortune befall  his  plot  he  gets  nothing.  Should  the  project  be  con- 
tinued we  believe  that  it  should  be  done  on  the  basis  of  a  division  of 
profits  at  the  end  of  the  season,  all  the  printer-farmers  to  work  under 
a  farmer-foreman,  doing  such  work  as  he  may  deem  necessary  from 
day  to  day,  the  hours  of  work  to  be  fixed  so  as  not  to  be  a  hardship 
to  those  who  desired  to  take  advantage  of  the  union's  desire  to  lift 
its  unemployed."  It  was  the  opinion  of  the  committee  that  a  com- 
petent farmer  and  his  wife  should  have  been  employed  and  given 
fuU  charge  in  the  absence  of  the  Land  Committee.  "  Discipline  is 
the  most  essential  feature  in  connection  with  such  a  project,"  the 
report  averred.  "  In  order  to  maintain  discipline  a  disciplinarian 
must  be  in  charge  and  be  ever  on  hand.  Such  is  not  at  present  the 
case,  since  it  is  impossible  for  the  committee,  or  any  one  member 
of  it,  to  be  ever  present.  This  report  should  not  be  taken  as  a 
personal  criticism  of  any  member  of  the  Farm  Committee,  the  chair- 
man of  which  has  given  his  whole  heart  to  this  work  and  his  labors 
have  not  been  in  vain,  while  at  the  same  time  we  believe  that  under 
the  management  of  a  capable  farmer  the  farm  would  have  shown 
better  results,  provided  of  course  that  the  system  of  worldng  the 
land  had  been  different.  A  considerable  amount  has  been  invested 
in  implements  and  cattle,  and  so  far  as  your  committee  is  able  to 
judge  the  investments  have  been  judicious,  especially  should  the 
union  decide  to  establish  a  permanent  Home  and  farm.  Here,  too, 
the  lack  of  proper  attention  is  visible.  The  inmates  seem  to  confine 
their  work  to  their  own  distinctive  plots,  with  never  a  thought  of 
the  general  condition  or  appearance  of  the  property.  Of  course, 
each  man  gives  up  a  certain  time  for  what  is  known  as  '  detail  work,' 
but  it  is  not  as  effective  as  it  should  be.  That  the  several  Land 
Committees  up  to  date  have  been  greatly  handicapped  by  the  im- 
certainty  as  to  whether  the  farm  would  be  continued  is  very  true, 
and  this  drawback  must  not  be  imderestimated.     For  instance,  in 


492  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

the  buying  of  cattle,  of  implements,  in  the  making  of  repairs  and  the 
sowing  of  grain  the  practical  farmer  looks  forward  for  years  to  come. 
No  farm  experiment  can  be  successful  when  made  for  one  year, 
though  of  course  each  year  might  show  some  improvement.  You 
cannot  expect  to  buy  cattle  nor  implements  for  one  season's  use  and 
do  it  profitably,  for  at  the  season's  end,  should  you  wish  to  dispose 
of  them,  the  second-hand  brand  reduces  their  value  one-half." 

Upon  the  completion  of  the  reading  of  the  special  committee's 

report  the  imion  decided  to  abandon  the  agricultural  project,  ordered 

that  the  farm  property  be  sold,  and  discharged  the 

Agricultural       Land  Committee.     The  disposal  of  the  farm  imple- 

Undertaking      ments  and  stock  netted  $6io,  so  that  in  the  three 

Abandoned.       years,    apart   from   the   out-of-work   reHef  money 

received  by  the  members  who  had  engaged  in  the 

work  and  the  proceeds  from  the  sale  of  produce,  the  amount  actually 

disbursed  in  the  conduct  of  the  enterprise  aggregated  $13,585.40  — 

$9,685.40  of  that  sum  being  expended  by  the  union  from  its  own 

resources,    while    $3,900    constituted    contributions    from    outside 

sources. 

III. 

Pensions  for  Superannuated  Members. 

Typographical  Union  No.  6  began  to  consider  the  well-being  of 
its  aged  members  in  1884,  when  it  amended  its  constitution  so  as  to 
provide  that  those  over  60  years  old  who  had  been 
Local  actively  on  the  rolls   for  at   least  20  years  should 

Old-Age  be  placed  upon  the  retired  Hst  and  be  exempt  from 
Benefits.  dues  and  assessments.  In  1899  this  was  amended, 
so  as  to  exempt  aU  persons  of  25  years'  member- 
ship, if  not  regularly  employed  at  the  printing  business,  from  financial 
liabiHty  to  the  organization  and  permitting  them  to  share  in  all  the 
benefits  accruing  to  members  in  good  standing.  The  law  was  again 
changed  in  1906,  fixing  the  minimtim  limit  for  retirement  at  60  years 
of  age,  but  reqtiiring  such  members,  if  engaged  at  the  trade  and  earn- 
ing $10  per  week  and  over,  to  pay  dues  and  assessments.  It  also 
stipulated  that  "  any  member  who  shall  have  been  30  consecutive 
years  in  good  standing,  and  who  is  incapacitated,  through  no  fauh 
of  his,  for  further  duties  at  the  trade  may  be  placed  upon  the  retired 
list  and  be  exempt  from  all  financial  Hability  to  the  union,  if  in  the 
judgment  of  the  Executive  Committee  he  is  worthy."  Further  pro- 
vision was  made  on  September  8,  1907,  allowing  aged  and  disabled 


BENEFICIAL   FEATURES.  493 

members  to  obtain  employment  in  union  offices  at  less  than  the  regular 
scale  of  prices.  But  the  greatest  boon  conferred  upon  these  super- 
annuated members  by  the  New  York  union  was  the  old-age  benefit 
scheme,  which  was  adopted  on  July  24,  1907,  when  the  permanent 
out-of-work  relief  system  was  abrogated.  That  constitutional  pro- 
vision states  that  "  any  member  who  has  been  20  years  in  continuous 
good  standing,  has  no  source  of  income  and  is  utterly  incapacitated 
for  further  duties  at  the  trade,  may  be  paid  a  weekly  benefit  of  not 
more  than  $4."  Payments  of  this  benefit  date  from  September  i, 
1907.  At  first  it  included  all  aged  members  of  the  union,  but  when 
the  International  Typographical  Union  pension  law  went  into  effect 
about  a  year  later  the  local  rule  was  confined  to  only  those  who  had 
not  yet  attained  eligibility  under  the  International  plan.  Alto- 
gether 174  members  have  been  beneficiaries  of  the  local  fund,  from 
which  up  to  September  30,  1911,  they  had  drawn  a  total  of  $60,225.75. 
In  recent  years  retired  members  60  years  of  age  have  been  released 
from  all  financial  Hability  excepting  the  International  old-age  pen- 
sion fund  assessment,  while  those  of  70  years  and  upward  are  recip- 
ients of  all  benefits  and  are  relieved  from  the  necessity  of  paying 
dues  and  assessments  of  any  kind. 

In  August,  1907,  the  International  Typographical  Union  conven- 
tion passed  favorably  upon  a  superannuated  pension  system,  which 
was  subsequently  ratified  by  the  members  at  large, 
the  referendimi  resulting  in  a  majority  of  7,893  in    International 
favor  of  the  proposition,  which  became  effective  on    Pensions  for 
August  I,  1908.     Originally  the  plan  provided  that    Aged  Members. 
any  member  of  the  organization  who  had  reached  the 
age  of  60  years  after  continuous  affiliation  for  20  years,  "  who  finds 
it  impossible  to  secure  sustaining  employment,  and  who  has  no  other 
adequate  means  of  support,  may  receive  the  simi  of  $4.  per  week."^ 
Afterward  an  additional  clause  was  inserted  in  the  law  providing  that 
the  benefit  should  also  be  extended  to  any  member  of  ten  years' 
uninterrupted  good  standing  who  had  arrived  at  the  age  of  70  years,  or 
any  other  union  printer  "  having  a  continuous  membership  of  20 
years  who,  by  reason  of  his  affliction,  is  totally  incapacitated  for 
work,  and  whose  application  for  admission  to  the  Union  Printers' 
Home  has  been  rejected  by  the  trustees  thereof."     In  the  beginning 
Union  No.  6  had  145  pensioners  on  the  roll  and  all  told  256  of  its 
members  have  received  $81,148  from  the  fund,  since  the  inception 


*  In  August,  1911,  the  International  Typographical  Union  raised  the  pension  to  $s  weekly,  to 
become  operative  on  January  i,  1912. 


494  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

of  which  49  of  these  beneficiaries  have  died,  2  have  been  removed 
from  the  list  for  cause,  and  i  has  been  transferred  to  another  sub- 
ordinate union,  leaving  204  on  the  roster  at  the  end  of  September, 
191 1.  An  assessment  of  one-half  of  i  per  cent  is  levied  upon  the 
earnings  of  members  for  the  support  of  the  pension  system,  and  from 
March  i,  1908,  when  the  first  instalment  was  collected,  until  Sep- 
tember 30,  191 1,  Union  No.  6  covered  into  the  International  coffers 
for  old-age  pensions  the  sum  of  $114,732.80  —  or  $33,584.80  (29.3 
per  cent)  more  than  the  local  members  have  received. 

IV. 

Union  Printers'  Home. 

To  a  gift  of  $10,000  made  to  the  International  Typographical 
Union  in  1886  by  George  W.  Childs,  owner  of  the  Philadelphia  Public 
Ledger,  and  Anthony  J.  Drexel,  a  noted  banker  in  that  city,  a  sufficient 
amount  was  added  by  subordinate  unions  (the  largest  subscriber 
being  No.  6)  to  establish  the  Union  Printers'  Home,  which  was 
dedicated  in  Colorado  Springs,  Col.,  on  May  12,  1892,  and  has  been 
maintained  since  with  unvarying  success  and  greatly  to  the  benefit 
of  numerous  union  printers. 

The  idea  of  such  an  institution  was  first  suggested  by  a  Phila- 
delphian,  the  editor  of  the  Typographic  Advertiser,  who  in  October, 
1856,  printed  in  that  paper  an  editorial  pointing  out  the  good  that 
might  be  accomplished  by  founding  an  Asylum  for  Decayed  Printers. 
"  Printers,  as  printers,"  wrote  he,  "  are  not  very  notable  for  longevity. 
The  intellectual  capabilities  of  not  a  few  transfer  them  into  other 
relations.  Some  become  ministers,  some  doctors,  some  lawyers, 
some  financiers,  some  politicians,  or  pursue  other  callings  of  more 
profit  than  typesetting;  these  probably  live  as  long  as  all  engaged 
in  similar  professions.  But  of  those  who  remain  *  at  case '  not  many 
attain  to  length  of  days.  Still  there  are  some  whom  consimiption 
spares  and  who,  old  and  weary  and  with  trembling  fingers,  eke  out 
a  scanty  living  in  the  printing  office.  For  these  venerable  few,  who 
need  a  place  wherein  they  may  rest  awhile  before  they  die,  why  should 
there  not  be  founded  a  suitable  asylum?"  In  January,  1857,  L. 
Johnson  &  Co.,  publishers  of  the  Typographic  Advertiser,  offered  "  a 
subscription  of  $1,000  toward  the  founding  of  a  National  Asylimi 
for  Decayed  Printers.  We  trust  our  brethren  of  the  press  will  take 
up  this  matter  and  urge  it  to  a  happy  consummation."  Its  issue  of 
April  contained  another  allusion  to  the  subject,  saying:     "  We  are 


BENEFICIAL    FEATURES.  4^5 

glad  to  perceive  that  our  proposition  for  an  asylum  or  retreat  for 
superannuated  printers  is  meeting  a  favorable  reception.  News- 
papers in  various  parts  of  the  country  have  expressed  approval  of 
the  project,  and  that  highly  respectable  institution,  the  Typo- 
graphical Society  of  Philadelphia,  has  appointed  a  committee  to 
take  measures  to  bring  the  matter  to  a  practical  issue.  A  benevolent 
gentleman  of  this  city  has  authorized  us  to  offer  a  healthy  and  pleasant 
site  for  the  proposed  retreat  on  the  banks  of  the  Schuylkill."  The 
question  was  first  submitted  to  the  National  Typographical  Union 
in  May,  1857,  and  in  1858  a  committee  reported  in  favor  of  founding 
a  Home  for  invalid,  aged  or  infirm  members,  but  the  matter  did  not 
meet  with  serious  consideration,  and  was  postponed  until  i860,  when 
it  was  again  discussed,  the  convention,  however,  declining  to  make 
an  appropriation  from  its  surplus  fund  for  the  purpose  of  starting 
the  project.  To  that  cause  and  the  subsequent  breaking  out  of  the 
Civil  War  may  be  attributed  the  failure  of  the  plan  at  that  early 
period.  Two  years  after  the  close  of  the  Rebellion  the  question  was 
revived.  Reference  was  made  to  it  by  President  John  H.  Oberly 
in  his  address  to  the  fifteenth  annual  session  of  the  National  Union 
in  Memphis,  Term.,  on  June  3,  1867.  He  said:  "  A  few  months 
since  a  celebrated  printer,  the  kind-hearted  Charles  F.  Browne 
(Artemus  Ward)  was  stricken  down  in  the  prime  of  manhood  by 
the  hand  of  death.  In  his  last  moments  he  remembered  the  men  with 
whom  he  worked  in  former  days,  and  in  his  will  devised  a  large 
amount  of  his  fortune  for  the  purpose  of  founding  an  Asylum  for 
Superannuated  Printers."  Union  printers  throughout  America  then 
began  to  contribute  toward  the  Artemus  Ward  Fund,  and  at  the 
national  session  of  1868  it  was  ordered  that  such  moneys  be  invested 
in  United  States  bonds.  Delegates  to  the  session  of  1870  deemed  the 
Home  proposition  impracticable,  and  at  the  1873  convention  of  the 
International  Union  a  resolution  was  presented  that  the  "  Artemus 
Ward  Fund  be  appropriated  to  the  Greeley  Montmient  Fund,  to 
be  held  in  trust  by  Typographical  Union  No.  6."  But  in  Heu  of 
that  proposal  it  was  ordered  that  the  fund  "  be  restored  and  remain 
in  trust  by  this  International  Union  until  it  shall  be  appropriated  as 
the  original  donors  designed."  ^    Negative  action  was  again  taken  on 


*In  1874  the  so-called  Artemus  Ward  Fund  amounted  to  51,529.59,  which  sum  was  afterward 
diverted  and  was  not  devoted  to  the  object  for  which  it  was  intended.  To  an  inquiry  of  the  Printers' 
Circular  as  to  what  had  become  of  the  Ward  Fund.  J.  B.  Elfreth,  editor  of  the  Millville  (N.  J.) 
Transcript,  wrote  in  August,  1887:  "When  Artemus  Ward  died  he  bequeathed  $30,003  for  a 
homo  for  worn-out  printers,  and  made  the  late  Horace  Greeley  one  of  the  executors  of  the  will. 
This  was  one  of  Ward's  biggest  jokes,  for  he  did  not  leave  30  cents.  Printers  then  began  raising  a 
fund  similar  to  the  Childs-Drexel  Fund." 


496  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

the  proposition  in  1877,  and  the  question  remained  dormant  until 
1882,  when  the  newly-elected  officers  were  authorized  to  consider 
the  advisability  of  devising  ways  and  means  for  maintaining  an  insti- 
tution on  the  plan  of  the  soldiers'  homes.  Not  anything  developed 
from  that  action,  and  the  consummation  of  the  project  appeared 
to  be  as  distant  as  ever  until  in  1886  Messrs.  Childs  and  Drexel 
presented  their  combined  check  for  $10,000  —  $5,000  from  each 
donor  —  "  without  condition  or  suggestion  of  any  kind,  as  an  abso- 
lute gift,"  they  said  in  the  letter  accompanying  the  donation,  *'  in  full 
confidence  that  the  sagacious  and  conservative  councilors  of  your 
union  will  make  or  order  wise  use  of  it  for  the  good  of  the  union." 
The  gift  was  accepted  by  a  rising  vote  at  the  1886  convention,  which 
was  held  in  Pittsburgh,  Pa.  A  Board  of  Trustees  was  elected  for  five 
years  for  the  safe-keeping  and  investment  of  the  money,  and  as  an 
evidence  of  appreciation  of  the  motives  of  the  donors  the  general 
union  urged  that  on  the  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Mr,  Childs, 
May  12th,  during  the  succeeding  five  years  every  compositor  under 
its  jurisdiction  east  of  the  Mississippi  River  contribute  the  amount 
received  by  him  for  1,000  ems,  and  that  each  stercotyper,  electro- 
typer  and  pressman  on  the  same  date  donate  one  hour's  pay;  also 
that  on  September  12th,  Mr.  Drexel's  birthday,  like  contributions 
be  made  by  members  west  of  the  Mississippi  River. 

Tracts  of  land  for  a  Home  site  were  proffered  in  several  places  in 
1889,  the  most  popular  proposition  being  that  made  by  Louis  R. 
Ehrich,  of  Colorado  Springs,  Col.,  who  on  behalf  of  the  Board  of 
Trade  of  that  city  offered  to  deed  to  the  International  Union  in  fee 
simple  80  acres  of  land  lying  within  one  mile  east  of  the  town,  con- 
ditioned that  the  erection  of  a  Home  should  be  commenced  within 
two  years,  to  cost  at  least  $20,000,  and  to  be  completed  within  one 
year  from  the  date  of  beginning.  This  offer  was  accepted.  There  was 
then  in  the  fund  the  sum  of  $21,689.45,  but  the  convention  of  1889, 
failing  to  make  provision  for  the  raising  of  additional  money  to  erect  a 
Home,  an  appeal  for  voluntary  contributions  was  made  by  the  trustees, 
who  stated  that  under  the  terms  of  the  gift  it  would  be  necessary 
to  start  the  construction  work  by  June  22,  1891,  and  as  there  was 
not  a  sufficient  fund  in  existence  to  enable  the  1890  session  to  com- 
plete arrangements  and  order  the  erection  of  the  Home,  they  requested 
the  members  to  subscribe  such  amounts  as  they  could  afford.  By 
this  method  $4,199.55  was  added  to  the  fund  in  the  course  of  a  year, 
and  on  November  i,  1890,  the  levying  of  a  specified  assessment  for 
the  construction  and  maintenance  of  the  institution  was  begun,  and 
has  continued  since  that  date.     In  Chicago  on  November  18,  1890, 


BENEFICIAL   FEATURES.  497 

the  trustees  met  and  decided  to  build  a  $50,000  edifice.  Bids  were 
opened  in  Denver,  Col.,  on  March  17,  1891,  but  upon  examination 
it  was  found  that  the  figures  submitted  exceeded  the  amount  that 
it  had  been  determined  to  expend,  and  the  sum  was  augmented  to 
$58,000,  which  was  on  June  6th  raised  to  $62,700  to  cover  the  whole 
cost,  inclusive  of  necessary  extra  work. 

It  was  on  May  12,  1892,  the  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  George 
W.  Childs,  that  the  Home  was  dedicated.  Colorado  Springs  was 
thronged  with  people  from  far  and  near  to  witness  the  ceremonies. 
Trade  unions  and  civic  societies  joined  in  a  parade  through  the  city. 
The  dedicatory  exercises  were  held  in  the  open  air  in  front  of  the 
Home.  Vice-President  WilHam  Aimison,  of  the  Board  of  Trustees, 
opened  with  a  short  address,  followed  by  the  Rev.  James  B.  Gregg, 
with  an  invocation.  Governor  Routt  of  Colorado  spoke  briefly,  after 
which  Mayor  Ira  G.  Sprague  of  Colorado  Springs  paid  a  high  tribute 
to  the  printer  and  his  work  and  cordially  welcomed  all  strangers 
present.  Vice-President  James  McKenna  of  the  International 
Typographical  Union  responded  to  the  Mayor's  address  of  welcome. 
Next  was  introduced  one  of  the  most  prominent  persons  on  the 
platform  —  George  W.  Childs  —  whose  remarks  were  heartily 
applauded.  August  Donath,  a  trustee,  gave  an  interesting  history 
of  the  project,  and  was  followed  by  Hon.  Jacob  H.  GalHnger,  United 
States  Senator  from  New  Hampshire,  an  old  typo,  who  delivered 
the  principal  oration.  Short  speeches  were  then  made  by  President 
Cappeller,  of  the  National  Editorial  Association,  and  Bishop  Mc- 
Laren; the  services  of  the  day  being  fittingly  concluded  with  a  bene- 
diction by  Dean  A.  R.  Kiefer  of  Grace  Church. 

Among  the  diseases  to  which  printers  are  especially  liable  is  con- 
sumption, and  many  who  were  afflicted  with  the  white  plague  early 
sought  shelter  and  care  at  the  Home,  which  is  situated  in  a  climate 
that  is  peculiarly  adapted  to  those  suffering  from  all  forms  of  throat 
and  lung  ailments.  That  fact  suggested  the  erection  of  a  hospital 
building,  which  was  opened  for  occupancy  in  May,  1898.  Ten  tents 
were  placed  near  the  structvire  in  1904  for  the  use  of  tuberculosis 
patients,  and  they  proved  to  be  so  efficacious  that  ten  more  were 
added  in  1907,  in  which  year  was  also  constructed  a  central  building 
caUed  the  Solarium,  a  frame  structure  containing  modem  conven- 
iences and  with  two  sides  of  glass  so  as  to  give  the  occupants  the 
benefit  of  the  sunUght  at  all  hours  of  the  day. 

The  social  and  educational  side  of  the  Home  centres  in  the  Hbrary, 
a  wing  to  which  was  erected  in  1910  at  a  cost  of  $24,216.34.  In  the 
book  stacks  are  7,981  volumes.     Daily  newspapers  at  present  received 


498  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

and  kept  on  file  number  148.  Weekly  and  monthly  periodicals  are 
also  conspicuous  among  the  reading  matter.  Entertainments  of 
various  kinds,  from  theatricals  and  motion  picture  exhibitions  to 
holiday  celebrations,  are  provided  for  the  amusement  of  the  residents, 
many  of  whom,  particularly  tubercular  patients,  separated  from  their 
famiUes  and  life-long  associations,  are  thus  prevented  from  becoming 
depressed  in  spirits.  Vegetables  and  fruits  in  profusion  are  furnished 
by  the  farm  and  garden  connected  with  the  Home,  a  herd  of  Holstein- 
Friesian  cattle  supply  wholesome  milk,  and  flocks  of  domestic  fowl 
produce  large  quantities  of  eggs,  providing  besides  sufficient  poultry 
for  the  plenteous  table  of  other  palatable  viands. 

The  Home  buildings  occupy  a  commanding  eminence  overlooking 
Colorado  Springs  and  the  siu-rounding  plateau.  They  face  the  west, 
the  picturesque  montanic  view  extending  from  Castle  Rock,  30  miles 
northward,  to  the  Spanish  Peaks,  80  miles  to  the  south.  The  tract 
slopes  toward  the  city  on  the  west  and  to  Prospect  Lake  at  the  south- 
west. On  either  side  of  the  driveway,  from  the  magnificent  stone 
gateway  to  the  main  structure,  is  a  broad  cement  walk  an  eighth 
of  a  mile  in  length.  Bordering  it  and  encircling  the  buildings  are 
lawns  comprising  an  area  of  twelve  acres. 

Since  the  opening  of  the  Home  in  July,  1892,  up  to  September 
30,  1911,  1,230  printers  have  been  admitted  —  311  of  whom  have 
died,  668  have  vacated,  120  have  been  dismissed,  and  131  were  there 
at  the  close  of  this  report.  In  the  first  year  five  members  of  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  6  were  accomodated  at  the  institution.  From 
the  start  230  compositors  affiliated  with  that  subordinate  organi- 
zation have  been  residents,  and  at  the  end  of  September,  this  year, 
27  were  residing  there. 

It  has  cost  $1,058,549.82  to  construct,  furnish  and  maintain  the 
Home,  the  receipts  from  June,  1886,  to  September  30, 191 1,  amounting 
to  $1,083,090.49,  thus  leaving  on  the  last-noticed  date  a  balance  of 
$24,540.67.  While  printers  affiliated  with  Umon  No.  6  contributed 
a  large  part  of  the  $16,933.63  that  was  donated  by  the  general 
membership  up  to  October  31,  1890,  that  local  has,  since  the  inaugura- 
tion of  the  regular  assessment  plan  of  raising  funds,  paid  into  the 
treasury  of  the  institution  from  November  ist  of  that  year  to  October 
ist  of  the  present  year  the  sum  of  $136,793.61. 

As  early  as  November  4,  1894,  the  New  York  union  began  to  aid 
its  Home  members  in  a  financial  way,  it  then  passing  a  resolve  that 
an  allowance  of  $4  per  month  each  be  forwarded  to  the  superintendent 
for  their  use.  These  payments  have  continued  to  be  made  since 
that  date.     Residents  for  whom  provision  is  not  made  by  their  local 


BENEFICIAL  FEATURES.  499 

unions  receive  50  cents  per  week,  and  during  the  fiscal  year  that  ended 
in  May,  191 1,  the  International  pension  account  at  the  Colorado 
Springs  retreat  aggregated  $3,727. 

George  W.  Childs  was  a  model  employer  and  his  relations  with 
printers  were  always  most  cordial.  He  once  said  that  "  were  it 
not  for  the  Typographical  Union  the  printers  of  this  country  would 
not  now  be  getting  what  they  do  for  their  work  by  at  least  one-third." 
This  appreciation  of  the  thoughtful  consideration  of  Mr.  Childs  for 
his  employees  was  delivered  on  October  17,  1868,  by  Judge  Ellis  Lewis 
at  the  dedication  of  a  beautiful  enclosed  plot  at  Woodlands  Ceme- 
tery, West  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  which  had  been  presented  by  the  pro- 
prietor of  the  Public  Ledger  to  the  Philadelphia  Typographical 
Society:  "  The  great  and  magnificent  building  which  he  erected 
for  the  Ledger  at  a  cost  of  half  a  million  dollars,  as  a  newspaper 
establishment,  is  imparalleled  in  the  world.  But  he  could  not  erect 
this  building  without  providing  that  the  pressroom,  the  composing 
room,  the  reporters'  room,  and  every  room  where  his  employees 
were  engaged,  should  be  carefully  located,  ventilated  and  hghted, 
so  that  all  should  be  comfortable  in  their  employment,  and  enjoy 
good  health  in  their  industry.  Mr.  Childs  provides  for  the  comfort 
and  health  of  his  employees  during  life  —  he  secures  an  insurance  on 
their  lives  for  the  benefit  of  their  families  after  death.  And  even 
then  he  does  not  desert  them.  He  provides  this  beautiful  and  mag- 
nificent burial  lot  for  the  repose  of  their  lifeless  bodies  forever." 
By  a  rising  vote  on  July  5,  1885,  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  as  an 
evidence  of  the  high  esteem  in  which  it  held  Mr.  Childs,  elected  him 
an  honorary  member;  declaring  that  "in  the  hospitality  extended 
by  him  to  the  International  Typographical  Union  dviring  its  last 
session  has  only  added  one  more  to  the  many  well-known  instances  in 
which  he  has  shown  his  undeviating  regard  for  the  rights  and  interests 
of  workingmen  and  his  due  appreciation  of  the  efforts  of  those  who 
endeavor  to  uphold  and  ennoble  the  dignity  of  labor  and  cultivate  a 
closer  relationship  between  employer  and  employed;  that  the  justice, 
Uberality  and  kind  consideration  which  he  has  always  extended  to 
the  employees  of  his  own  establishment  are  facts  which  have  been 
proverbial,  and  are  to  be  applauded  by  the  craft  and  emulated 
by  employers  everywhere." 

At  the  demise  of  Anthony  J.  Drexel  in  1893  Union  No.  6  adopted 
resolutions  of  respect  to  his  memory.  George  W.  Childs  passed 
away  in  1894  and  on  February  4th,  that  year,  the  union,  after  order- 
ing that  it  be  represented  by  a  committee  at  the  funeral  obsequies, 
adjourned  as  a  mark  of  esteem  for  the  departed  philanthropist. 


500  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Fxirther  expression  of  the  sincere  regard  in  which  they  held  the  de- 
ceased benefactor  were  given  by  the  organized  compositors  of  New 
York  City  at  a  largely  attended  memorial  service  in  the  Fifth  Avenue 
Theatre  on  Sunday  afternoon,  March  ii,  1894,  the  principal  eulogists 
being  Bishop  Henry  C.  Potter,  the  Rev.  Joseph  N.  Blanchard,  D.  D., 
rector  of  St.  James'  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  Philadelphia,  who 
for  many  years  had  been  intimate  with  Mr.  Childs  as  his  pastor, 
Hon.  Amos  J.  Cimimings,  John  W.  Keller,  president  of  the  New 
York  Press  Club,  John  R.  O'Donnell,  ex-president,  and  James  J. 
Murphy,  president  of  Union  No.  6. 


V. 

Hospital  Beds. 

For  awhile  at  the  beginning  the  Typographical  Union  paid  $4  per 
week  to  members  who  were  tuiable  to  work  owing  to  illness.  While 
it  does  not  now  regularly  dispense  sick  benefits  it  has  adopted  other 
means  of  giving  relief  to  disabled  printers  who  are  associated  with 
it.  As  long  ago  as  1872  it  exempted  sick  members  from  the  payment 
of  dues,  requiring,  however,  that  such  illness  must  be  certified  by  a 
physician.  That  rule  has  substantially  continued  in  force  for  the 
past  40  years,  the  present  constitution  providing  as  follows  on  the 
subject:  "  Dues  and  assessments  shall  not  accrue  against  a  member 
who  is  physically  incapacitated,  after  such  member  has  notified  the 
secretary-treasurer  of  such  incapacity,  which  shall  be  certified  to  by 
a  regular  physician,  the  chairman  of  his  office  or  any  member  of  the 
union  in  good  standing;  but  no  such  exemption  shall  avail  unless 
such  notification  appears  on  record  at  the  rooms  of  the  secretary- 
treasurer  of  the  union.  The  International  dues  of  such  incapacitated 
member  shall  be  paid  by  the  union."  Ample  accommodations  for 
members  suffering  from  physical  disabilities  have  been  for  years 
provided  at  the  leading  local  hospitals  by  the  union,  which  insti- 
tuted such  humanitarian  work  in  1892  by  engaging  two  beds  in 
St.  Vincent's  Hospital,  New  York,  and  one  in  St.  Mary's  Hospital, 
Brooklyn.  It  has  at  present  beds  in  four  hospitals.  The  funds  for 
this  beneficence  are  usually  derived  from  entertainments,  principally 
from  the  proceeds  of  the  annual  ball.  From  October  22,  1898,  to 
September  30,  1911,  the  union  disbursed  $16,370.32  for  such  purpose, 
and  on  the  last-named  date  it  had  a  balance  of  $5,949.91  in  the 
hospital  fund.  In  tirgent  cases  additional  monetary  rehef  is  accorded 
by  the  union  to  the  afflicted.     From  March,  1901,  to  the  present 


BENEFICIAL    FEATURES.  50I 

time  the  secretary-treasurer  has  been  the  custodian  of  funds  specially 
subscribed  by  the  membership  to  aid  the  sick  and  also  widows  and 
orphans,  the  amount  derived  from  such  appeals  and  disbursed  by 
him  to  the  close  of  September,  1911,  aggregating  $17,329.08. 

Since  the  early  part  of  1907  the  union  has  paid  especial  attention 
to  the  health  of  its  members.  After  Doctor  Knopf,  an  authority  on 
tubercular  diseases,  had,  upon  invitation,  deHvered 
an  instructive  lecture  on  the  prevention  of  tubercu-  Permanent 
losis  at  the  regular  meeting  of  March  3d,  it  was  tt°°{^^  ^^oa 
decided  that  a  committee  of  three  —  composed  of  Sanitation 
John  L.  Cahill,  Joseph  A.  Gardner  and  A.  D.  Car- 
michael  —  carry  out  his  suggestions.  To  them  was  referred  a  propo- 
sition that  the  union  maintain  tents  at  the  Union  Printers'  Home. 
"The  suggestion  that  special  quarters  be  provided  for  those  stricken 
with  tuberculosis  was  prompted  by  a  desire  to  remedy  the  existing  sys- 
tem, under  which  members  have  been  compelled  to  wait  for  weeks 
before  their  appHcations  were  approved,  or  a  vacancy  occur,  "reported 
the  committee  in  the  following  August.  "A  better  plan  would  be  to 
send  such  members  to  nearby  sanatoria,  where  treatment  may  be 
had  at  the  cost  of  a  bed  in  a  hospital,  and  immediately,  if  necessary, 
with  a  possibility  of  cure  equal  to  treatment  in  Colorado.  Especially 
in  advanced  cases  proper  care  at  St.  Peter's,  St.  Joseph's  and  Seton 
Hospitals,  or  the  new  State  sanatoria,  woiild  be  more  satisfactory 
than  transportation  to  the  West,  with  the  advantage  of  delivering 
the  patient  from  a  journey  that  often  hastens  death.  Through 
Paul  Kennaday,  secretary  of  the  New  York  Committee  for  the  Pre- 
vention of  Tuberculosis,  the  committee  has  received  an  offer  to  care 
for  members  of  this  union  in  the  incipient  stages  of  the  disease  at 
sanatoria  in  this  State  free  of  charge,  or,  if  preferred,  for  a  sum  suffi- 
cient to  cover  expenses,  Mr.  Kennaday  will  also  supply  free  a  corps 
of  physicians,  all  experts  in  the  detection  of  initial  evidences  of  tuber- 
culosis, to  examine  the  members.  This  latter  proposition  the  com- 
mittee urges  the  imion  to  accept,  as  the  results  of  such  physical 
examinations  will  be  of  imtold  benefit.  The  only  expense  is  in  rent- 
ing several  rooms  in  a  hotel.  Each  examination  will  of  course  be 
conducted  in  strict  privacy.  We  are  informed  that  the  average 
general  practitioner  of  medicine  is  as  helpless  as  a  layman  in  dis- 
covering the  early  indications  of  tuberculosis,  and  that  a  person  may 
have  all  the  outward  signs  of  perfect  health  is  no  assurance  that  the 
disease  has  not  set  in  at  the  stage  where  it  is  most  easily  cured.  We 
recommend  that  a  physician,  expert  in  the  diagnosis  of  tuberculosis, 
be  retained  by  the  union,  instead  of  the  general  practitioner  who  now 


502  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

examines  applicants  for  the  Home.  At  our  request  Mr.  Kennaday 
inspected  six  typical  newspaper  and  book  offices  and  found  con- 
ditions dangerous  to  health,  in  some  cases  due  to  our  members  them- 
selves. In  concluding  his  report  he  says :  '  To  prevent  tuberculosis 
you  will  have  to  urge  in  and  out  of  season  temperance  in  spitting, 
temperance  in  drinking,  and  cleanliness,  as  well  as  shorter  hours  and 
ventilation.'  The  frightful  impairment  we  suffer  through  the  ravages 
of  tuberculosis  has  convinced  us  that  instant  action  is  demanded. 
That  printers  have  for  generations  furnished  the  highest  mortality 
from  this  disease  is  in  large  part  due  to  unhygienic  workshops,  and 
if  a  genuine  effort  is  made  to  improve  them,  in  chapels  and  through 
co-operation  of  this  organization  with  others  similarly  affected,  a 
tremendous  saving  in  life  and  money  may  be  accompHshed." 

Subsequently  $500  was  appropriated  by  the  union,  to  be  used  by 
the  Health  Committee  for  the  purpose  of  securing  a  bed  in  an  open- 
air  sanatorivun  for  the  accommodation  of  applicants  for  admission 
to  the  Home  pending  action  regarding  their  cases.  The  consti- 
tution was  also  amended  so  as  to  make  the  Committee  on  Health  and 
Sanitation  a  permanent  body,  a  provision  being  embodied  in  the 
fundamental  law  that  the  duties  of  its  three  members  "  shall  be  to 
establish  healthful  conditions  in  printing  shops,  and  to  arrange  for 
the  best  treatment  of  members  of  this  union  suffering  from  tubercu- 
losis," also  giving  them  authority,  with  the  approval  of  the  Executive 
Committee,  to  "  draw  on  the  fimds  of  the  Benefit  Board,  not  exceed- 
ing the  sum  of  $50,  for  emergency  cases."  Chairmen  of  chapels 
are  required  by  the  union  to  notify  the  Committee  on  Health  and 
Sanitation  of  unsanitary  conditions  in  the  offices  over  which  they 
preside.  Chapels  also  have  regulations  bearing  upon  the  subject 
of  health.  In  one  large  newspaper  office  the  rule  (which  is  typical 
of  the  requirement  that  prevails  in  other  printing  establishments) 
provides  that  "  a  committee  on  sanitation  consisting  of  five  members 
shall  be  appointed  —  two  from  the  night  side,  one  from  the  mid- 
night force  and  two  from  the  day  side  —  to  supervise  the  sanitary 
condition  of  the  composing  room.  They  shall  see  that  all  health 
regulations  imposed  by  the  chapel  and  the  management  are  observed. 
They  shall  bring  said  regulations  to  the  attention  of  newcomers  and 
shall  report  to  the  chairman  any  who  persistently  violate  them. 
They  shall  co-operate  with  the  chairman  and  management  in  all 
efforts  to  improve  the  health  conditions  of  the  office." 

In  June,  1908,  the  Health  Committee  submitted  to  the  union  the 
following  report  on  the  prevention  of  tuberculosis  from  James  A. 
Miller,  M.  D.,  chief  of  the  staff  of  physicians  who  had  examined 


BENEFICIAL   FEATURES.  503 

members  of  Union  No.  6  as  to  their  physical  condition,  for  statistical 
purposes : 

Total  number  of  men  examined,  203. 

Per  cent. 

Absolutely  normal 31 .  00 

Catarrh  (some  form) 27 .  50 

Heart  disease 2 .  90 

Nervous  heart .98 

Anaemia .98 

Cirrhosis 1.70 

Hemorrhoids 1.70 

Gastritis .98 

Conjunctivitis 2 .  90 

Acne .98 

Pulmonary  emphysema 3 .90 

Pleurisy 16 .  00 

Suspicious  pulmonary  tuberculosis 1.70 

Positive  pulmonary  tuberculosis* 15 .  00 

*0f  these,  healed,  10;  arrested,  s;  active,  16. 

Symptoms  complained  of  not  included  in  conditions  found  in  examinations: 

Per  cent. 

Constipation 10 .  30 

Chronic  diarrhoea .49 

Biliousness i .  90 

Indigestion 7.30 

Headaches 4 .  40 

Rheumatism 3  .  90 

Sciatica .98 

Lumbago .98 

Colic .98 

Nervousness 3 .  40 


The  most  striking  result  of  our  investigation  is  the  high  percentages  of  cases 
which  showed  some  trouble  with  respiratory  organs.  This  would  immediately 
call  for  investigation  into  the  causes. 

The  most  natural  explanation  would  be  the  dust  and  fumes  and  the  exposure 
to  varying  sudden  changes  in  temperature,  due  partly  to  the  carelessness  of  the 
men  and  partly  to  faulty  ventilation. 

The  high  percentage  of  tuberculosis  bears  out  our  previous  ideas  upon  this 
subject,  and  as  practically  all  these  men  live  under  good  conditions  at  home,  it 
must  be  felt  that  the  conditions  in  the  workshop  are  largely  responsible  for  the 
prevalence  of  tuberculosis. 

What  we  have  already  said  in  regard  to  respiratory  troubles  in  general  refers 
to  tuberculosis,  but  in  addition  probably  many  cases  are  due  to  the  spreading 
of  the  disease  from  one  person  to  another  in  the  shops,  which  is  entirely  prevent- 
able and  due  to  ignorance  or  carelessness. 

The  number  of  cases  of  pleurisy  is  probably  closely  connected  with  the  cases 
of  tuberculosis,  as  pleurisy  is  one  of  the  well-recognized  forms  of  tuberculosis, 
and  the  disease  may  often  stop  there  and  never  reach  the  lungs. 

The  fact  that  so  many  of  the  cases  of  tuberculosis  were  healed  or  arrested  shows 
that  the  conditions  of  work  do  not  render  this  impossible.  The  excellent  home 
conditions  of  these  men  are  probably  largely  responsible  for  this  fact. 


504  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

The  other  diseases  named  seem  to  play  a  very  minor  role  of  importance  except- 
ing the  disturbances  of  digestion.  These  are  probably  largely  due  to  the  seden- 
tary life  and  irregular  habits  of  eating. 

It  is  worthy  of  comment  that  only  two  cases  of  colic  were  found,  and  even  in 
these  it  could  not  be  said  positively  that  it  was  due  to  lead  poisoning.  No  other 
signs  or  symptoms  were  found  which  would  suggest  the  possibility  of  poisoning 
by  lead. 

We  do  not  feel  in  a  position  as  yet  to  draw  any  conclusions  or  make  any  recom- 
mendations based  upon  this  investigation,  but  these  may  be  expected  after  more 
careful  study  of  the  subject. 

Within  the  past  five  years  the  Labor  Law  has  been  amended  so 
as  to  insure  improved  sanitation  in  workshops,  by  requiring  proper 
ventilation,  cleanliness  of  floors,  ceilings  and  walls, 
Improvement      and  the  maintenance  of  cuspidors,  as  well  as  suit- 
in  "Workshop       able  receptacles  for  the  storage  of  waste  and  refuse. 
Conditions.         These  statutory   provisions   tend   to   preserve   the 
health  of  factory  operatives,  and  through  the  co- 
operation of  the  Committee  on  Health  and  Sanitation  the  Btueau 
of  Factory  Inspection  has  been  enabled  to  compel  numerous  salutary 
changes  in  printing  offices  in  conformity  with  the  legal  requirements 
of  the  State.     Violations  of  these  health  laws  are  reported  by  chapels 
to  the  committee,  which  in  turn  promptly  notifies  the  bureau,  and 
immediate  attention  is  given  to  the  complaints. 


VI. 

Mortuary  Benefits. 

Exclusive  of  a  short  period  in  the  early  fifties  of  the  last  century, 
when  at  the  beginning  of  its  conflict  with  the  Printers'  Co-operative 
Union  the  benevolent  features  of  Union  No.  6  were  suspended  during 
the  pendency  of  peace  negotiations  between  the  two  associations, 
death  benefits  have  been  paid  to  its  members  by  the  latter  organi- 
zation from  the  date  of  its  inception.  In  the  original  constitution 
it  was  provided  that  an  assessment  of  25  cents  be  laid  upon  each 
member  to  defray  the  funeral  expenses  of  a  deceased  craftsman 
affiliated  with  the  union.  Provision  was  also  made  to  pay  $20  to  a 
member  in  the  event  of  his  wife's  death,  and  widows  and  orphans 
of  members  who  were  qualified  at  decease  were  allowed  such  assist- 
ance as  the  union  from  time  to  time  directed.  The  revised  consti- 
tution of  1859  required  that  in  case  of  the  demise  of  a  member  $35 
should  be  appropriated  toward  paying  the  funeral  expenses,  stipu- 


BENEFICIAL    FEATURES.  505 

lating,  however,  that  to  be  eligible  to  the  benefit  such  decedent  "  shall 
have  been  a  member  six  months  previous  to  his  death  and  that  he 
shall  have  been  in  good  standing  at  the  time  of  his  decease."  Ten 
years  later  the  fundamental  law  fixed  $150  as  the  amount  that  should 
be  given  to  the  family  of  a  deceased  printer  who  had  been  a  member 
for  three  months  immediately  preceding  his  death  and  in  good  stand- 
ing at  that  time.  In  the  absence  of  competent  relatives  the  secretary 
took  charge  of  funeral  arrangements.  The  maximum  mortuary 
benefit  has  not  been  changed  since  it  was  originally  established  at 
$150,  although  in  1892  the  International  Typographical  Union 
started  a  burial  fund,  at  first  paying  $50  and  later  $75,  for  which 
purpose  a  portion  of  the  capitation  tax  collected  from  subordinate 
bodies  is  applied,  and  the  local  organization  in  New  York  has  since 
added  to  the  International  benefit  enough  to  make  the  highest  sum 
$150.  The  International  law  provides  that  "no  funeral  benefit 
shall  be  allowed  unless  the  deceased  was  possessed  of  a  current 
working  card  at  the  time  of  death."  ''  At  present  the  constitution 
of  Union  No.  6  requires  that  in  case  of  the  death  of  a  member,  who 
shall  have  been  connected  with  the  organization  at  least  one  year  and 
in  continuous  good  standing  for  six  months  immediately  preceding 
decease,  $150  must  be  paid  to  the  relative  legally  responsible  for 
and  who  has  assumed  the  funeral  expenses;  or  $100  to  a  similar  heir 
in  the  case  of  one  who  shall  have  been  a  member  one  year  and  not 
indebted  to  the  union  at  the  time  of  death;  or  $75  to  the  relatives 
of  a  decedent  who  had  been  in  affiliation  less  than  a  year  and 
holding  a  clear  card.  In  the  event  of  a  deceased  member  having 
no  relatives  the  union  through  its  Benefit  Board  takes  charge  of 
the  remains  and  pays  the  legitimate  fimeral  expenses,  which  can- 
not exceed  $75. 

It  is  possible  to  present  here  a  statement  of  the  yearly  amoimts 
that  Union  No.  6  has  disbursed  in  death  benefits  from  October  i, 
1896,  to  September  30,  19 11.  During  that  fifteen-year  period  there 
were  1,516  deaths  of  members  and  the  sums  expended  for  mortuary 
claims  aggregated  $202,548.91,  as  follows  per  annum: 


5  At  the  convention  of  the  International  Typographical  Union  held  in  August,  191 1,  a  resolution 
was  passed  and  submitted  to  the  referendum,  which  later  adopted  it,  to  provide  for  graduated 
mortuary  benefits,  the  new  law  to  take  effect  on  April  i,  1912.  It  stipulates  that  on  the  death  of 
a  member  in  good  standing  the  designated  beneficiary  shall  be  entitled  to  one  of  the  following 
amounts:  For  a  membership  of  one  year  or  less,  $T5;  for  a  continuous  membership  of  two  years, 
I125;  three  years,  $I7S;  four  years,  $275;  five  years,  S400.  To  meet  these  payments  a  permanent 
monthly  assessment  of  one-half  of  i  per  cent,  beginning  on  January  i,  1912,  is  to  be  levied  on 
the  earnings  of  members.  A  beneficiary  of  a  person  who  joins  the  union  after  the  age  of  50  years 
will  not  receive  more  than  $75. 


506  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Mortuary  Bene6ts  Paid  by  Typographical  Union  No.  6  in  Fifteen  Yean. 

Number  of 
Year  ended  September  30,  —  deaths.         Disbursements. 

1897 76  $10,527.00 

1898 69  9.258.50 

1899 77  10 ,  280. 60 

1900 83  10 ,  708 .  32 

1901 81  10,570. 10 

1902 99  13 .  065 .  43 

1903 99  13 ,  162 .  55 

1904 102  13 ,  944 .  44 

1905 116  15,197.19 

1906.  .  .  .  : 128  16,442.57 

1907 125  16,892.16 

1908 121  16,479.  10 

1909 113  15,233.60 

I9I0 114  15,367.10 

191 1 113  15,420.25 


Total i,Si6  $202,548.91 


Longevity  of  the  printer  increases  in  proportion  to  the  improve- 
ments that  are  made  in  his  industrial  surroundings. 
,-.,  Back  in  1850  it  was  noted  that  the  average  dura- 

Increases,       '^io^  o^  ^  compositor's  life  was  estimated  at   28 
years.     The  writer  who  gave  utterance  to  that  fact 
further  expressed  himself  in  this  way: 

A  true  republican  looks  with  sympathetic  interest  upon  all  classes  of  men  who 
earn  their  bread  by  the  sweat  of  the  brow;  but  of  course  there  must  be  vocations 
for  which  one  has  a  particular  regard,  and  we  confess  that  among  these  we  know 
of  none  more  important,  nor  of  a  class  more  generally  useful,  intelligent  and  at 
the  same  time  unfortunate  than  that  of  printers.  From  a  long  daily  and  con- 
stant association  with  them  we  have  learned  to  look  on  them  as  one  large  family  — 
nervous,  jovial,  thoughtful,  witty,  bilious,  poor,  proud,  wiggling,  talkative  — 
in  relation  to  whom  we  stand  as  a  sort  of  half-brother  or  second  cousin  on  a  long 
visit  to  them.  There  they  stand  at  their  cases  —  breathing  machines,  magical 
automata  —  daguerreotyping,  as  it  were,  the  passing  scenes  of  life's  changeful 
panorama,  sending  forth  into  the  world  the  world's  history  of  itself,  with  such 
a  generally  accurate  minuteness,  such  order  and  punctuality,  that  the  unadvised 
world  conceive,  if  indeed  they  think  anything  about  their  benefactors,  that  the 
toil  is  not  only  easy  but  amusing  —  the  printer  has  such  a  chance  to  get  the  first 
news.  Favored  race!  the  average  duration  of  a  printer's  life  is  estimated  at  28 
years!  Agreeable  and  healthy  must  be  the  occupation  that  has  such  an  effect 
upon  the  system!  A  printer  is  literally  a  galley  slave,  though  he  is  nominally 
paid  for  his  labor.  What  amount  of  wages  compensates  him  for  the  loss  of  proper 
exercise,  pure  air  and  seasonable  sleep?  How  much  gold  will  purge  the  lead 
from  his  system?  What  enjoyment  is  there  in  his  employment,  which,  in  the 
round  of  his  abbreviated  years,  wiU  compensate  him  for  the  years  he  is  deprived 
of  ?  He  looks  upon  the  fair  visit  of  a  happy  old  age  as  Moses  viewed  the  Land 
of  Promise  —  a  vision  of  beauty  not  for  his  fortune  to  realize.  We  really  think 
that  if  there  is  anything  which  an  age  of  intelligence  like  this  has  to  reproach 
itself  with,  it  is  its  neglect  of  printers  in  view  of  their  scanty  rewards  and  their 
hopeless,  refugeless,  unhealthy  drudgery.     Empty  phrases  may  be  bestowed  upon 


BENEFICIAL    FEATURES. 


507 


Increase  in 
the  Length  of 
Printers'  Lives. 


them  by  some  artful  political  demagogue,  and  they  may  be  toasted  at  festivals 
in  a  condescending  way,  but  words  will  not  reward  them,  nor  build  an  asylum 
for  the  consumptive,  nor  put  bread  into  the  mouths  of  the  printer  and  his  family, 
when  temporarily  or  permanently  thrown  out  of  work  by  dull  business,  or  the 
sickness  resulting  from  his  vocation.'' 

By  1868,  it  is  apparent,  the  printer's  environment  had  been  sh'ghtly 
bettered  and  thus  prolonged  his  existence,  for  in  that  year  at  the 
Franldin  dinner  of  the  New  York  Typographical 
Society,  Charles  McDevitt,  a  studious  and  con- 
servative craftsman,  showed  that  the  average  life 
of  printers  was  then  35  years,  but  some,  he  said, 
lived  to  a  great  age.  In  1893  the  average  age  of 
compositors  at  death  had  advanced  to  38.78  years,  and  the  gain 
has  been  quite  perceptible  since  then.  For  the  quinquennial  term 
that  ended  with  1905  the  mean  age  of  New  York  City  printers  at 
death  reached  46.48  years,  while  during  the  quinquennium  that 
expired  with  the  year  19 10  the  average  at  decease  rose  to  49.44  years, 
primarily  as  a  result  of  worldng  conditions  that  conform  largely  to 
the  needs  of  our  modem  civilization.  Even  in  tubercular  cases  there 
has  been  a  marked  rise  in  the  average  age  at  death  among  Metro- 
politan compositors,  in  the  five  years  that  closed  on  December  31, 
1905,  the  mean  being  37.36  years,  while  in  the  succeeding  quin- 
quennium it  advanced  five  years,  going  up  to  42.42.  Another  inter- 
esting fact  is  that  24.2  per  cent  of  583  members  of  all  typographical 
unions  in  New  York  City  who  died  in  the  five-year  period  that  termi- 
nated in  1 9 10  had  passed  their  60th  birthday,  compared  with  19. i 
per  cent  of  508  in  the  preceding  quinquennium.  In  the  following 
table  are  the  figures  for  the  two  periods  considered: 

New  York  City  Compositon  Whose  Ages  Were  60  Years  and  Over  at  Death. 


Five  Years  Ended  December  31,   1905. 
Age.  Number. 

60 12 

61 8 

62 

63 

64 

6s 

66 

67 

68 

69 

70 

71 

72 

73 

74 

75 

76 


Five  Years  Ended  December  31,  1910. 
Age.  Number. 

60 12 

61 13 

62 9 

63 8 

64 9 

6s 10 

66 II 

67 8 

68 6 

69 4 

70 II 

71 2 

72 6 

73 2 

74 5 

75 10 

76 3 


'>  Reprinted  from  the  Boston  Waverly  Magazine  by  the  New  York  Tribune,  on  October  3,  1850, 


5o8 


NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 


New  York  City  Compositort  Who»e  Aso  Were  60  Years  and  Over  at  Death  —  Continued. 


Age. 
77-  .  . 
78... 

79.  •  • 

80.  .. 
84... 
90.  .  . 


Total. 


Number. 

Age. 

3 

77 

2 

78 

2 

79 

I 

80 

I 

81 

I 

82 

86 
94 

97 

Number. 


Total . 


Death  records  of  Union  No.  6  are  available  for  52  consecutive 
years.     The  fiscal  twelvemonth  of  the  organization  commences  on 
April  ist,  and  from  that  date  in  1859  until  March 
Record  of        3i»  i9ii>  an  aggregate  of  2,867  members  have  died. 
Deaths  in        By  adding  to  these  figures  the  49  deaths  that  were 
52  years.         reported  from  April  ist  to  September  30th  of  the 
current  year  the  total  is  raised  to  2,916.     There  was 
a  comparatively  large  increase  in  the  nimiber  of  decedents  during 
the  Civil  War,  and  as  the  membership  was  then  rather  small  the  pro- 
portion of  deaths  was  qmte  high.     This  was  accounted  for  by  the  fact 
that  not  a  few  of  the  members  who  were  then  at  the  front  were  killed 
on  Southern  battlefields,  or  died  from  other  causes  while  engaged  in 
the  service  of  their  country.     A  statement  by  years  appears  below  : 


Deaths  of  Members  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  from  April  1 ,  1 859,  to  March  31,  1911. 


Year  ended  March  31,- 
1860 


1861. 
1862. 
1863. 
1864. 
1865. 
1866. 
1867. 
1868. 
1869. 
1870. 
1871. 
1872. 
1873. 
1874- 
1875. 
1876. 
1877. 
1878. 
1879. 
1880. 
1881. 
1882. 
1883. 
1884. 
188S. 
1886. 


Number. 

5 

7 

9 
14 
17 
20 

6 
13 
18 
18 
26 
32 
37 
33 
32 
37 
43 
36 
32 


19 
29 
34 
33 
S3 
39 


Year  ended  March  31,- 
1887 


1890. 
1891. 
1892. 
1893. 
1894. 
1895. 
1896. 
1897. 
1898. 
1899. 
1900. 
1901. 
1902. 
1903. 
1904. 
190S. 
1906. 
1907. 
1908. 
1909. 
1910. 
1911. 


Total . 


Number. 

46 

54 

40 

6S 

82 

69 

93 

78 

76 

78 

79 

73 

61 

89 

79 

90 

103 

100 

113 

112 

134 

127 

107 

119 

116 

2,867 


BENEFICIAL    FEATURES. 


509 


Provision  is  made  by  Union  No.  6  for  the  interment  of  deceased 
members  who  have  no  nearby  relatives,  places  of  sepulture  being  in 
seven  cemeteries  in  the  vicinity  of  New  York,  the 
first  purchase  of  space  for  graves  having  been  made    Union  Provides 
in   Calvary   Cemetery,  Brooklyn,   on   February  i,    Places  of 
1857.     The  two  principal  burial  plots  that  are  now    Sepultiire. 
utilized   by   the   association   are   in    Mount   Hope 
Cemetery,  Westchester  County,  and  Holy  Cross  Cemetery,  Borough 
of  Brooklyn.     From  the  beginning  until  September  30,   191 1,  for 
the  acquirement  of  title  to  and  care  of  the  various  plots  and  the  erec- 
tion of  a  monument  in  Mount  Hope,  the  union  has  expended  $3,385. 
In  the  seven  cemeteries  229  interments  have  been  made,  as  follows: 

Number  of 
Cemetery.  interments. 

Mount  Hope,  Westchester  County 175 

Evergreens,  Borough  of  Brooklyn 24 

Holy  Cross,  Borough  of  Brooklyn 20 

Lutheran,  Borough  of  Queens S 

Cypress  Hills,  Borough  of  Brooklyn 2 

Calvary,  Borough  of  Queens 2 

Linden  Hill,  Borough  of  Queens i 


Total. 


In  a  book  provided  for  that  purpose  the  clerk  of  the  Benefit  Board 
records  the  name,  age  and  date  of  burial  of  each  deceased  member 
interred  in  the  union's  plots,  besides  noting  the  exact  location  of  the 
grave  of  such  person. 

VII. 

Disbursements  in  Benefits  for  Fifteen  Years. 

Though  always  considering  the  economic  question  to  be  of  para- 
mount significance  Union  No.  6  has  nevertheless  broadened  its  use- 
fulness by  extending  its  activities  to  other  fields  of  endeavor.  One 
of  its  maxims  conveys  the  truth  that  it  "  stands  in  the  forefront  of 
every  movement  for  the  betterment  of  mankind."  Not  only  has  it 
agitated  for  and  succeeded  in  obtaining  higher  wages  and  shorter 
working  time  for  printers  within  its  pale,  but  it  takes  laudable  pride 
in  proclaiming  that  it  spends  thousands  of  dollars  yearly  to  relieve 
its  unemployed,  helps  its  members  in  times  of  business  depression, 
pays  weekly  pensions  to  the  superannuated,  provides  beds  in  hos- 
pitals for  its  sick,  also  aiding  them  through  special  subscriptions, 
contributes  liberally  to  the  support  of  the  Union  Printers'  Home, 


5IO  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

where  disabled,  infirm  and  aged  typographers  are  cared  for,  strives 
zealously  to  secure  sanitary  conditions  in  the  workshop,  thereby 
lessening  the  ravages  of  tuberculosis,  buries  its  dead,  renders  financial 
assistance  to  the  beneficiaries  of  its  deceased  members,  and  succors 
the  widow  and  orphan.  A  recapitulation  of  its  benevolences  within 
the  period  from  October  i,  1896,  to  September  30,  191 1,  reveals  the 
interesting  fact  that  the  large  sum  of  $1,906,362.73  has  been  defrayed 
by  the  union  in  various  kinds  of  benefits  to  those  entitled  to  its 
bounty.  Its  financial  relief  to  the  unemployed,  members  suffering 
from  disability  through  sickness  or  old  age,  and  to  widows  and  orphans 
has  footed  up  $770,33 1.95,  while  for  burying  its  dead,  and  in  payments 
to  relatives  of  deceased  union  printers,  it  has  disbursed  $204,358.91, 
making  a  gross  expenditure  of  $974,690.86  for  these  commendable 
objects.  On  the  economic  side,  to  defend  its  principles  it  has  cost 
in  fifteen  years  $931,671.87,  most  of  that  sum  having  been  spent 
in  strike  relief  during  the  dispute  for  the  eight-hour  working  day  in 
the  book  and  job  trade,  which  controversy  culminated  in  favor  of 
the  compositors'  organization.  Below  in  tabular  form  are  the 
amounts  that  have  been  disbursed  in  different  benefits  during  the 
fifteen  years  mentioned: 

Classification.  Amount. 

Unemployment  benefits $468 , 622 . 05 

Printers'  farm 9 ,  68S .  40 

International  pensions 81 ,  148 .  00 

Local  old-age  benefits 60 ,  225 .  75 

Union  Printers'  Home 116,951 .35 

Hospital  beds 16,370.32 

special  subscriptions  for  sick  members,  widows  and  orphans 17 ,  329 .  08 

Mortuary  benefits 202 ,  548  .  91 

Cemetery  plots  and  monument i , 8 10. 00 

Strike  relief 931 ,671 .87 

Total .  . $1 ,  906 ,  362 .  73 


First  Label  Adopted  by  Typographical 
Union  No.  6,  in  1891. 


ABED 


Label  of  International  Typographical 

Union  —  Superseded    Preceding 

Label  in  1893. 


Original  Allied  Printing  Trades  Label, 
Which  First  Appeared  in  1894. 


Present   Label  of  the  Allied   Printing 
Trades  Council. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
THE  UNION  LABEL. 

BEFORE  the  Industrial  Commission  in  Washington  on  May  9, 
1899,  Samuel  B.  Donnelly,  erstwliile  president  of  Union  No. 
6,  and  at  that  time  the  executive  of  the  International  Typo- 
graphical Union,  gave  his  views  on  the  utility  of  the  union  label. 
He  said  that  it  was  of  vast  benefit  to  industrial  organizations,  being 
considered  the  trade  mark  of  imion  labor — "the  trade  mark  of 
fair  conditions  and  living  wages,"  he  testified,  "  and  through  its 
advertisement  and  the  public  sentiment  favorable  to  trade  unionism 
we  have  created  a  demand  for  the  union  label.  Not  only  have  we 
secured  its  use  upon  the  work  of  all  trade  unions  and  social  societies, 
but  also  upon  the  work  of  benevolent  and  benefit  societies,  and  upon 
political  printing,  and  municipal.  State  and  county  printing."  The 
question  of  adopting  a  label  for  the  printing  trade  was  first  discussed 
at  the  1886  convention  of  the  International  Typographical  Union, 
resulting  in  the  passage  of  a  resolution  directing  the  Executive  Council 
"  to  prepare  a  seal  of  suitable  design,  to  be  used  on  all  printed  matter, 
where  it  is  desired  by  the  publisher,  and  also  to  regulate  the  use  of 
the  same,  so  that  the  product  of  union  labor  may  be  readily  known 
by  purchasers,  and  the  demand  for  publications  friendly  to  the  cause 
of  union  workmen  be  encouraged."  It  was  the  original  intention 
to  produce  a  label  for  the  use  of  such  unions  as  desired  its  adoption 
by  fair  newspapers.  John  Franey,  of  Buffalo  Typographical  Union 
No.  9,  prepared  the  first  design,  which  was  approved  by  the  Executive 
Council  and  sent  to  Washington  to  be  copyrighted.^  "A  number 
of  our  subordinate  unions  in  the  larger  cities  provided  a  label  for 
the  use  of  fair  papers,"  remarked  President  James  M.  Lynch  of  the 
International  Typographical  Union  in  1902,  "  but  it  was  not  imtil 


"  The  design  consisted  of  the  seal  of  the  International  Union  surrounded  in  circular  form  by 
the  words, '  International  Typographical  Union,  Instituted  June,  1869.'  An  outer  circle  contained 
the  legend, '  Union  printers  only  employed  on  this  paper.'  Mr.  Franey  suggested  that,  by  changing 
the  word  '  paper  '  to  '  book  '  or  job,  the  label  could  be  made  suitable  for  book  or  job  w«rk,  but 
it  was  expected  at  the  time  that  the  label  would  be  used  chiefly  if  not  exclusively  by  newspapers." 
—  Barnett,  "  The  Printers,"  page  273,  quoting  from  the  Craftsman  of  May  2  and  June  12,  1886. 

[511] 


512  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

1 89 1  that  the  label  came  into  general  use.  At  our  Boston  convention 
in  1 89 1  a  resolution  was  adopted,  instructing  the  Executive  Council 
to  prepare  a  suitable  design  of  label  for  the  use  of  subordinate  unions. 
This  work  was  taken  up  shortly  after  the  convention  by  the  council, 
and  the  typographical  label,  which  is  still  in  use,  first  appeared  in 
our  official  Journal  of  October  15,  1891.^  Boston  Union  No.  13 
claims  to  be  the  first  subordinate  body  to  put  the  label  into  general 
use.  I  find,  in  our  Journal  of  November  2,  1891,  a  communication 
from  Boston,  in  which  the  popularity  of  the  label  is  commented 
upon.  The  statement  is  made  in  tliis  letter  that  eleven  job  offices 
had  been  unionized  through  the  influence  of  the  label,  and  that  the 
demand  for  it  was  then  increasing." 

Typographical  Union  No.  6  took  action  relative  to  a  label  on 
January  4,  1891,  Bastable  J.  Hawkes  then  proposing  that  the  officers 
be  instructed  to  devise  one  and  have  it  registered. 
Printing  The  motion  being  carried,  Mr.  Hawkes  and  Secretary 

Trades  William  Ferguson  were  selected  to  prepare  a  design 

Federation.  ^^d  have  it  engraved.  That  label  was  soon  after- 
ward introduced  and  was  used  until  it  was  super- 
seded by  the  one  adopted  by  the  International,  which  was  ultimately 
substituted  by  that  of  the  Allied  Printing  Trades.  President  W.  B. 
Prescott  in  his  address  to  the  International  convention  of  1893  dwelt 
upon  the  necessity  of  a  label  for  the  use  of  offices  that  employed 
members  of  the  general  organization  in  all  departments.  At  that 
time  the  International  was  composed  of  compositors,  bookbinders, 
mailers,  pressmen,  press  feeders,  stereotypers,  electrotypers  and  type- 
founders. Authorization  having  been  given  to  the  Executive  Council 
to  prepare  an  allied  trades  label,  a  suitable  design  was  agreed  upon 
and  it  first  made  its  appearance  in  November,  1893.  Union  No.  6 
ten  years  previously  had  deliberated  upon  the  feasibility  of  organizing 
all  trades  in  the  printing  business  in  one  association,  having  on  July 
I,  1883,  appointed  a  committee  to  consider  the  matter,  which  on 
August  3d  was  referred  to  the  officers.  There  the  subject  rested 
until  May  5,  1890,  when  a  resolution  was  passed  authorizing  the 
appointment  of  a  committee  "  to  confer  with  the  different  organi- 
zations of  pressmen,  the  stereotypers  and  bookbinders,  with  the 
object  of  harmonizing  the  various  interests  and  bringing  about  a 


s"  The  label  adopted  in  1891  differed  from  the  earlier  one  chiefly  by  the  omission  of  the  outer 
circle  containing  the  words  '  Union  printers  only  employed  on  this  paper.'  The  seal  of  the  union 
was  retained  as  a  center-piece.  This  was  surrounded  by  an  oval  with  intersecting  panels." — 
Bamett,  "  The  Printers,"  footnote,  page  274. 


THE    UNION    LABEL.  513 

local  amalgamation  of  the  several  organizations."  Attempts  to 
bring  the  pressmen's  unions  together  were  futile,  but  on  June  ist 
it  was  announced  that  the  printers,  stereotypers  and  bookbinders 
had  decided  to  form  a  temporary  alliance,  instructing  the  committees 
to  urge  upon  their  unions  "  the  desirability  of  forming  a  local  con- 
federation of  the  printing  and  paper  trades,  which  shall  be  composed 
of  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  Stereotypers'  Union  No.  i,  United 
Bookbinders'  Division  No.  i  and  such  other  organizations  of  kindred 
trades  as  shall  be  admitted  by  a  vote  of  two-thirds  of  the  organi- 
zations represented,  provided  that  the  applications  be  approved  by  a 
majority  of  the  organizations  represented."  This  was  sanctioned  by 
No.  6,  with  the  proviso  "  that  no  action  taken  by  the  committee 
shall  be  binding  on  the  union  unless  endorsed  by  it."  The  Federation 
of  Printing  and  Kindred  Trades  of  New  York  and  Vicinity  soon 
became  a  permanent  central  body,  being  composed  of  "  three  dele- 
gates from  each  bona  fide  labor  organization  of  the  printing  and  allied 
trades,  whose  standing  is  unquestioned,  and  which  have  been  six 
months  or  more  in  existence,  unless  those  chartered  by  national 
or  international  unions  or  by  this  Federation."  As  set  forth  in  its 
initial  constitution  the  objects  of  the  association  were  by  concerted 
action  "  to  so  influence  the  conditions  of  the  various  trades  connected 
therewith  as  to  improve  as  far  as  possible  the  material  position  of 
all  persons  employed  therein ;  to  discuss  such  questions  as  may  effect 
the  interests  of  the  trade;  to  use  all  honorable  means  to  reduce  the 
number  of  working  hours;  to  adjust  difficulties  arising  between 
employers  and  employees  or  between  the  organizations  represented 
herein."  It  was  required  by  the  constitution  that  every  means 
should  be  exhausted  by  the  organizations  affected  before  a  strike 
was  endorsed,  and  that  "in  no  case  will  a  sympathetic  strike  be 
ordered  except  with  the  consent  of  two-thirds  of  the  delegates 
present." 

In  course  of  time  out  of  the  Federation  developed  the  Allied  Print- 
ing Trades  Council  of  Greater  New  York  and  Vicinity,  which  at 
present  embodies  in  its  membership  the  unions  of 

compositors,    bookbinders,    electrotypers,    mailers,  ^^^^'^ 

• ,  ,     ,  Printing  Trades 

newspaper  writers,  photo-engravers,  pressmen,  press  ^        .. 

feeders  and  stereotypers.  The  objects  of  this 
central  association  are  "  to  encourage  and  foster  a  feeling  of  friend- 
ship among  the  organizations  engaged  in  the  printing  trade  and 
kindred  branches;  to  discuss  ways  and  means  for  bettering  the  con- 
dition and  advancing  the  interests  of  the  organizations  connected 
17 


514  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

with  this  body ;  to  stimulate  the  individual  membership  of  the  allied 
organizations  to  an  active  interest  in  one  another,  thereby  securing 
a  better  understanding  and  a  fraternal  feeling  among  members  who 
are  so  closely  allied  by  the  nature  of  their  respective  trades  or  call- 
ings; to  promote  the  settlement  of  disputes  by  arbitration  and  thereby 
discourage  strikes."  To  stimulate  interest  in  the  union  label  is 
chief  among  the  council's  duties.  It  grants  the  label  only  to  estab- 
lishments that  employ  in  their  mechanical  departments  none  but 
members  of  the  unions  that  it  recognizes,  and  decrees  that  "  the  label 
of  the  AlHed  Printing  Trades  Coimcil,  being  the  trade  mark  of  union 
labor,  shall  not  be  used  on  any  product  of  any  department  of  the 
printing  trade  unless  such  product  is  produced  in  its  entirety  by 
union  labor."  This  and  all  other  local  councils  are  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  International  Allied  Printing  Trades  Association,  composed 
of  duly  authorized  representatives  of  the  International  Typographical 
Union,  the  International  Printing  Pressmen  and  Assistants'  Union, 
the  International  Brotherhood  of  Bookbinders,  the  International 
Stereotypers  and  Electrotypers'  Union,  and  the  International  Photo- 
Engravers'  Union,  the  objects  of  the  association  being  "  to  designate 
the  products  of  the  labor  of  the  members  thereof  by  adopting  and 
registering  a  label  or  trade  mark  designating  such  products."  The 
affairs  of  the  organization  are  conducted  by  a  Board  of  Governors, 
who  as  trustees  hold  title  to  the  label,  and  cause  it  to  be  registered 
in  all  States,  Territories  and  the  District  of  Columbia,  as  well 
as  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  where  registration  is  authorized. 
Labels  are  issued  or  withdrawn  by  unanimous  consent  of  local 
councils,  and  are  procurable  only  from  the  secretary-treasurer 
of  the  International  Allied  Printing  Trades  Association,  but  the 
Board  of  Governors  may  order  the  issuance  or  withdrawal  of 
the  label  or  grant  it  direct,  where  in  its  judgment  such  action  is 
necessary. 

In  cities  and  towns  where  compositors  and  other  printing  trades 
are  combined  in  a  single  subordinate  union,  and  where  wages  are 
not  less  than  $14  per  week  of  48  hours,  the  label  of  the  Inter- 
national Typographical  Union  is  used. 

Union  No.  6  does  not  require  offices  under  its  jurisdiction  to 
impress  the  label  upon  their  products,  but  in  lieu  of  that  it  carries 
on  an  energetic  propaganda  for  its  use  among  patrons  of  printing 
houses,  and  through  such  effort  a  large  demand  has  been  created 
for  it,  there  being  at  present  in  Greater  New  York  84  establishments 
that  have  introduced  the  label. 


THE    UNION    LABEL.  515 

New  York  State's  first  act  legalizing  trade  union  labels  was  passed 
in  1889,  it  being  Chapter  385.     The  present  statute  on  the  subject 
provides  that  "  a  union  or  association  of  employees 
may  adopt  a  device  in  the  form  of  a  label,  brand,    State  Law 
mark,  name  or  other  character  for  the  purpose  of    Legalizing 
designating  the  products  of  the  labor  of  the  members    ^^^^  Labels. 
thereof.     Duplicate  copies  of  such  device  shall  be 
filed  in  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  who  shall,  under  his  hand 
and  seal,  deliver  to  the  union  or  association  filing  or  registering  the 
same  a  certified  copy  and  a  certificate  of  the  filing  thereof,  for  which 
he  shall  be  entitled  to  a  fee  of  $1 .     Such  certificate  shall  not  be  assign- 
able by  the  association  to  whom  it  is  issued."     This  act  has  been 
declared  to  be  constitutional  and  the  infringement  of  a  registered  label 
is  restrainable  by  injunction.     Illegal  use  or  the  counterfeiting  of  a 
union  label  is  a  misdemeanor,  punishable  by  a  fine  of  not  less  than 
$100  nor  more  than  $500,  or  by  imprisonment  for  not  less  than  three 
months  nor  more  than  one  year,  or  by  both  such  fine  and  imprison- 
ment.    An  action  also  may  be  maintained  by  an  association  of  em- 
ployees to  enjoin,  and  the  court  may  restrain  the  manufacture,  use, 
display  or  sale  of  a  counterfeit  or  colorable  imitation  of  a  union  label 
or  of  goods  bearing  the  same,  or  for  the  unauthorized  use  or  display 
of  a  genuine  device;  and  a  plaintiff  union  may  be  awarded  such  dam- 
ages resulting  from  said  wrongful  manufacture,  use,  display  or  sale 
as  may  be  proved,  together  with  the  profits  derived  therefrom. 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 
PRISON  LABOR. 

COMPETITIVE  convict  labor  has  always  met  with  resolute 
opposition  on  the  part  of  union  printers.     The  question  of 
contract  work  in  the  penal  institutions  of  New  York  State 
came  prominently  to  the  fore  at  the  convention  of  the  National 
Typographical  Union  in  June,  1868,  when  President  John  H.  Oberly 
directed  the  attention  of  the  delegates  to  a  circular 
Printing  that  had  been  addressed  to  subordinate  unions  on 

Contract  March  i8th,  that  year,  by  the  Albany  Typographical 

Annulled.  Union,  which  declared  that  an  attempt  "  to  intro- 
duce the  art  preservative  of  all  arts  into  the  State 
prisons  "  was  then  being  made.  "  We  have  learned,"  read  the  com- 
munication, "  that  a  contract  for  the  labor  of  7  5  convicts,  to  be  applied 
to  the  purpose  of  printing  and  stereotyping,  was  then  pending;  that 
it  had  been  already  awarded  by  the  prison  inspectors,  but  was  not 
actually  consummated,  and  unless  prevented  by  an  act  of  the  Legis- 
lature would  go  into  effect  on  the  first  of  April."  President  Oberly 
said  that  Alexander  Troup,  a  member  of  Typographical  Union  No. 
6,  as  secretary- treasurer  of  the  national  body  had  on  March  23d 
appealed  to  all  subordinate  unions  in  the  State  to  leave  nothing  un- 
done on  their  part  to  have  the  contract  set  aside;  that  the  attention 
of  Senators  and  Assemblymen  be  called  to  the  matter,  and  that 
"  you  urge  upon  them  the  necessity  of  putting  a  stop  to  this  outrage 
about  to  be  perpetrated  on  the  honest  printers  of  this  State."  Pres- 
ident Oberly  continued:  "  Albany  union's  remonstrance  was  also 
forwarded  to  the  280  other  labor  organizations  in  the  State,  and  30,000 
signatures  were  obtained  and  presented  to  the  Legislature.  Meet- 
ings were  held  by  Albany  Typographical  Union  No.  4,  New  York 
Typographical  Union  No.  6  and  the  New  York  Typographical 
Society,  and  the  subject  was  thoroughly  discussed.  A  committee  of 
five  was  appointed  by  the  Albany  union,  with  full  power  to  endeavor 
to  prevent  the  consummation  of  the  contract,  and  the  Typographical 
Union  and  Typographical  Society  of  New  York  delegated  Mr.  Troup 
to  proceed  to  Albany  and  co-operate  with  the  representatives  from 

[516] 


PRISON    LABOR.  517 

Other  parts  of  the  State.  After  great  delay  and  considerable  work 
a  bill  was  prepared  and  presented  to  the  Assembly,  calling  for  the 
abrogation  of  the  contract,  which  passed  that  body  by  a  vote  of  65 
to  2 1  and  was  sent  to  the  Senate  for  concurrence.  On  reaching  the 
Senate  the  bill  was  referred  to  the  Comnnittee  on  Prisons.  Several  hear- 
ings were  had,  which  resulted  finally  in  the  bill  being  reported  to  the 
Senate  in  an  amended  form.  *  *  *  It  was  then  presented  to  the 
Assembly  for  concurrence,  passed  that  body  nearly  unanimously, 
and  afterward  received  the  signature  of  the  Governor.  Since  the 
passing  of  the  bill  the  Attorney-General  and  the  Comptroller  have 
stated  to  the  contractors  that  the  contract  is  null  and  void,  and 
also  that  under  the  provisions  of  the  bill  they  could  obtain  no 
damages.  The  Prison  Inspectors  have  been  called  upon  to  remove 
the  material  from  the  prison,  and  it  is  imderstood  that  an  order 
will  be  issued  at  their  next  meeting  to  carry  it  into  effect." 

Statements  having  been  made  throughout  the  country  that  70 
printers  were  then  confined  in  New  York  prisons,  as  well  as  other 
unverified  stories  in  relation  to  the  contract,  Secretary-Treasurer 
Troup  visited  Sing  Sing  Prison  in  order  to  ascertain  all  the  facts  in 
relation  to  the  allegations.  Under  date  of  May  5,  1868,  in  a  com- 
munication from  New  York  to  the  Albany  Argus  he  described  the 
result  of  his  inquiry,  saying: 

I  hasten  to  pen  you  a  line  to  give  you  a  description  of  the  printing  office  at 
Sing  Sing  Prison.  I  found  a  brother  of  Fisher's  in  charge.  They  have  got  about 
30  double  stands,  about  75  pairs  of  cases,  a  few  galleys,  and  from  1,500  to  2,000 
pounds  of  type,  bourgeois  and  long  primer  being  the  only  kinds  I  saw;  a  couple 
of  imposing  stones,  a  stereotype  kettle  and  press,  together  with  a  small  lot  of 
fixings,  making  the  entire  establishment.  The  work  being  done  is  novels,  from 
Putnam's  on  Broadway  in  this  city.  They  have  at  present  28  men  assigned  on 
the  contract,  only  three  of  whom  are  practical  printers.     I  learn  from  the  warden 


'  The  act,  which  was  passed  on  May  6,  1868,  was  Chapter  633,  as  follows:  "  The  contract 
heretofore  awarded  to  and  executed  at  Sing  Sing  Prison  for  printing,  stereotyping  and  electrotyp- 
ing  is  hereby  abrogated  and  annulled,  upon  James  B.  Swain  and  Francis  B.  Fisher,  parties  of  the 
second  part  to  said  contract,  or  their  assigns,  consenting  in  writing  and  filing  their  consent  in  the 
office  of  the  Comptroller  to  such  abrogation,  and  upon  their  application  and  upon  notice  to  the 
State  Prison  Inspectors,  or  either  of  them,  the  Supreme  Court,  at  any  special  or  general  term  thereof 
in  the  Second  Judicial  District,  shall  appoint  three  Commissioners  to  determine  whether  the  parties 
to  such  contract,  or  any  of  them,  have  any  just  or  equitable  claim  against  the  State  by  reason  of 
such  abrogation,  and  if  so  the  amount  thereof.  And  the  award  of  said  Commissioners  shall  be  sub- 
ject to  review  by  the  court  at  any  special  or  general  term  thereof  in  said  district  and  the  amount 
of  such  award  when  confirmed  by  the  court,  and  notice  thereof  filed  in  the  office  of  the  Comptroller 
shall  be  forthwith  paid  said  parties  or  their  assigns  on  the  warrant  of  the  Comptroller  of  the  State 
out  of  any  money  in  the  State  treasury  not  otherwise  appropriated,  provided  that  the  consent 
to  such  abrogation  shall  not  be  construed  as  a  waiver  to  any  claim  the  said  parties  may  have  against 
the  State  by  reason  of  such  abrogation,  nor  be  deemed  conclusive  against  any  claim  for  damages 
of  said  parties,  until  the  amount  of  such  award  shalj  have  been  paid  them;  and  hereafter  no  printing 
in  any  of  its  branches  shall  be  renewed,  nor  shall  any  such  contract  hereafter  be  made  in  any  of 
the  prisons  of  this  State.!' 


5l8  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER    SIX. 

of  the  prison  that  there  are  not  half  a  dozen  practical  printers  in  the  prison. 
Newsboys,  folders,  men  that  have  lumped  around  an  office  or  that  have  swept  out 
an  office  in  the  morning,  are  committed  as  printers;  in  fact,  men  who  never  saw 
a  printing  office  say  they  are  printers,  for  the  purpose  of  being  put  to  work  on 
this  contract,  the  impression  having  gone  forth  that  it  is  an  easy  job,  and  the 
convicts  are  anxious  to  get  to  work  on  it.  I  was  told  by  one  of  the  foremen  in 
the  molding  shop  that  a  man  had  left  him  a  day  or  two  ago  who  claimed  to  be  a 
printer,  but  could  not  read  and  was  assigned  to  the  contract. 

About  half  the  men  I  saw  in  the  office  were  engaged  with  books  and  slates, 
and,  on  making  inquiry,  I  was  informed  that  they  were  learning  to  read  and  write. 
I  saw  a  very  dirty  proof  lying  on  one  of  the  cases,  and  asked  the  man  at  case  to 
show  it  to  me,  when  he  looked  at  me  with  astonishment  and  replied:  "Me  no 
unrestan  English."  On  looking  around  the  room  at  the  fifteen  men  who  were 
at  the  case  I  quickly  discovered  that  but  few  of  them  had  ever  seen  a  printing 
office.  You  see  by  what  I  have  written  that  they  have  not  got  the  printers  in 
prison;  but  they  propose  to  teach  them,  which  is  in  direct  violation  of  the  laws 
of  the  State.2 

Union  No.  6  in  187 1  again  coped  successfully  with  the  subject 
of  convict  labor.  Having  reason  to  believe  that  it  was  the  intention 
of  interested  parties  to  introduce  in  the  Legislature  a  measure  having 
for  its  object  the  legalization  of  contract  work  in  the  Kings  County 
Penitentiary,  and  that  the  passage  of  such  an  act  "  would  enable 
the  concocters  of  the  bill  to  contract  on  an  extensive  scale  for  print- 
ing, carpenter  work,  shoe  making,  etc.,  to  be  executed  by  prison 
labor,  to  the  great  detriment  of  the  honest  and  industrious  mechan- 
icalinterests  of  the  State,"  it  empowered  a  committee  to  enter  a  pro- 
test on  behalf  of  the  union  against  such  contemplated  action,  and  to 
"  wait  on  as  many  of  the  trade  organizations  of  Brooklyn  and  New 
York  as  practicable,  apprise  them  of  the  danger,  and  exhort  them 
to  take  active  measures  in  the  premises  immediately."  Co-opera- 
tion of  the  State  Workingmen's  Assembly  was  sought  and  obtained, 
and  on  July  nth  the  committee  reported  that  it  had  defeated  the 
proposed  scheme. 

For  years  prior  to  1883  contractors  had  been  enabled  to  lease 
the  labor  of  prisoners  at  an  average  rate  of  40  cents  a  day  and  had 


'Hon.  John  Bigelow,  distinguished  lawyer,  author  and  diplomat,  who  died  December  19,  191 1. 
at  the  age  of  94  years,  was  editor  of  the  New  York  Evening  Post  in  1852.  At  the  banquet  of  the 
New  York  Typographical  Society  to  celebrate  the  146th  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Benjamin 
Franklin,  held  on  January  16,  1852,  in  response  to  the  toast  "  The  Memory  of  Franklin  "  Mr. 
Bigelow  stated  that  he  had  the  honor  of  being  for  three  years  Inspector  of  State  Prisons  in  New 
York,  and  among  all  the  prisoners  confined  there  every  order  of  mechanic  was  represented  except 
printers.  He  said  there  was  something  in  that  fact  which  merited  the  consideration  of  the  several 
hundred  guests  at  the  banquet  board  —  among  whom  were  Washini=;ton  Irving,  President  Charles 
King  of  Columbia  College,  ex-Mayor  James  Harper,  Judge  Ellis  Lewis,  the  Rev.  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  and  Colonel  Seaver,  of  the  Buffalo  Courier — and  he  concluded  his  speech  by  proposing 
"  the  memory  and  honor  of  that  calling  which  is  unrepresented  in  the  State  prison." 


PRISON    LABOR. 


SI9 


the  use  of  space  in  the  prisons  for  factory  purposes,  thus  manufac- 
turing their  products  at  a  figure  that  was  far  below  the  cost  of 
producing  similar  articles  outside  of  penal  institu- 
tions.    This  was  manifestly  unfair  to  capital  and  free     Contract 
labor  engaged  elsewhere  in  such  industries  and  the     ^y^tem  Unfair 
question  of  the  abolition  of  the  ruinous  practice  was     pj.gg  Labor 
decided  in  the  affirmative  when  it  was  submitted  to  a 
popular  vote  in  1883.     A  discussion  ensued  as  to  the  best  substitute 
for  the  method  that  the  people  had  voted  to  abolish.     The  first  annual 
report  of  the  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor  was  devoted  to  a  con- 
sideration of  the  subject  and  that  inquiry  formed  the  basis  of  the  plan 
that  the  Legislature  eventually  adopted.     A  special  Commission  in 
1886  made  a  further  study  of  the  problem  with  the  object  of  finding 
a  remedy  whereby  the  competition  between  the  prison  inmate  and 
the  free  workman  could  be  mxinimized.     In  1888  motive  power  ma- 
chinery for  manufacturing  purposes  was  forbidden  by  law  to  be 
placed  or  used  in  penal  institutions,  and  it  was  also  provided  that  no 
convict  should  be  required  or  allowed  to  work  "  at  any  trade  or 
industry  where  his  labor,  or  the  production  or  profit  of  his  labor, 
is  farmed  out,  contracted,  given  or  sold  to  any  person  or  persons 
whomsoever."     The  pubhc  account  system  was  established  in  that 
year.     Under  the  statute  persons  serving  a  sentence  in  prison  were 
to  make  articles  for  use  only  in  public  institutions.     By  an  act 
passed  in  1889  the  pubhc  account  plan  was  continued,  but  in  the 
event  that  the  appropriation  made  therefor  should  become  insufficient 
the  piece-price  system  was  to  be  applied  with  the  stipulation  that 
the  products  of  the  prisons  should  be  disposed  of  at  their  full  market 
value.     So  as  to  affect  free  labor  in  the  least  possible  manner  it  was 
provided   that  diversified  industries   should   be   selected,    and   the 
number  of  prisoners  employed  in  producing  any  kind  of  goods  made 
elsewhere  in  the  State  was  fixed  at  not  to  exceed  5  per  cent  of  all 
persons  employed  in  making  such  wares.     These  enactments  made 
it  possible  to  introduce  printing  into  the  prisons,  and  in  1890  Union 
No.  6  engaged  in  another  contest  to  prevent  typesetting  in  Sing  Sing 
Prison.     A  committee  of  three  was  appointed  by  the  Executive 
Committee  to  proceed  to  Albany  and  endeavor  to  induce  the  Legis- 
lature to  annul  a  contract  that  had  been  entered  into  on  October  18, 
1889,  between  A.  A.  Brush,  as  agent  and  warden,  and  Horatio  N. 
Davis,  of  Brooklyn,  by  which  the  former  was  to  furnish  the  composition 
of  from  100,000  to  250,000  ems  of  type  daily  for  three  years;  that  "  the 
said  composition  shall  be  performed  by  persons  of  experience,  if  a 
sufficient  number  shall  be  confined  to  the  prisons."     The  warden  was 


520  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

to  provide  suitable  and  sufficient  room  for  the  carrying  on  of  the 
business  contemplated,  while  the  contractor  agreed  to  pay  to  the 
prison  authorities  15  cents  for  each  and  every  1,000  ems  of  type 
composed  and  corrected.  This  contract  was  approved  on  November 
12th  by  Gen.  Austin  Lathrop,  Superintendent  of  Prisons,  who  at  the 
1890  session  of  the  Legislature,  replying  to  a  resolution  of  the  Senate 
to  transmit  to  that  body  "  a  copy  of  the  contract  recently  entered 
into  between  the  State  and  certain  capitaHsts  for  doing  the  work 
of  a  general  printing  office  in  the  prison  at  Sing  Sing,"  complied 
with  the  direction,  accompanying  the  document  with  a  statement 
that  "  no  contract  has  been  entered  into  by  the  State  for  doing  the 
work  of  a  general  printing  office  at  Sing  Sing  Prison.  For  the  purpose 
of  establishing  an  industry  for  the  employment  of  from  25  to  50 
men  on  the  piece-price  system,  an  agreement  has  been  entered  into 
with  H.  N.  Davis.  This  agreement  is  for  typesetting  only,  and  no 
printing  from  the  type  so  set  is  to  be  done  in  the  prison  other  than 
the  taking  of  necessary  proofs."  The  Typothetas  of  New  York 
authorized  its  secretary,  W.  W.  Pasko,  to  co-operate  with  No.  6's 
committee  in  Albany,  and  representatives  of  Albany  Union  No.  4, 
Brooklyn  Union  No.  98  and  the  State  Branch  of  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor  also  joined  in  the  effort  to  have  the  contract 
annulled,  having  become  convinced  that  it  had  not  been  fully  com- 
plied with.  The  Assembly  on  March  20th  passed  a  concurrent 
resolution  directing  the  prison  authorities  to  declare  the  contract 
null  and  void.  On  April  loth  the  Senate  concurred  and  rettimed 
the  resolution  to  the  lower  House,  but  almost  immediately  after 
recalled  it  for  amendment  and  referred  it  to  the  Committee  on  Prisons. 
Although  the  resolution  was  not  thereafter  reported 
Restricting  by  the  committee  to  the  Senate,  in  lieu  thereof  an 
Typesetting  act  was  passed  by  the  Legislature  and  approved 
in  Prisons.  ^^y  ^j^g  Governor  on  May  2 1 ,  1890,  that  "  no  prisoner 
in  any  of  the  State  prisons,  penitentiaries  or  reform- 
atories of  this  State  shall  be  employed  *  *  *  in  setting  type  or 
printing,  except  in  setting  type  for  or  printing  printed  matter  for  use 
in  the  prison,  penitentiary  or  reformatory  in  which  the  same  is  printed, 
and  no  products  of  any  labor  in  the  trade  of  printing  or  typesetting  of 
any  prisoner  in  any  such  prison,  reformatory  or  penitentiary  shall 
be  put  upon  the  market  for  sale  or  sold ;  but  nothing  in  this  act  shall 
prevent  the  printing  within  a  prison,  penitentiary  or  reformatory  of 
the  official  reports  of  the  prison,  penitentiary  or  reformatory,  in 
which  the  same  are  printed  respectively."  Later  in  the  year  the 
Superintendent  of  Prisons  annulled  the  contract  at  Sing  Sing  Prison, 


PRISON    LABOR.  52  I 

reporting  to  the  Legislature  of  189 1  that  "  a  few  convicts  were 
employed  for  a  short  time  in  typesetting  under  an  agreement  on  the 
piece-price  system.  As  an  industry  it  was  never  fully  started.  The 
agreeing  party  failed  to  comply  with  the  conditions  of  the  agree- 
ment and  it  was  thereupon  canceled  and  the  business  was  aban- 
doned." '  So  far  as  this  State  is  concerned  com- 
petitive prison  labor  ceased  with  the  operation  on  Constitution 
January  i,  1897,  of  the  constitutional  provision  °^  *  ^ 
that  the  products  of  the  labor  of  convicts  shall  be  Prison  Work 
disposed  of  only  to  the  Commonwealth  and  its 
political  divisions,  "  or  for  or  to  any  public  institution  owned  or 
managed  and  controlled  by  the  State,  or  any  political  division 
thereof."  There  was  apprehension  for  a  time  among  printers  lest 
the  legislative,  departmental  and  other  public  printing  would  be 
performed  in  the  prisons.  As  late  as  July,  1901,  such  misgiving  was 
noticeable.  In  calling  the  fourth  annual  convention  for  August  4th 
of  that  year  the  Executive  Council  of  the  Allied  Printing  Trades 
Council  of  New  York  State  declared  in  the  commimication  that  "  after 
three  years  of  dormancy  the  proposition  to  do  printing  in  penal 
institutions  has  again  come  to  the  front  in  no  imcertain  manner. 
Six  measures  bearing  directly  on  the  question  were  before  the  last 
Legislature.  That  similar  measures  will  trouble  us  next  winter 
there  is  no  doubt,  and  plans  must  be  made  to  protect  our  interests. 
We  achieved  a  magnificent  victory  three  years  ago,  when  Chapter 
645  was  placed  on  the  statute  books,  and  up  to  the  last  session  of 
the  Legislattire  our  enemies  have  respected  our  strength.  But  it  is 
apparent  we  must  be  on  our  guard  continually  to  defeat  the  attacks 
upon  our  rights.  If  the  Prison  Commission  ever  carries  into  effect 
what  it  has  been  aiming  to  do  for  years  the  penal  institutions  will 
eventually  do  the  bulk  of  the  State,  county  and  municipal  work." 
Ten  years  have  clasped  since  the  above  was  disseminated,  and  un- 
doubtedly it  has  been  owing  to  the  alertness  and  activity  of  the 
organizations  in  the  printing  industry  that  such  an  outcome  has  been 
prevented.  The  existing  law  on  the  subject  expressly  provides  that 
the  only  printing  which  can  be  performed  in  State  prisons,  peni- 
tentiaries and  reformatories  is  that  which  "  may  be  required  for  or 
used  in  the  penal  and  State  charitable  institutions,  and  the  reports 
of  the  State  Commission  of  Prisons  and  the  Superintendent  of  Prisons, 
and  all  printing  required  in  their  offices." 


'  Report  of  Austin  Lathrop,  Superintendent  of  Prisons,  for  1890,  submitted  to  the  Legislature 
in  January,  1891,  page  17. 


CHAPTER    XXX. 

PUBLIC  HOLIDAYS  FOR  WORKING  PEOPLE. 

THE  first  Labor  Day  demonstration  was  held  in  New  York 
City  under  the  auspices  of  the  Central  Labor  Union  on 
Tuesday,  September   5,    1882, — just  five  years  before   the 
operation  of  the  State  law,  enacted  May  6,  1887,  making  the  first 
Monday  of  September  a  public  holiday,  under  the  designation  of  Labor 
Day.     Typographical  Union  No.  6  on  September 
Labor  3,  1882,  decided  to  take  part  in  the  affair,  urging 

Day.  "  that  all  men  be  requested  to  meet  at  the  union 

rooms  to  join  in  the  procession,"  and  empowering  the 
secretary  "to  procure  a  band  and  a  banner  or  badges  for  the 
parade."  William  McCabe,  a  member  of  Union  No.  6  and  its  dele- 
gate to  the  workmen's  central  organization,  was  grand  marshal,  and 
the  phalanx  of  printers  that  participated  was  headed  by  President 
George  A.  McKay.  It  was  estimated  that  10,000  workingmen 
marched  in  the  parade,  which  consisted  of  three  divisions.  The 
importance  of  the  occasion  was  accentuated  by  the  Board  of  Alder- 
men, which  on  the  day  of  the  celebration  adopted  a  preamble  and 
resolutions  that  directed  general  attention  to  the  spirit  of  the  event. 
This  public  expression  aided  in  creating  a  sentiment  that  by  1887  had 
sufficiently  crystallized  to  induce  the  enactment  of  the  law  naming  the 
first  Monday  of  September  as  Labor  Day.  The  action  of  the  board 
follows: 

Whereas,  This  day  has  been  selected  by  the  various  labor  and  trades  union 
associations  in  this  city  as  a  day  of  demonstration  of  their  strength  and  a  chosen 
opportunity  to  express  their  feelings  upon  the  labor  question  in  an  orderly  and 
the  most  forceful  manner. 

Resolved,  That  the  members  of  this  board  do  tender  to  the  workingmen  their 
heartfelt  and  earnest  sympathy  in  their  movement  for  independence  and  freedom 
from  corporate  monopolies  and  their  powerful  influence. 

Resolved,  That  the  workingman  is  entitled  to  a  fair  share  of  the  products 
of  his  toil,  and  that  this  board  will  exert  its  influence  in  the  advancement  of  the 
interests  of  the  laboring  classes. 

There  was  an  imposing  turnout  of  workingmen  in  New  York  City 
on  Labor  Day  in  1887.     It  occurred  on  September  5th.     Cessation 

[522] 


PUBLIC    HOLIDAYS    FOR    WORKING    PEOPLE.  523 

from  business  was  quite  general.  In  its  news  account  of  the  in- 
dustrial pageant  a  leading  morning  newspaper  stated  that  there  were 
nearly  20,000  men  in  line,  among  whom  were  1,135  members  of 
Typographical  Union  No.  6.  "And  another  good  thing  was,"  con- 
tinued the  article,  "  that  the  legal  holiday  left  many  business  men 
at  leisure  to  look  on,  and  the  dignity  of  the  parade  made  a  good  im- 
pression on  them,  an  impression  that  will  be  remembered  when  dis- 
cussion of  the  attitude  of  the  unions  come  up  again.  Altogether, 
in  numbers,  bearing  and  discipline,  the  parade  was  the  product  of 
an  evolution,  the  result  of  the  lessons  of  several  previous  experiments, 
and  embodied  the  advantages  of  experience  and  training  to  managers 
and  men."^  The  same  journal,  commenting  editorially  on  the  intro- 
duction of  the  new  holiday,  said:  "  Yesterday  was  a  grand  and 
glorious  celebration  such  as  had  never  been  given  to  Labor  before. 
*  *  *  But  whatever  there  is  in  the  idea  of  a  Labor  Day  doesn't 
belong  solely  to  the  man  who  marched  in  the  procession  yesterday. 
Everybody  *  *  *  ^^^  entitled  to  share,  either  in  fact  or 
in  imagination,  in  the  formal  dedication  of  yesterday  to  Labor." 
Annually  since  then,  with  two  exceptions,  the  association  of  com- 
positors has  joined  with  the  other  labor  organizations  of  the  city 
in  the  march  of  the  union  legions  through  the  main  thorough- 
fares of  Manhattan  on  Labor  Day.  By  reason  of  the  large  expense 
(the  celebration  having  cost  it  $828.74  in  1909)  and  a  lack  of  una- 
nimity of  opinion  as  to  the  utility  of  such  public  demonstrations. 
Union  No.  6  refrained  from  participation  in  the  parades  of  19 10  and 
1911. 

Chapter  289  of  the  Laws  of  1887  amended  the  act  of  this  State  in 
relation  to  holidays  by  designating  every  Saturday  from  12  o'clock 
at  noon  until   12    o'clock   at  midnight  as  a   half 
holiday.     Labor  and  reform  associations  organized  Saturday 

the  movement  that  instigated  the  enactment,  but  Half 

there  was  considerable  opposition  to  it  in  business  Holiday, 

circles,  although  many  manufacturers  and  merchants 
in  the  State  had  shown  a  willingness  to  accede  to  the  wishes  of  their 
employees  in  the  matter  even  before  the  measure  became  law,  some 
having  anticipated  the  legal  Saturday  Half  Holiday  by  granting  it 
during  the  summer  months.  Not  a  few  employers  openly  advocated 
the  advisability  of  passing  the  bill  making  Satiurday  afternoon  a 
half  holiday,  to  be  observed  relative  to  the  acceptance  and  payment 
of  bills  of  exchange,  bank  checks  and  promissory  notes  and  the  closing 


'  New  York  Sun,  September  6,  1887. 


524  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

of  public  offices.  Eminent  clergymen  in  all  denominations  and  men 
in  public  life  also  strongly  favored  the  legislative  act  on  the  subject. 
Antagonism  to  the  law  among  numerous  financiers  and  employers 
in  commercial  and  manufacturing  lines,  besides  a  portion  of  the  press, 
was  still  rife  when  the  Legislature  of  1888  convened.  A  repeal  or 
modification  of  the  act  was  urged  by  these  elements.  With  other 
labor  organizations  Union  No.  6  protested  against  any  change  in 
the  statute,  the  printers  on  March  4th  declaring  that  "  certain 
members  of  the  Senate  and  Assembly,  aided  by  certain  newspapers 
in  New  York  City,  are  using  their  utmost  endeavors  to  repeal  the 
Saturday  Half  Holiday  Law — the  workingman's  blessing.  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  6  by  a  very  large  majority  has  put  itself  on 
record  in  favor  of  a  reduction  of  hours  and  also  the  Saturday  Half 
Holiday.  This  union  unanimously  endorses  the  action  and  efforts 
of  members  of  Assembly  and  Senate  now  in  session  at  Albany,  also 
those  newspapers  that  so  nobly  and  fearlessly  are  fighting  against 
the  repeal  of  the  greatest  boon  ever  bestowed  on  workingmen  — 
namely,  the  Saturday  Half  Holiday  Law." 

A  bill,  however,  passed  both  houses  modifying  the  original  act 
by  substituting  in  its  stead  the  half  holiday  on  Saturday  during  the 
four  months  of  June,  July,  August  and  September.  But  on  May  7, 
1888,  the  Governor  disapproved  the  measure  and  filed  a  memo- 
randum with  the  veto,  giving  these  reasons  for  his  action: 

This  measure  proposes  to  abolish  what  is  known  as  the  present  Saturday- 
Half  Holiday  and  to  substitute  in  its  place  a  Saturday  Half  Holiday  during  the 
four  months  of  June,  July,  August  and  September.  The  Half  Holiday  Law  thus 
proposed  to  be  repealed  or  modified  went  into  effect  scarcely  a  year  ago.  It 
met  with  considerable  opposition  from  the  start,  and  it  must  be  conceded  that 
it  has  not  secured  that  degree  of  public  favor  that  was  anticipated.  Never- 
theless it  is  evident  that  the  law  has  not  had  a  thorough  trial.  One  year  is  scarcely 
a  sufficient  period  in  which  to  test  the  merits  of  such  an  innovation  and  it  would 
seem  as  though  a  sound  public  policy  would  dictate  the  continuance  of  the  law 
for  at  least  another  year,  when  if  it  does  not  prove  reasonably  satisfactory  it 
can  readily  be  modified.  There  should  not  be  so  much  fickleness  in  our  legis- 
lation. While  laws  should,  of  course,  reflect  public  sentiment,  they  should  not 
be  disturbed  with  every  passing  change  of  public  opinion.  Every  law  when  once 
enacted  should  have  a  thorough  and  impartial  trial,  and  should  not  be  hastily 
or  inconsiderately  repealed.  This  of  course  will  prevent  the  original  enactment 
of  unwise  and  doubtful  measures,  as  well  as  secure  more  steadiness  and  consist- 
ency in  our  legislation.  It  is  the  experience  of  every  thoughtful  observer  that 
there  are  too  many  laws  passed  one  year  only  to  be  repealed  the  next,  and  this 
evidence  of  vacillation  and  inconstancy  should  be  avoided. 

It  should  not  be  expected  that  such  an  innovation  as  that  of  the  Saturday 
Half  Holiday  Law  would  be  entirely  satisfactory  to  all  portions  of  the  people 
especially  at  the  very  threshold  of  its  inauguration.     But  the  interests  of  no  one 


PUBLIC   HOLIDAYS    FOR    WORKING    PEOPLE.  52$ 

class  are  to  be  solely  consulted,  but  the  advantages  to  the  community  as  a  whole 
and  to  the  masses  of  the  people  are  rather  to  be  considered.  There  are,  undoubt- 
edly, inconveniences  to  many  persons  occasioned  by  its  enforcement,  but  its 
observance,  with  a  few  exceptions,  is  not  compulsory.  It  affects  banks  only  as 
regards  the  payment,  presentment  or  protest  of  commercial  paper  on  that  day 
and  public  offices  are  permitted  to  be  legally  closed,  but  aside  from  these  excep- 
tions all  other  business  may  be  transacted  if  the  people  desire  to  transact  it. 
There  is  otherwise  no  compulsion  anywhere.  The  law  may  be  regarded  as  simply 
declaratory  of  the  public  desire  that  the  people  should  observe  the  day,  but  it 
provides  no  penalties  for  its  violation.  The  people  need  not  observe  the  Satur- 
day Half  Holiday  any  more  than  Washington's  Birthday,  the  Fourth  of  July 
or  Decoration  Day,  unless  they  prefer  to  do  so.  It  is  a  matter  to  be  largely 
regulated  by  public  sentiment,  and  the  advocates  of  the  movement  may  well 
insist  that  it  is  fairly  entitled  to  a  longer  trial  to  demonstrate  its  growing  benefits. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  innovations  of  this  character  have  always  met  with 
violent  opposition,  but  it  is  evident  that  the  tendencies  of  the  age  favor  more 
opportunities  for  recreation,  and  it  is  wise  to  recognize  the  fact. 

There  is  no  actual  necessity  for  the  constant  and  excessive  labor  that  character- 
ized former  days.  Labor-saving  machinery  and  improvements  in  every  sphere 
of  life  have  lightened  many  burdens  of  humanity.  Fourteen  hours  a  day  for- 
merly constituted  a  legal  day's  work;  then  a  day's  work  was  reduced  to  twelve 
hours,  and  then  to  ten  hours,  and  even  the  demand  for  less  hours  of  labor  is  now 
receiving  respectful  consideration.  Public  schools  formerly  required  to  be  kept 
the  whole  of  every  Saturday,  afterward  only  a  half  day  on  each  Saturday,  and 
now  they  are  wholly  discontinued  on  that  day. 

Recreation  is  desirable  as  well  as  rest  and  religious  worship.  If  Sunday  is 
the  only  day  upon  which  recreation  is  possible  to  a  large  portion  of  our  popula- 
tion, it  will  of  necessity  be  used  by  them  for  that  purpose.  Our  American  Sunday 
will  be  better  observed  by  setting  apart  the  whole  or  a  portion  of  Saturday  for 
the  recreation  and  amusement  which  is  now  being  crowded  into  Sunday.  But  it 
is  unnecessary  to  reiterate  the  well-known  arguments  which  are  urged  in  favor 
of  the  continuance  of  the  Saturday  Half  Holiday  all  the  year  round.  Many  of 
them  are  not  without  considerable  force.  The  propriety  of  such  holiday  during 
summer  months  is  beyond  question.  The  brief  experience  of  the  past  year  has 
settled  that  point.  As  to  its  advantages  or  desirability  during  the  remainder 
of  the  year  there  is  more  doubt,  but  another  year's  experience  under  the  present 
law  will  be  a  better  test  of  its  merits,  and  I  think  it  is  fairly  entitled  to  the  benefit 
of  such  further  trial.  Having  originally  recommended  the  Half  Holiday  Law, 
and  the  Legislature  in  its  wisdorrf  having  seen  fit  one  year  ago  to  enact  it,  I  do 
not  think  that  I  would  be  justified  in  reversing  my  previous  action  after  so  brief 
a  trial  as  the  law  has  now  had.^ 

The  bill  was  not  passed  over  the  veto ;  the  law  is  still  in  force,  and 
Saturday  afternoon  is  now  the  most  popular  of  this  State's  public 
holidays. 

On  July  5,  1896,  the  union  of  compositors  passed  a  resolve  con- 
cerning the  observance  of  the  Saturday  Half  Holiday  in  book  and 


2  Public  papers  of  Gov.  David  B.  Hill  for  1888,  in  Volume  VIII  of  messages  of  the  Governors  of 
New  York,  pages  635-7. 


526  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

job  offices,  requiring  that  "  where  over  the  regular  hours  are  worked 
in  order  to  make  up  for  the  Satiirday  Half  Holiday  during  June, 
July  and  August,  such  extra  time  shall  not  be  considered  overtime, 
provided  it  is  worked  between  the  hours  of  7  A.  m.  and  6  p.  m."  Its 
present  rule  provides  that  in  the  months  named  the  working  time  on 
Saturday  must  end  at  1 2  :3o  p.  m.  Members  required  to  work  beyond 
that  hour  receive  double  price.  Offices  are  permitted  to  arrange 
for  a  48-hour  week  during  that  period  by  increasing  the  working  time 
on  other  days  of  the  week  to  8  hours  and  45  minutes  daily,  the  time 
thus  made  up  to  be  deducted  from  the  regular  working  hours  on 
Saturday.  The  scale  also  stipulates  that  "  when  members  are  em- 
ployed for  less  than  a  full  week  they  shall  be  paid  single  price  for 
the  regular  working  hours  agreed  upon  by  the  office  for  making  up 
the  Saturday  Half  Holiday." 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

TARIFFS  AND  COPYRIGHTS. 

PROTECTION   to  the  American  printer  against  cheap  foreign 
labor  has  been  persistently  advocated  for  about  a  hundred 
years.     The  New  York  Typographical  Society  on  November 
6,  1819,  favored  a  tariff  on  imported  books  that  would  be  sufficient 
to  amply  safeguard  the  trade  in  this  coimtry,  ordering  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  committee  "  for  the  purpose  of  petitioning 
Congress  at  the  ensuing  session  to  lay  additional    Printers  Demand 
duties  on  the  importation  of  all  foreign  publica-    High  Duties  on 
tions."     Some  75  years  later  Typographical  Union    Imported  Books. 
No.  6  took  a  decided  stand  on  the  same  question. 
At  its  meeting  of  January  7, 1894,  after  the  reading  of  a  communica- 
tion from  Philadelphia  Typographical  Union  No.  2  in  regard  to  the 
Wilson  Tariff  Bill  placing  certain  classes  of  books  on  the  free  list,  it 
resolved  emphatically  "  that  this  union  protests  against  any  reduction 
in  the  tariff  on  the  products  of  this  craft,  and  that  the  president  and 
secretary  take  charge  of  the  matter." 

Protection  to  the  printing  and  kindred  trades  was  also  sought 
many  years  ago  through  an  International  Copyright  Law,  the 
National  Typographical  Union  as  long  ago  as  May  6,  1858,  urging 
the  enactment  of  such  a  law  so  as  to  "  give  ample  protection  to 
the  now  oppressed  literature  of  our  country;"  further  declaring 
that  it  "  would  be  a  wise  and  beneficent  act  and  ultimately  re- 
dound to  the  material  interests  of  all  the  mechanical  trades  attend- 
ant on  the  production  of  books;  and  it  is  the  abiding  belief  of  the 
members  of  this  convention  that  in  order  to  create  an  elevated,  pure 
and  national  literature,  som,e  check  shovild  be  devised  to  arrest  the 
influx  of  foreign  works  of  an  unworthy  character ;  that  this  conven- 
tion recommend  to  the  members  of  all  the  local  unions  that  they 
do  in  proper  season  memorialize  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
to  execute  such  a  law  as  should,  in  their  wisdom,  best  secure  the 
object  sought  to  be  attained." 

But  an  international  copyright  m.easure  satisfactory  to  printers 
did    not   appear  in   Congress  until   30   years  afterward.     It   was 

[52  7l 


528  NEW    YORK.   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

known    as    the    Chace    bill.     Union   No.    6    was   in    the   forefront 

of  the  movement  favorable  to  its  passage.     On  June  3,  1888,  its 

attitude  on  the  subject  was  expressed  in  sentences 

International  ^j^g^^  were  terse  and  forceful.  "A  bill  granting  a 
opyrig  copyright  on  books,  plays,  etc.,"  resolved  the  union. 

Union  No.  6.  "  ^^^  providing  that  all  books  copyrighted  in  the 
United  States  must  be  printed  from  type  set  in 
this  country,  has  passed  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  and  is 
now  on  the  calendar  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  English 
publishers  and  printers,  professing  apprehension  that  if  the  bill  shall 
become  a  law  they  will  be  deprived  of  a  large  amount  of  work,  have 
held  meetings  in  London  to  devise  ways  and  means  to  encompass 
the  defeat  of  the  bill  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  have 
employed  American  counsel  to  create  a  sentiment  against  the  bill  and 
to  lobby  for  its  defeat.  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  believing  that 
the  American  Congress,  the  American  printer,  the  American  pub- 
lisher and  the  American  author  are  thoroughly  competent  to  deter- 
mine what  is  for  the  best  interests  of  all  concerned,  and  believing 
also  that  this  foreign  interference  in  a  matter  of  vital  importance  to 
a  large  and  most  intelligent  class  of  American  artisans,  and  a  matter 
pre-eminently  the  right  of  the  American  Congress  to  determine  under 
Paragraphs  3  and  8  of  Article  I  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  should  be  rebuked,  requests  the  Representatives  in  Congress 
from  this  State  to  urge  the  immediate  passage  of  said  bill."  The 
measure  was  not  adopted  in  188S,  and  on  July  ist,  that  year,  the 
tinion  voted  to  request  Hon.  Amos  J.  Cummings,  one  of  its  members 
who  was  serving  in  Congress,  to  interest  himself  in  its  passage.  In 
1889,  the  bill  still  pending,  a  committee  was  selected  by  the  union  to 
act  in  conjimction  with  a  like  committee  from  the  Authors  and 
Publishers'  League  to  further  the  desired  legislation.  Finally  on 
October  i,  1890,  having  been  passed  by  Congress,  it  was  approved 
by  the  President  and  placed  upon  the  Federal  statute  books,  its 
provisions  prohibiting  the  issuance  of  a  copyright  to  any  person 
unless  the  book,  photograph,  chromo  or  lithograph  were  printed  from 
type  set  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States,  or  from  plates  pro- 
duced tbjsrefrom,  or  from  negatives  or  drawings  made  on  stone  in 
this  country,  or  transfers  prepared  from  them. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 
PRIORITY  LAW. 

PROBABLY  the  priority  law  of  the  International  Typographical 
Union  has  been  more  critically  discussed  than  any  other 
trade  rule  established  by  that  general  body  for  the  govern- 
ment of  its  subordinate  associations.  Opinions  as  to  its  practi- 
cability are  almost  equally  divided  among  the  membership.  In  1858 
the  National  Union  declared  that  the  foreman  of  an  office  was  the 
proper  person  to  whom  to  apply  for  a  situation,  and  it  disapproved 
of  any  other  mode  of  application  for  employment.  Union  printers, 
being  in  close  touch  with  the  foreman,  and  considering  him  the  re- 
sponsible head  of  his  department,  have  regarded  with  disfavor  the 
interposal  of  the  proprietor  in  the  concerns  of  the  composing  room, 
taking  the  ground  that  in  hiring  and  discharging  workmen  the  em- 
ployer would  be  invariably  prompted  by  personal  motives,  whereas 
the  foreman's  action  in  the  matter  would  be  guided  solely  by  the 
fitness  of  the  joiu-neymen.  No  essential  change  has  been  made  in 
the  National  law  of  1858,  the  present  International  requirement 
being  that  "  the  foreman  is  the  only  person  to  whom  to  apply  for 
work,  and  any  person  securing  work,  or  attempting  to  secure  work, 
in  any  department  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  foreman,  in  any 
other  manner  than  by  application  to  said  foreman  of  the  office,  shall 
be  deemed  guilty  of  conduct  unbecoming  a  union  man,  and,  upon 
conviction  before  a  trial  i^oard,  shall  be  suspended  or  expelled,  as 
three-fourths  of  the  members  may  determine."  To  restrict  the 
power  of  the  foreman  to  dismiss  members  of  the  imion  the  Interna- 
tional in  1890  passed  the  priority  law,  which  not  only  placed  a  limi- 
tation upon  the  right  of  the  composing-room  head  to  discharge,  but 
it  gave  to  a  substitute  employed  in  an  office  preference  over  an  out- 
sider to  a  vacant  situation.  The  rule  as  it  stands  to-day  gives  the 
foreman  the  privilege  to  discharge  a  printer  for  incompetency, 
neglect  of  duty,  violation  of  conspicuously  posted  office  rules  or  laws 
of  the  union  or  chapel,  and  to  decrease  the  force,  "  such  decrease  to 
be  accomplished  by  discharging  first  the  person  or  persons  last  em- 
ployed, either  as  regular  employees  or  as  extra  employees,  as  the 

I529I 


530  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

exigencies  of  the  matter  may  require.  Should  there  be  an  increase 
in  the  force  the  persons  displaced  through  such  cause  shall  be  rein- 
stated in  reverse  order  in  which  they  were  discharged  before  other 
help  may  be  employed.  Upon  demand  the  foreman  shall  give  the 
reason  for  discharge  in  writing.  Persons  considered  capable  as 
substitutes  by  foremen  shall  be  deemed  competent  to  fill  regular 
situations,  and  shall  be  given  preference  in  the  filling  of  vacancies 
in  the  regular  force.  The  competent  sub  oldest  in  continuous 
service  is -entitled  to  the  first  vacancy.  *  *  *  The  recognition 
of  departments  shall  be  optional  with  local  unions,  but  in  no  case 
shall  a  foreman  transfer  a  person  to  a  department  he  is  not  familiar 
with  and  then  declare  him  incompetent.  When  departments  are 
not  recognized  by  agreement  with  the  local  union  no  employee  shall 
be  discharged  to  reduce  the  force  or  for  incompetency  while  there  is 
work  in  the  office  he  is  competent  to  do,  and  to  which  his  priority 
entitles  him." 

Defenders  of  the  priority  rule  agree  that  it  was  adopted  to  insure 
equality  of  rights;  that  before  it  became  effective  situations  were 
given  out  regardless  of  the  seniority  of  logical  candidates  for  vacan- 
cies; that  under  it  a  situation  holder  is  secure  in  his  position,  while 
the  first  sub  in  an  office  is  assured  in  good  time  of  promotion  to  a 
position  as  regular;  that  it  prevents  members  who  are  subbing  from 
securing  situations  through  favoritism;  that  it  tends  to  reward  long 
and  faithful  service;  that  the  foreman  cannot  at  will  dispense  with 
the  services  of  any  journeyman  he  chooses,  and  that  the  displacing 
of  a  workman  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  one  a  shade  or  more  superior 
in  skill  can  be  engaged  in  his  stead  is  diametrically  opposed  to  the 
protective  principles  of  the  union. 

In  New  York  the  enforcement  of  the  priority  law  is  confined  to 
newspaper  offices.  In  book  and  job  shops  the  work  is  of  such  a 
character  that  it  is  not  possible  to  apply  the  rule  to  those  branches 
of  the  printing  trade.  Union  No.  6,  although  constant  in  its  efforts 
to  execute  the  law,  is  nevertheless  on  record  as  opposed  to  it.^  On 
February  20,  1893,  the  union  directed  the  secretary  to  "  inform  the 
president  of  the  International  Typographical  Union  that  we  find  it 
impossible  to  enforce  the  priority  law,"  and  on  the  same  date  it 
instructed  its  delegates  to  the  general  convention  "  to  inform  the 
International  Typographical  Union  that  after  a  fair  trial  we  find  the 
priority  law  a  failiire,  and  that  they  be  directed  to  work  for  its  repeal." 
But  its  plea  was  not  effective.     So  again,  on  February  9,   1908, 

I  Typographical  Union  No.  6  has  administered  the  priority  law  in  its  entirety  and  unevasively 
in  newspaper  oflaces  since  the  beginning  of  1906. 


PRIORITY    LAW,  53 1 

having  obtained  the  indorsement  of  the  necessary  50  sister  unions  to 
its  application,  it  asked  the  International  officials  to  submit  to  the 
referendum  a  proposition  to  repeal  the  general  law  that  "  the  com- 
petent sub  oldest  in  continuous  service  is  entitled  to  the  first  vacancy. " 
The  officers  of  No.  6  were  at  the  same  meeting  authorized  to  prepare 
and  send  to  other  subordinate  unions  a  circular  letter  setting  forth 
reasons  for  the  request.  In  that  communication  the  president  and 
secretary  pointed  out  that  the  priority  law  "  has  had  a  fair  chance 
to  prove  its  merits  in  New  York  City,  and  we  are  firmly  convinced 
that  a  continuance  of  its  enforcement  will  prove  disastrous  to  our 
union.  Even  the  oldest  sub  in  practically  every  office  in  this  city 
is  preceded  in  priority  by  men  who  have  been  laid  off  because  of 
the  general  sliunp  in  the  printing  trade.  The  sub  is  further  handi- 
capped by  the  fact  that  if  he  desires  to  maintain  his  priority  he  cannot 
take  advantage  of  any  periodical  rushes  of  work  in  other  establish- 
ments. Prior  to  the  enforcement  of  this  law  every  composing  room 
in  our  jurisdiction  was  open  to  him.  To-day  he  is  practically  limited 
to  one.  But  the  far  more  serious  effect  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  abso- 
lutely destroys  the  independence  of  the  man  who  holds  a  situation. 
In  days  gone  by  he  had  confidence  in  his  ability  to  obtain  employ- 
ment wherever  the  services  of  competent  printers  were  in  demand. 
To-day  he  hangs  to  his  situation  like  grim  death,  realizing  that  if  for 
any  reason  he  loses  it,  his  name  must  go  at  the  bottom  of  the  priority 
list  in  every  office  in  which  he  seeks  work.  He  gives  out  less  subbing 
than  formerly,  and  will  eventually,  we  fear,  lose  interest  in  his  union. 
His  union  protects  him  in  his  situation  and  at  the  same  time  prac- 
tically guarantees  that  he  shall  not  get  another  if  for  any  reason  he 
loses  the  one  he  holds."  It  was  contended  that  the  law  "  destroys 
competition  among  employers  for  the  services  of  men  who  are  classed 
above  the  average  in  competency  or  speed.  Prior  to  1907  hundreds 
of  our  members  were  receiving  $1,  $2,  $3  and  more  per  week  above 
the  minimum  scale.  This  was  particularly  true  of  machine  operators. 
Since  the  readjustment  of  our  scale  in  May,  1907,  practically  every 
newspaper  publisher  has  held  rigidly  to  the  minimum  rate,  realizing 
that  those  who  are  classed  as  above  the  average  in  competence  or 
speed  are  prevented  from  resigning  their  situations  to  look  for  other 
positions  at  increased  wages."  The  opinion  was  expressed  in  the 
circular  that  as  a  deterrent  in  organization  work  it  would  be  difficult 
to  frame  a  more  effective  law  to  handicap  the  officers  in  their 
efforts  to  strengthen  the  union,  which  was  of  the  belief  that  the 
rule  designating  the  causes  for  which  foremen  had  power  to  discharge 
workmen  was  sufficient  to  guarantee  an  equal  opportunity  to  every 


532  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

member  looking  for  employment.  The  popular  vote  on  the  question 
was  taken  throughout  the  International's  jurisdiction  on  May  20, 
1908,  and  the  proposition  to  abrogate  the  law  was  defeated  by  17,136 
in  the  negative,  to  14,643  in  the  affirmative.  A  large  majority  of  the 
membership  of  Union  No.  6,  however,  favored  the  repeal,  the  number 
who  voted  for  it  being  2,526,  to  1,984  against  it.  Notwithstanding 
this  action  the  priority  matter  remains  a  moot  question.  "  Since 
the  making  of  a  decision  on  the  priority  law  as  it  then  existed  at  the 
Cincinnati  convention  of  the  International  Typographical  Union  held 
in  1902,"  says  the  chief  executive  of  that  general  association,  "  and 
the  subsequent  incorporation  into  the  law  of  the  decision  made  at  that 
time  by  the  International  president,  there  has  been  a  gradual  and 
determined  application  of  the  priority  law  in  a  broader  and  broader 
sense,  until  the  danger  point  has  been  reached.  In  many  juris- 
dictions it  is  not  now  a  question  of  competency  for  a  particular 
situation  that  is  to  be  filled,  but  a  question  of  priority.  *  *  * 
It  seems  to  your  president  that  the  time  has  arrived  when  the  appli- 
cation of  the  priority  law  should  be  made  with  more  care  and  dis- 
crimination. We  boast  that  our  members  are  competent  to  do  the 
work  to  which  they  are  assigned,  and  we  should  see  to  it  that  when 
we  insist  upon  our  members  being  given  situations  they  have  the 
required  competency,  for  the  good  name  and  perpetuity  of  the  organiza- 
tion are  involved  in  the  transaction.  No  association  of  individuals  can 
continue  to  perpetrate  a  wrong  and  exist.  No  trade  union  can  follow 
a  wrongful  and  burdensome  policy  and  continue  to  advance.  If  we 
expect  the  employer  to  be  fair  with  us  we  must  at  all  times  be  fair 
with  the  employer.  The  priority  law  in  countless  instances  has  been 
a  great  protection  to  our  members,  but  instances  are  also  on  record 
where  the  priority  law  has  been  used  to  protect  the  incompetent  to 
the  demoralization  of  the  composing  room  and  the  discredit  of  the 
local  union."  ^ 


2  From  the  report  of  President  James  M .  Lynch  to  the  convention  of  the  International    Typo- 
graphical Union,  in  San  Francisco,  Gal.,  on  August  14,  1911. 


CHAPTER    XXXIII. 

MILEAGE  SYSTEM  FOR  TRAVELING  PRINTERS. 

IN  1888  Union  No.  6  approved  a  plan,  prepared  by  Bastable  J. 
Hawkes,  one  of  its  members,  for  the  pecuniary  relief  of  union 
printers  who  found  it  necessary  to  travel  in  quest  of  employ- 
ment. It  was  the  projected  establishment  of  a  mileage  system  by 
the  International  Union,  and  though  the  latter  was  earnestly  peti- 
tioned to  adopt  the  measure,  it  failed  to  pass  that  body.  The  orig- 
inator of  the  idea  stated  that  its  object  was  to  induce  the  unemployed 
to  travel,  and  that  it  could  be  made  advantageous  to  unionism.. 
"  In  times  of  depression  in  the  printing  business  (and  in  the  large 
cities  it  may  be  said,  at  all  times),"  quoth  he,  "  it  is  painful  to  see 
the  number  of  men  who  lie  around  on  the  chance  of  getting  a  day  or 
night  or  two  a  week,  and  who  exist  on  that.  Very  man}^  of  them 
have  no  home  ties  that  bind  them  to  any  particular  locality,  but 
have  no  inducement  to  go  elsewhere.  If  the  mileage  system  were 
in  operation  it  would  be  an  inducement  to  them  to  try  elsewhere, 
being  sure  of  assistance  in  any  part  of  the  country  to  Vv^hich  they  may 
direct  their  steps.  Now,  does  not  this  virtually  employ  the  surplus 
labor  in  our  trade  to  a  great  extent,  and  will  it  not  tend  to  distribute 
it  over  the  whole  area  of  the  United  States  and  Canada,  instead 
of  allowing  it  to  congregate  in  certain  places,  where  employers  are 
at  all  times  only  too  anxious  to  prey  on  their  necessities  and  use  the 
unfortunate  as  a  menace  to  the  maintenance  of  a  union  scale?  It 
would  also  follow  that  the  situations  of  those  holding  them  would 
be  more  secure  because  of  the  scarcity  of  permanent  applicants. 
And  woiild  not  employers  and  foremen  be  less  tyrannical  if  they  had 
fewer  to  choose  from  to  fill  positions?  Would  not  men  who  had 
family  ties  binding  them  to  a  particular  place  receive  more  work  in 
dull  times  because  of  the  absence  of  those  not  so  circimistanced  ? 
It  will  thus  be  seen  that  every  one  in  the  printing  trade  will  be  bene- 
fited by  tlie  adoption  of  this  system  —  the  regular  by  the  greater 
permanency  of  his  situation,  those  casually  employed  by  receiving 
a  greater  amount  of  work  in  dull  times  than  at  present,  and  the 
traveler  by  the  actual  receipt  of  relief  under  the  mileage  system." 

[533] 


534  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

The  introducer  of  the  plan  not  only  considered  that  a  more  equable 
distribution  of  the  unemployed  throughout  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
International  instead  of  having  the  bulk  of  them  remain  in  populous 
centres  during  periods  of  trade  stagnation  would  inure  to  their 
benefit,  but  he  was  of  the  belief  that  these  peripatetic  craftsmen 
Vv'ould  be  effective  union  missioners.  These  were  his  views  on  that 
score:  "  The  benefit  to  unionism  by  the  example  and  teaching  of 
those  travelers  is  incalculable.  They  would  spread  a  knowledge  of 
the  principles  and  benefits  of  organization  through  every  town  and 
hamlet  in  the  United  States,  and  numerous  unions  would  be  estab- 
lished through  that  means.  A  genuine  bond  of  brotherhood  would 
thus  be  formed  between  all  members  of  the  craft,  and  the  Inter- 
national Typographical  Union  would  exist  for  some  tangible  object." 

Secretaries  of  local  unions  were  to  issue  to  members  obliged  to 
seek  work  elsewhere  traveling  cards  for  not  to  exceed  150  miles  in  a 
single  week  and  entitling  them  to  2  cents  per  mile.  An  Inter- 
national secretary  was  to  have  charge  of  the  fund,  which  was  to  be  de- 
rived from  a  per  capita  tax  of  10  cents,  with  authority  to  distribute 
the  money  among  subordinate  unions  in  accordance  with  their  needs. 
In  a  city  where  a  union  possessed  at  least  100  members  a  traveling 
printer  was  to  be  allowed  one  day's  time  after  his  arrival  in  which 
to  seek  employment,  for  which  time  he  was  to  receive  a  sum  equal 
to  the  mileage  for  25  miles.  A  route  map  was  to  be  supplied  with 
each  traveling  card,  and  at  every  stopping  place  a  member  was 
privileged  to  choose  his  next  route,  which  fact  the  secretary  was  to 
enter  on  the  certificate.  Mileage  was  not  to  be  permitted  for  any 
other  route,  nor  for  any  distance  greater  than  that  indicated  on  the 
map  as  the  ntimber  of  miles  dividing  the  respective  cities.  But  sec- 
retaries were  to  have  the  right  to  send  members  to  localities  in  their 
immediate  neighborhoods  where  there  was  a  likelihood  of  obtaining 
work,  for  which  distance  mileage  was  to  be  paid  whether  or  not  the 
route  was  noted  on  the  map.  Holders  of  traveling  cards  were  not  to 
be  eligible  for  relief  from  any  local  union  more  than  once  in  twelve 
months.  Indiscriminate  railway  traveling  was  to  be  prohibited,  but 
a  member  desirous  of  passing  from  one  city  to  another  could  do  so 
when  the  distance  was  not  less  than  25  miles,  and  his  allowance 
upon  arrival  at  his  destination  was  to  be  an  amount  equivalent  to 
a  day's  mileage.  In  parts  of  the  country  where  cities  having  local 
unions  were  great  distances  apart  a  member  was  to  have  a  sum  equal 
to  the  mileage  for  25  miles  for  each  day  spent  in  passing  from  one 
point  to  another.  It  was  suggested  that  the  International  secretary 
could  correspond  with  the  different  local  secretaries  and  ascertain 


MILEAGE    SYSTEM    FOR   TRAVELING    PRINTERS.  535 

the  average  number  of  travelers  per  month  who  passed  through  each 
union,  and  from  that  information  could  form  an  estimate  of  the 
amount  necessary  for  its  support.  Advocates  of  the  plan  did  not 
believe  that  it  would  lead  to  abuses.  They  contended  that  "  an 
average  walk  of  2  5  miles  per  day  would  secure  for  a  man  the  sum  of 
50  cents,  a  sum  which  certainly  is  not  sufficient  to  draw  a  large 
amount  of  talent  simply  to  partake  of  its  benefits,  but  to  a  man  who 
is  honestly  seeking  employment  would  be  of  considerable  help,  with 
whatever  work  he  would  pick  up  on  the  way." 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 
OTHER  PRINTING  TRADES  ORGANIZATIONS. 

I. 

Brooklyn  Printers. 

THERE  have  been  several  typographical  associations  in  Brook- 
lyn.    The  first  of  these  was  doubtless  the  one  that   was 
founded    on    Saturday    evening,    January    4,    185 1,    p.t   the 
Franklin  House,  and  of  which  James  Smith  was  the  original  chair- 
man and  G.  V.  S.  Quackenboss  secretary.     These  resolutions  were 
adopted:     "  That    those    composing    this    meeting 
Franklin  have  the  fullest  confidence  in  the  employers  of  this 

Typographical  city,  and  believe  that  they  are,  and  ever  will  be, 
Association.  willing  to  unite  with  the  employees  in  devising 
means  for  their  welfare  and  prosperity.  That,  as 
we  are  now  assembled,  a  committee  be  appointed  by  the  chair  to 
confer  with  our  fellow-craftsmen  of  this  city,  and  if  deemed  prac- 
ticable, form  a  mutual  aid  association  to  be  called  '  The  Franklin 
Typographical  Association  of  the  City  of  Brooklyn.'  That  when 
this  meeting  adjourn  it  be  to  such  time  as  the  chairman  may  appoint 
to  carry  out  the  best  interests  of  the  profession  generally." 

In  compliance  with  the  resolutions  the  chairman  appointed  Mr. 
Campbell,  of  the  Eagle,  Mr.  Titus,  of  the  Star,  Mr.  Whittit,  of  the 
Advertiser,   Mr.   Evans,   of  the  Freeman,  and  Mr. 
Brooklyn  Wilson,  of  the  Independent,  as  a  committee  for  the 

Chart     f  furtherance  of  the  object.     Not  much  appears  to 

National  Union,  have  been  accomplished  by  the  Franklin  Association 
either  as  a  beneficial  or  protective  society.  Its  life 
evidently  was  of  short  duration,  for  in  i860  there  was  an  attempt  made 
by  Brooklyn  compositors  to  form  a  union  and  obtain  a  charter  from 
the  National  Typographical  Union.  This  effort  was  imobjectionable 
to  Union  No.  6,  whose  constitution  prescribed  that  its  jurisdiction 
"  shall  be  limited  to  the  City  of  New  York."  Opposition  to  the 
formation  of  a  union  by  Brooklyn  printing-house  workers  unexpect- 
edly sprang  from  another  source.    Robert  C.  Smith  was  then  presi- 

[536] 


OTHER    PRINTING    TRADES    ORGANIZATIONS.  537 

dent  of  the  National  Typographical  Union.  He  refused  to  grant 
a  charter  to  the  Brooklynites,  and  at  the  convention  of  that 
general  body,  held  in  Nashville,  Tenn.,  in  May,  i860,  he  sub- 
mitted an  explanation  for  the  course  he  had  pursued  in  the  matter. 
"  On  the  eighth  of  January,"  he  reported,  "  I  received  an  appli- 
cation for  a  charter  from  Brooklyn,  in  which  it  was  said  that 
they  intended  to  call  a  meeting  as  soon  as  they  received  a  char- 
ter. To  which  I  replied  I  did  not  think  it  right  to  sign  any 
charter  until  an  organization  had  been  effected;  and  doubted 
the  propriety  of  signing  a  charter  unless  there  was  a  prospect 
of  forming  a  good  and  permanent  union,  and  one  that  will  prove 
beneficial  to  the  general  welfare  of  the  craft;  after  which  I  re- 
ceived a  series  of  resolutions  from  Brooklyn  printers  demanding 
a  charter  as  their  right,  signed  by  eight  members.  I  replied  to  the 
resolutions,  and  told  them  that  as  the  meeting  of  the  National  Union 
was  so  near  I  would  have  to  refer  them  to  that  body,  and  let  them 
take  the  responsibility  of  issuing  a  charter;  and  in  the  meantime 
they  could  lose  nothing  by  getting  up  a  first-rate  organization. 
Being  fully  impressed  with  the  belief  that  much  harm  might  result 
by  too  much  haste  in  granting  this  charter,  and  probably  cause  a 
collision  between  two  unions,  I  felt  that  you  were  the  only  proper 
parties  to  say  whether  Brooklyn,  the  third  city  in  the  United  States, 
should  be  chartered  with  a  membership  of  only  eight,  or  whether  it 
was  only  justice  to  the  National  Union  to  insist  upon  their  getting 
up  an  organization  which  would  reflect  credit  upon  themselves  as 
well  as  upon  this  body.  Probably,  gentlemen,  I  may  attach  too 
much  importance  to  this  case,  but  I  believe  that  nothing  impairs  the 
efficiency  of  our  National  organization  so  much  as  to  have  unions 
start,  as  it  were  to-day,  and  die  out  to-morrow.  In  my  opinion  no 
union  shoiild  be  chartered  unless  it  has  a  fair  prospect  of  becoming 
a  fixed  and  permanent  institution.  It  is  proper  also  that  a  resolution 
should  be  adopted  by  this  body,  defining  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Brooklyn  union,  previous  to  issuing  this  charter.  Many  printers 
residing  in  Brooklyn  work  in  New  York.  In  that  case  New  York 
must  have  control  of  them." 

The  whole  subject  was  referred  to  the  Committee  on  Subordinate 
Unions,  which  on  May  loth  submitted  a  report  that  was  intended 
as  a  solution  of  the  question.  While  the  committee  asserted  "  that 
no  organization  has  a  right  to  demand  a  charter  as  a  right,"  its  judg- 
ment was  that  such  union  could  "  make  appHcation  to  the  officers, 
and  if  the  officers  refuse  to  comply  with  the  request  they  are  account- 
able only  to  this  body.    That,  owing  to  the  peculiar  locality  of  Brook- 


538  NEW   YORK  TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER  SIX. 

lyn,  it  was  the  prerogative  of  the  officers  to  withhold  the  application 
for  the  charter  until  the  jurisdiction  of  the  unions  in  New  York  and 
Brooklyn  was  defined."  It  was,  however,  recommended  by  the  com- 
mittee "  that  a  charter  be  granted  to  Brooklyn  whenever  proper 
application  shall  be  made,  with  the  understanding  that  those  who 
work  in  New  York  shall  be  considered  as  in  the  jurisdiction  of  New 
York,  notwithstanding  a  residence  in  Brooklyn,  and  vice  versa." 

Thomas  J.  Walsh,  representing  Typographical  Union  No.  6  in  the 
convention,  expressed  surprise  at  the  tenor  of  the  committee's  report. 
He  stated  that  the  Brooklyn  union  did  not  demand  a  charter  as  a 
right  mitil  after  the  signature  of  the  president  had  been  refused  and 
its  application  rejected;  that  the  territorial  jurisdiction  of  the  New 
York  and  Brooklyn  unions  was  each  well  defined,  the  former  having 
formally  disclaimed  any  control  over  Brooklyn,  while  the  latter  had 
not  only  held  primary  meetings,  but  had  organized  and  elected 
officers.  "  I  am  much  interested  in  this  Brooklyn  matter,"  said  he, 
"  and  I  am  probably  the  only  person  present  who  fully  understands 
it.  Yet  the  committee  did  not  ask  me  any  questions  in  relation  to 
it  before  submitting  its  report.  I  think  the  members  of  the  com- 
mittee should  have  made  themselves  acquainted  with  the  merits  of 
both  sides  of  the  question."  This  criticism  caused  Samuel  Slawson, 
of  St.  Louis,  chairman  of  the  committee,  to  explain  that  its  findings 
were  prompted  by  the  doc\mients  that  had  been  submitted.  "  Having 
no  other  datum  to  guide  us  we  coxild  come  to  no  other  conclusions 
than  those  arrived  at,"  he  declared,  and  the  report  was  thereupon 
adopted. 

In  the  meanwhile  the  excitement  attending  the  breaking  out  of  the 
Civil  War  served  to  postpone  the  plea  of  the  Brooklyn  printers  for  a 
charter,  and  for  seven  years  they  ceased  to  appeal 
Union  No.  98        to  the  National  Union  for  recognition,  but  the  re- 
Organized,  but     vival  of  their  application  in  1867  met  with  an  affirm- 
Soon  Succumbs,   ative  response,  and  they  were  chartered  on  April 
17th  of  that  year  as  Typographical  Union  No.  98, 
with  John  Taylor  as  president  and  Edward  N.  Bamett  as  secretary. 
There  was  a  disastrous  strike  inaugurated  by  the  Brooklyn  union 
for  an  increase  of  wages  later  in  1867,  and  as  a  resiilt  of  that  dispute, 
it  was  reported  in  1868  by  President  John  H.  Oberly  of  the  National 
Union,  No.  98  had  been  compelled  to  disband. 

In  1869  Union  No.  6  amended  its  constitution  so  that  the  provision 
in  regard  to  jimsdiction  was  changed  to  read  that  it  "  shall  be  in 
accordance  with  the  laws  of  the  International  Union,"  which  latter 
body  enacted  a  rule  in  187 1  that  gave  each  subordinate  organization 


OTHER    PRINTING   TRADES    ORGANIZATIONS.  539 

jtirisdiction  "  half  way  between  its  own  location  and  that  of  a  sister 
union,"  but  since  1876  the  general  law  has  restricted  the  boundary 
lines  of  a  local  union  "  to  the  corporate  limits  of 
the  city  or  town  named  in  the  charter,"  while  the    Charter 
constitution     provides    that     "  only    one     English-    Reissued, 
speaking  subordinate  union  in  any  distinctive  craft    Then  Recalled. 
shall  be  chartered  in  the  same  place."     A  foster- 
ing care   was   exercised  by  Union    No.   6  over  the   well-being    of 
craftsmen  in  Brooklyn,  and  on  September  2,   1873,  it  clothed  the 
Executive  Committee  with  "  full  power  to  adopt  a  scale  of  prices  for, 
and  have  full  control  over,  the  offices  in  Brooklyn."     But  the  printers 
in  that  city  were  not  satisfied  with  this  arrangement.     They  wanted 
an  organization  of  their  own  and  in  May,  1874,  they  succeeded  in 
having  the  International  reissue  Charter  No.  98.    John  Gatter  was 
chosen  president  of  the  re-established  union  and  Edward  N.  Bamett 
was  made  secretary.    This  was  displeasing  to  No.  6,  which  on  June 
2d  directed  its  secretary  "  to  telegraph  immediately  to  the  Inter- 
national Union  and  ask  that  body  to  revoke  said  charter,  believing 
that  the  best  interests  of  the  craft  would  be  served  thereby."     The 
charter  was  revoked  shortly  thereafter,  and  the  members  ordered  to 
deposit  their  cards  with  No.  6  inside  of  six  days.    President  William 
H.  Bodwell  of  the  International  Union  gave  to  the  general  conven- 
tion  in  Boston  on  June  8,    1875,  these  reasons  for   recalling   the 
charter : 

Shortly  before  the  last  session  of  this  body  the  then  secretary  and  treasurer 
reissued  a  charter  to  Brooklyn  Union  No.  98.  During  the  session  in  St.  Louis 
a  telegraphic  dispatch  from  the  secretary  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  and 
embodying  a  resolution  adopted  by  that  body  protesting  against  the  establish- 
ment of  a  union  in  Brooklyn,  and  asking  the  International  Typographical  Union 
to  revoke  the  charter,  was  received  by  me  and  read  to  the  convention.  The 
matter  was  referred  to  a  special  committee,  who  subsequently  reported  the 
following  resolution,  which  was  adopted: 

Resolved,  That  the  president  of  the  International  Union  be  requested  to  investigate  the  matter 
of  the  reissuing  of  a  charter  to  Brooklyn  Union  No.  98.  and  should  any  irregularity  appear  he  is 
hereby  instructed  to  insist  upon  a  strict  compliance  with  the  law. 

Upon  my  return  to  New  York  I  found  that  considerable  excitement  and  feel- 
ing existed  between  the  two  unions.  Members  of  No.  6  claimed  that  they  were 
being  forced  to  join  Union  No.  98  under  the  penalty  of  forfeiting  their  situations, 
while  on  the  part  of  the  latter  union  complaint  was  made  that  their  rights  and 
prosperity  were  being  interfered  with  by  the  refusal  of  members  of  No.  6  working 
in  Brooklyn  to  join  their  union.  On  June  13th  I  wrote  the  officers  of  both  unions, 
requesting  that  all  action  be  suspended  until  such  time  as  I  could  inquire  into 
and  determine  upon  the  question  of  the  legality  of  the  charter  under  which 
Union  No.  98  was  working. 


54©  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION   NUMBER   SIX. 

President  Bodwell  concluded  his  report  by  stating  that,  after  due 
deliberation,  he  was  forced  under  the  law  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
reissue  of  the  charter  was  illegal  and  he  therefore  revoked  it.  Union 
No.  98  appealed  from  the  decision,  and  the  convention  sustained  the 
action  of  the  president. 

New  York  vState  Deputy  Organizer  F.  F.  Donovan  of  the  Inter- 
national Typographical  Union  on  March  20,  1883,  addressed  a  call 
to  the  compositors  of  Brooklyn  for  a  meeting  on  the 
International       following  evening  "  for  organization  and  to  apply 
Revives  for  a  charter."     He  announced  that  "it  is  deemed 

Union  No.  98.  ^f  importance  by  the  International  Typographical 
Union  that  a  subordinate  union  shall  be  organized 
in  Brooklyn  for  the  purpose  of  self -protection  and  mutual  advan- 
tage." A  reorganization  was  effected,  Hulbert  Payne  being  elected 
president  and  James  Dixon  secretary,  and  Union  No.  98  was  again 
chartered.  Although  Union  No.  6  had  agreed  to  an  interchange  of 
working  cards  with  the  reorganized  union  in  Brooldyn,  so  that 
members  of  each  organization  were  permitted  "  to  sub  in  either  city 
for  not  more  than  thirty  days,  and  on  accepting  a  situation  must 
deposit  a  traveling  card,"  comity  between  the  two  associations  was 
not  of  a  permanent  nature.  This  became  manifest  on  June  3d  fol- 
lowing when  a  large  book  chapel  in  Brooklyn  presented  a  protest  to 
No.  6  against  joining  Union  No.  98,  and  the  former  immediately 
formulated  a  "  request  to  the  International  Typographical  Union 
to  give  New  York  jurisdiction  over  Brooldyn  by  special  act  and 
revoke  the  charter  of  No.  98."  But  such  revocation  was  not  accom- 
plished. One  of  the  reasons  that  influenced  the  New  York  union 
to  ask  for  the  disbandment  of  its  sister  association  on  the  opposite 
banks  of  the  East  River  was  that  the  Brooklyn  wage  scale  was  less 
than  that  maintained  in  New  York  City. 

Chapter  378  of  the  Laws  of  1897  united  into  a  single  municipality, 
under  the  corporate  title  of  the  City  of  New  York,  the  several  com- 
munities  lying   in   and   about   New   York   harbor. 
Final  That  act  went  into  operation  on  January  i,  1898. 

Dissolution  of  Brooklyn  thus  became  a  borough  of  the  greater 
Union  No.  98.  ^^^y^  a,nd  there  being  an  International  prohibition 
against  the  existence  of  two  English-speaking  sub- 
ordinate organizations  in  the  same  municipality,  Union  No.  6  on 
November  7,  1897,  took  steps  to  bring  about  an  amalgamation  of 
the  two  associations,  referring  the  matter  to  a  committee,  which  on 
March  6,  1898,  made  these  recommendations,  to  which  No.  6  gave 
its  concurrence: 


OTHER    PRINTING    TRADES    ORGANIZATIONS.  54I 

That  the  evening  newspaper  scale  in  the  Borough  of  Brooklyn  remain  as  at 
present  until  such  time  as  business  will  warrant  a  demand  for  the  increase  (a 
difference  of  $3  per  week)  or  we  have  been  able  to  place  the  four  papers  on  an 
equal  footing.  This  we  consider  an  act  of  justice  to  the  two  union  newspapers 
and  the  best  policy  for  us  to  pursue  at  the  present  time.  Owing  to  the  fact 
that  these  two  papers  are  the  weakest,  receive  less  advertisements  and  less 
money  therefor  than  their  unfair  competitors,  and  it  is  the  policy  of  the  union 
to  encourage  proprietors  to  run  union  offices,  to  enforce  the  scale  of  No.  6  in 
these  two  offices  at  the  present  time  we  consider  unwise  and  impracticable. 

That  the  book  and  job  scale  remain  as  at  present  except  to  comply  with  the 
nine-and-one-half-hour  law. 

That  members  of  No.  98  retain  their  present  cards  and  numbers  until  the  end 
of  the  financial  year,  when  they  shall  be  given  numbers  according  to  the  years 
they  have  been  members  of  No.  98;  in  the  meantime  a  No.  98  card  to  be  recog- 
nized in  any  office  under  the  jurisdiction  of  No.  6,  and  vice  versa.  Your  committee 
strongly  recommends  the  appointment  of  a  committee  whose  sole  business  it 
shall  be  to  try  to  bring  into  the  fold  the  two  non-union  offices.  The  system  of 
piecework  on  machines  in  these  offices  is  a  dangerous  one  to  us  and  should  be 
abolished.  These  two  papers  pay  15  cents  per  1,000  ems  on  machines,  35  cents 
per  1,000  ems  hand,  and  $20  per  week  for  time  work. 

Typographical  Union  No.  98  surrendered  its  charter  and  ceased 
to  exist  on  May  16,  1898,  when  it  turned  over  to  Union  No.  6  its 
records  and  money  that  was  in  its  treasury  at  the  time  of  dissolu- 
tion —  $462.50.  In  the  succeeding  October  No.  6  resolved  to  enforce 
the  New  York  book  and  job  scale  in  Brooklyn  at  the  same  time  that 
the  nine-hour  law  became  operative,  and  on  December  19th  a  pro- 
visional price  list  for  newspaper  work  was  passed,  to  remain  in  force 
until  November  21,  1899.  This  schedule  fixed  the  rate  on  afternoon 
newspapers  issued  six  days  in  the  week  at  $22.50  for  48  hours'  work, 
and  on  evening  jotunals  having  Sunday  editions  at  $23.10  per  week. 
It  was  also  decided  that  "  the  present  number  of  apprentices  shall 
be  allowed  to  remain  until  they  have  reached  the  required  age  and 
served  the  lawful  time  to  become  eligible  for  membership  in  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  6,  no  apprentices  in  addition  to  the  present 
number  to  be  employed."  For  a  number  of  years  the  regtdar  scale 
of  wages  of  Union  No.  6  has  not  only  been  paid  in  the  Borough  of 
Brooklyn,  but  its  application  has  extended  to  all  other  sections  of 
Greater  New  York  outside  of  Manhattan. 

II. 

German  Printers, 

There  were  50  German  compositors  in  New  York  City  in  1850. 
Forty  of  these  formed  themselves  into  an  association  on  April  12th, 
that  year,  and  adopted  a  constitution.     This  original  organization 


542  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

met   at   the   San   Francisco   Hotel,  No.  528   Pearl   street,  and  on 
June  ist  it  elected  a  committee  to  consult  with  the  union  of  Ameri- 
can printers.      In  the  following  August  it  passed 
Early  a  resolution  "  that,  considering  the  just  and  prompt 

Organization     endeavor  of  all  movements   of  the  workingmen's 
Efforts.  associations,  we  agree  with  the  transactions  of  the 

Workingmen's  Congress  and  elect  delegates  to  repre- 
sent us  in  the  above-mentioned  body."  After  awhile  its  influence 
in  tra,de  affairs  ceased.  Between  that  time  and  1866  two  other  organ- 
izations of  German  compositors  were  formed,  the  last  meeting  of 
the  third  one  having  been  held  on  April  21st,  in  that  year.  From 
that  date  until  August  14,  1869,  New  York  again  lacked  a  union  of 
printers  in  the  Teutonic  language.  Then  the  present  Typographia 
No.  7  was  ushered  into  being.  These  extracts  from  a  study  of  the 
early  history  of  that  organization  printed  in  the  official  journal  of 
the  German  Branch  of  the  International  Typographical  Union  are 
of  especial  interest: 

In  the  summer  of  1869  a  number  of  compositors  employed  by  the  Arheiter 
Union,  then  the  German  labor  paper,  resolved  to  organize  the  German  printers 
of  New  York.     These  printers  were  mostly  young  people,  a 
German  number  of  whom  had  arrived  from  the  old  country  a  short 

Typographia         time  before  and  had  still  fresh  in  their  minds  what  the  German 
rganiica.  printers,  although  a  young  union  at  that  time,  had  achieved 

through  organization.  They  addressed  a  circular  letter  to 
all  German  printers  of  New  York  and  called  for  a  general  meeting  on  Saturday, 
July  17th,  when  the  founding  of  an  organization  was  to  be  discussed.  The  meet- 
ing succeeded  beyond  expectations,  and  after  a  few  more  meetings  the  German 
Typographia  of  New  York  was  definitely  founded  on  Saturday,  August  14,  1869. 
Conditions  at  that  time  may  be  described  by  a  few  sentences  from  a  speech 
delivered  by  the  general  secretary,  Jean  Weil,  on  the  occasion  of  the  tenth  anni- 
versary of  Typographia  No.  7.  "  Everywhere  in  the  United  States,"  he  said, 
"  workmen  were  active;  everywhere  they  formed  organizations  for  the  pro- 
tection and  the  conservation  of  their  rights,  and  the  movement  was  particularly 
strong  in  the  City  of  New  York.  However,  the  German  printers  seemed  to 
be  unaware  of  the  fact  that  there  was  a  labor  movement  in  progress,  and  each 
would  follow  his  own  way,  uninterested  in  the  lot  of  his  fellow-men,  and 
not  caring  whether  or  not  his  neighbor  had  anything  to  eat."  A  few  German 
printers  belonged  to  the  English  union  of  printers.  No.  6,  but  they  had  no  influence 
in  the  union,  did  not  get  any  help  from  it,  and  for  that  reason  did  not  feel  very 
much  at  home  in  the  same.  The  majority  of  German  printers  belonged  to  no 
organization  having  for  its  aim  the  regulation  of  trade  questions.  Outside  of 
the  summary  of  the  speech  of  Mr.  Weil  mentioned  above  and  the  first  financial 
report  of  the  first  treasurer,  Ernest  Siebers,  no  written  document  is  in  existence 
concerning  the  period  between  the  founding  of  the  union  and  Saturday,  March 
26,  1870.     The  first  journal  of  minutes  begins  with  that  day. 

According  to  the  financial  report,  the  activities  of  the  new  union  started  on 
October  i,  1869,  in  other  words,  initiation  fees  and  dues  were  collected  from  that 


OTHER   PRINTING   TRADES   ORGANIZATIONS.  543 

date.  The  initiation  fee  was  $1  and  the  monthly  dues  25  cents.  Negligence 
to  pay  dues  for  three  months  resulted  in  loss  of  membership.  At  the  time  of  the 
founding  of  the  organization  the  number  of  members  was  31,  and  reached  35  at 
the  end  of  the  quarter,  although  the  German  printers  numbered  then  nearly  1 50 
in  New  York  and  the  surrounding  territory.  This  slow  progress  of  the  member- 
ship continued  until  the  sickness  fund  was  instituted.  Most  of  the  original 
members  remained  true  to  the  organization  to  the  end,  while  others  followed 
other  trades  or  became  printing-shop  owners  and  left  the  organization. 

One  of  the  first  duties  of  the  new  union  was  to  enact  statutes.     The  aim  of  the 
union  as  described  in  the  original  statutes  was  the  improvement  of  the  moral 
and  material  interests  of  the  German  printers  and  the  foster- 
ing of  good  fellowship.     For  this  purpose  trade  papers  and        Morbidity 
periodicals  were  to  be  procured  and  a  library  established.       and  Mortuary 
Furthermore,  two  holidays  were  to  be  celebrated  yearly,  St.        Benefits. 
John's  Day  on  the  Fourth  of  July  and  the  anniversary  on 
New  Year's  Day.     No  mention  was  made  of  the  establishment  of  a  sickness  fund 
or  the  collection  of  a  fund  for  benefits  in  the  case  of  wage  disputes.     On  the  other 
side,  the  by-laws  contain  a  number  of  sections  in  regard  to  the  duties  of  the  officials 
and  the  order  of  business.     Members  had  very  few  rights  and  slight  duties  also. 
The  spirit  leading  in  the  three  former  organizations  could  be  felt  still,  although 
the  majority  of  the  members  of  those  organizations  had  not  joined  the  German 
Typographia.     In  March,   1870,  the  question  of  establishing  a  sickness  fund 
loomed  up.     This  plan  was  put  in  operation  and  the  weekly  sickness  benefits 
to  be  paid  were  fixed  at  $5,  but  it  is  not  known  for  how  long  a  period  the  $5  was 
paid.     Funeral  benefits  were  $40  and  later  $50.     On  account  of  the  sickness  fund 
dues  were  increased  to  50  cents  per  month,  and  the  initiation  fee  to  $1.50  and  later 
to  $3.     Members  could  abstain  from  belonging  to  the  sickness  fund,  if  they  so 
chose.     The  establishment  of  such  fund  helped  to  increase  the  membership,  and 
when  it  was  started  on  January  i,  1871,  the  union  had  92  members. 

At  the  time  the  by-laws  of  the  sickness  fund  were  under  discussion  Edward 
Grosse,  a  member  who  with  others  had  been  active  in  organizing  the  German 
Typographia,  presented  a  minority  report  containing  a  few  suggestions  interest- 
ing enough  to  be  given  here.  He  proposed  to  reject  the  majority  report  and  to 
change  it  in  taking  the  principle  of  mutuality  as  a  basis,  for  the  following  reasons : 
"  (i)  In  order  to  be  able  to  compete  successfully  with  the  old  sickness  fund  of 
the  printers  (it  was  called  the  old  fund,  although  only  eighteen  years  old),  it  is 
necessary  to  build  up  the  new  fund  on  a  basis  free  from  the  objectionable  and 
unpopular  features  of  the  old  fund,  this  to  be  done  on  the  principle  of  mutuality, 
namely,  (a)  in  suppressing  initiation  fees,  (b)  in  assessing  members  to  the  amount 
only  necessary  for  meeting  present  requirements,  (c)  in  suppressing  the  accumu- 
lation of  a  fund  that  would  be  nothing  but  a  gift  of  the  present  generation  to  the 
future  generation,  while  the  situation  of  the  workman  at  the  present  time  is 
such  that  he  has  all  he  can  do  to  take  care  of  himself.  (2)  The  main  objective 
is  to  gain  the  newcomers,  printers  who  remain  here  a  short  time  only,  because 
(a)  most  of  the  old  printers  who  have  been  living  here  for  some  time  belong  to 
the  old  fund,  (b)  the  surplus  of  the  old  fund  operates  as  a  strong  attraction  for 
printers  who  settle  permanently  in  New  York,  and  (c)  it  is  spoliation  to  require 
a  printer  to  contribute  over  and  above  the  amount  warranted  by  the  expenses 
during  his  stay  here,  a  fact  that  helps  to  drive  him  away."  This  view  of  Grosse 
appears  strange  to-day,  but  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  Grosse  had  been  for 
some  time  private  secretary  of  J.  B.  Schweizer,  second  president  of.  the  General 


544  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

German  Labor  Union,  and  his  ideas  were  influenced  by  Lassalle's  theory  of  self- 
help.  It  was  further  objected  to  in  the  minority  report  that  membership  in  the 
sickness  fund  should  be  optional,  this  having  for  result  a  separate  organization 
and  a  separate  administration  within  the  Typographia.  The  minority  report, 
although  not  accepted,  influenced  the  subsequent  development  of  the  sickness 
fund.  The  separate  administration  was  soon  suppressed,  and  the  membership 
of  the  sickness  fund  included  every  member  of  the  union  in  good  health. 

Soon  after  the  founding  of  the  union  an  effort  was  made  to  gain  for  it  the  nu- 
merous non-members  working   in  New  York,  through  personal  interviews  and 
through  general  meetings  of  printers,  and  printers  in  other 
Centralization        cities  were  invited  by  circular  letters  to  form  organizations, 
of  German  The  latter  aim   succeeded,  but  efforts  in   New  York  were 

Typographias.  nearly  fruitless.  In  the  union  meeting  of  May  7,  1870,  a 
report  from  Chicago  was  read  announcing  the  existence  of  a 
German  union  of  printers  called  the  "  Gutenberg- Verein  "  and  the  willingness 
of  the  Chicago  union  to  enter  into  a  mutual  agreement  with  the  New  York  union, 
and  to  co-operate  in  the  organization  work  of  printers  in  other  cities.  The  mutual 
agreement  was  duly  signed,  but  its  sole  effect  was  that  members  moving  from  one 
city  to  the  other  had  to  pay  one-half  of  the  initiation  fee  only,  while  in  all  other 
respects  they  were  to  abide  by  the  by-laws  of  the  respective  unions.  As  far  as 
organization  work  was  concerned,  Chicago  offered  to  cover  the  Western  States, 
while  New  York  was  to  take  care  of  the  East.  Committees  that  were  sent  to 
Newark  to  urge  the  printers  residing  in  that  city  to  join  the  union  succeeded  in 
gaining  a  number  of  them  for  the  New  York  association,  and  it  was  not  long 
before  they  were  able  to  form  an  organization  of  their  own.  St.  Louis  sent  the 
report  that  a  printers'  union  was  in  existence  there,  and  on  April  30,  1872,  Chicago 
announced  that  printers'  organizations  were  founded  in  Milwaukee,  Davenport 
and  Detroit.  Similar  news  came  from  Memphis.  Besides  urging  this  organi- 
zation work,  the  active  recording  secretary,  Edward  Grosse,  was  then  earnestly 
advising,  but  without  success,  affiliation  with  the  International  Typographical 
Union,  at  least  for  the  German-speaking  body  of  New  York.  On  the  other  side. 
President  Bauer,  who  had  been  president  of  the  union  for  some  time,  the  second 
since  its  formation,  seconded  energetically  and  with  success  the  proposition  of 
the  Philadelphia  union  to  unite  all  the  German  printers'  unions  by  the  means 
of  a  central  organization.  Bauer  was  sustained  in  his  efforts  by  all  the  printers 
who  had  some  influence.  The  result  was  the  organization  of  the  German- 
American  Typographia.  Affiliation  with  the  International  Typographical  Union 
not  appearing  to  have  any  chances  of  success,  it  was  tried  to  affiliate  with  No.  6, 
but  things  went  rather  slow  and  the  proposition  was  dropped  entirely  when  said 
organization  offered  terms  that  seemed  unacceptable  to  the  German  Typographia. 
Lack  of  confidence  in  their  own  strength  appears  to  be  the  explanation  for  those 
differences  of  opinions  of  the  members  as  to  the  aims  to  be  pursued  by  the  union. 
The  question  of  an  employment  bureau  and  of  benefits  for  the  unemployed  was 
soon  brought  up  in  the  new  union.  The  employment  bureau  was  at  first  a  private 
undertaking  and  was  under  the  direction  of  a  former  printer  who 
Employment  Bureau  h^d  become  a  saloonkeeper,  and  thus  was  not  controlled  by  the 
and  Out-of-v/ork  union.  Hovi^ever,  when  employment  was  offered,  members  of 
Benefits  Commenced,  ^^g  ^nion  were  to  be  given  the  preference.  This  system  did  not 
succeed  very  well,  and  finally  in  October,  1873,  the  union 
created  its  own  employment  bureau.  The  first  manager  of  the  bureau  was  a 
printer,  George  Speyer.     The  regulations  adopted  at  that  time  were  amended 


OTHER    PRINTINt;    TRADES    ORGANIZATIONS.  545 

two  years  later,  when  it  was  decided  to  provide  for  unemployment  benefits. 
This  happened  on  December  i8,  1875.  From  the  regulations  in  regard  to  unem- 
ployment subsidies  and  the  employment  bureau  the  following  may  be  mentioned: 
Out-of-work  members  wishing  to  draw  benefits  were  to  report  daily  to  the  man- 
ager. A  member  was  entitled  to  benefits  after  two  weeks,  the  amount  being 
$5  per  week.  This  amount  was  to  be  paid  for  six  continuous  weeks,  and  discon- 
tinued for  the  four  following  weeks.  For  each  day  that  an  unemployed  member 
worked  $2  was  subtracted  from  the  amount  paid  to  him  in  benefits.  When  an 
unemployed  member  refused  a  position  offered  to  him  he  forfeited  the  right  to 
benefits  for  four  weeks.  When  he  refused  casual  work  for  a  day  he  lost  his 
benefits  for  a  week.  Whoever  neglected  to  pay  his  dues  for  more  than  three 
months  was  not  entitled  to  benefits,  and  the  same  applied  to  members  leaving 
their  work  by  their  own  free  will  unless  it  was  on  account  of  non-payment  of 
wages.  In  order  to  raise  the  funds  necessary  for  the  payment  of  unemployed 
benefits  each  member  at  work  was  assessed  25  cents  a  week.  Before  long  several 
members  thought  the  assessment  too  high  and  proposed  to  do  away  with  unem- 
ployed benefits.  This  proposition  was  not  accepted,  but  the  weekly  dues  were 
reduced  to  10  cents.  The  scheme  was  fairly  satisfactory,  as  the  number  of  those 
demanding  unemployment  benefits  was  not  very  large.  The  assessment,  how- 
ever, was  soon  increased  to  the  old  rate  of  25  cents  per  week  and  later  the  pay- 
ment of  unemployed  benefits  was  regulated  by  the  central  organization. 

When  the  Typographia  was  organized  daily  working  hours  were  from  ten  to 
twelve    in    New   York    printing   shops,    as   well   as   elsewhere,    and   in    many 
establishments  hours  were  even  longer.     Conditions  remained 
Movement  for        the  same  until  the  early  eighties,  when  the  organized  German 
the  Shorter  printers  succeeded  in  inaugurating  a  general  ten -hour  day, 

Working  Day.  which  was  followed  by  an  eight-hour  day  in  1886.  How- 
ever, 40  years  ago  New  York  had  a  German  daily  whose 
printers  enjoyed  the  eight-hour  day  —  the  Arbeiter  Union.  The  paper  lived  a 
short  time  only,  and  went  under  in  1870  mainly  for  refusing  to  join  in  the  enthu- 
siasm over  the  German  victories  in  the  Franco-Prussian  War.  It  was  probably 
the  remembrance  of  a  shorter  working  day  that  caused  Grosse  on  November  25, 

1 87 1 ,  to  bring  up  for  discussion  the  question  of  the  normal  eight-hour  day.  Many 
members  took  part  in  the  discussion  and  all  agreed  as  to  the  necessity  of  a  reduc- 
tion in  working  hours,  but  did  not  know  by  what  means  this  demand  could  be 
enforced  in  German  printing  establishments.     At  the  meeting  of  February  24, 

1872,  Grosse  reported  on  the  question  of  a  shorter  working  day  with  special  refer- 
ence to  printers.  He  insisted  that  the  question  was  extremely  pressing,  but  did 
not  think  the  principle  enforceable  at  that  time.  He  recommended  affiliation 
with  the  International  Federation  of  Workers  and  that  a  report  on  the  general 
labor  movement  should  be  given  at  each  meeting.  A  discussion  followed  and 
most  members  approved  the  recommendation.  After  that  it  was  some  time 
before  the  question  of  a  shorter  working  day  came  up  again,  not  even  when  the  first 
strike  took  place.  The  general  labor  movement  was  stiU  too  weak  and  the 
German  printers  could  not  at  that  time  take  a  step  in  advance  of  the  others 
on  such  an  important  question  as  the  eight-hour  working  day,  as  they  did  later 
when  the  general  labor  movement  was  in  a  period  of  boom. 

The  first  printers'  union  did  not  make  the  mistake  of  getting  involved  in 
strikes  soon  after  organization  as  many  other  unions  have  done  and  are  doing, 
with  the  result  of  disbanding  when  the  strikes  collapse.     The  initial  aim  was  to 
18 


54^'^  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

build  up  the  organization  and  to  win  those  outside  of  it.     F'or  the  first  two 
and  a  half  years  all  was  peaceful  within  the  Typographia  and  the  idea  might 
have  prevailed  that  the  New  York  printers  were  satisfied 
First  Disputes        with  their  lot.     It  was  the  kind  of  tranquillity  that  precedes  a 
for  Higher  storm.      At  the  meeting  of   May  25,  1872,   Edward  Grosse 

Wage  Rates.  submitted  a  report  on  the  labor  question  and  stated  that  in 

view  of  the  efforts  made  by  the  workingmen  in  New  York 
City,  as  well  as  in  all  countries,  to  improve  their  conditions,  it  was  time  for  the 
New  York  printers  to  shake  off  their  indifference,  as  their  working  conditions 
could  certainly  not  be  called  satisfactory,  and  to  take  steps  to  bring  about  their 
betterment.  The  Executive  Committee  was  directed  to  call  a  general  meeting  of 
printers  for  Sunday,  June  2d,  at  10  o'clock  A.  M.  in  Coburger  Hall,  No.  10  Stanton 
street,  to  consider  the  following  order  of  the  day:  "  Do  conditions  of  German 
printers  in  New  York  need  improvement  ?"  The  meeting  was  well  attended. 
Nearly  all  the  German  printers  of  the  City  of  New  York  were  present,  the  ma- 
jority not  members  of  the  German  Typographia.  This  was  a  dangerous  situation 
for  the  union  because,  if  the  non-members  wanted  to  agree  among  themselves, 
they  could  carry  any  resolution,  and  for  this  reason  the  results  appeared  doubtful 
from  the  beginning.  Bauer,  the  president  of  the  union,  acted  as  chairman.  A 
resolution  for  a  10  per  cent  increase  in  the  composition  rate  was  submitted  to 
the  meeting  by  the  Executive  Committee.  The  price  paid  until  then  was  40 
cents  for  day  and  45  cents  for  night  work.  The  "  radicals,"  mostly  non-members 
under  the  leadership  of  Herman  Schmidt  and  Konig,  argued  that  10  per  cent  was 
too  small  an  increase  in  wages  and  demanded  25  per  cent.  Although  the  stand- 
point of  the  Typographia  was  ably  represented  by  members  like  Bauer,  Becker, 
Buchholz,  Engels,  Goldmann,  Grosse,  Kaufmann,  Korn,  Weil,  Wieser,  etc.,  and 
they  argued  that  a  smaller  increase  once  won  would  help  to  strengthen  the  organi- 
zation and  secure  a  further  increase  later,  the  resolution  introduced  by  the  radicals 
was  carried,  and  the  committee  elected  by  the  meeting  and  composed  of  repre- 
sentatives from  different  printing  establishments  was  directed  to  demand  a 
25  per  cent  increase  from  the  owners.  Buchholz  acted  as  speaker  for  the  com- 
mittee. When  the  committee  was  on  its  way  to  submit  the  requests  of  the  meet- 
ing to  the  proprietors,  three  members  were  missing  —  the  two  representatives 
of  the  Staats-Zeitung  and  an  English  printer  who  had  shown  himself  especially 
radical  at  the  meeting  and  for  this  reason  had  been  elected  a  member  of  the  com- 
mittee. 

The  beginning  seemed  encouraging.  Three  papers,  the  Demokrat,  Journal 
and  Oestliche  Post  agreed  to  the  demands  immediately.  The  publishers  of  the 
two  first-named  papers  gave  in  easily;  when  they  had  money,  they  would  pay, 
and  when  they  had  no  money,  wages  would  remain  due.  The  Oestliche  Post, 
a  German-English  paper,  was  very  friendly  to  workingmen,  but  did  not  live  long. 
Negotiations  were  continued  with  two  other  papers,  the  Presse  and  Tages- 
Nachrichten.  Of  the  job  houses,  Teubner  and  Randell  &  Blaemeke  agreed  to 
pay  the  new  scale.  E.  Steiger,  who  was  also  printing  the  works  of  which  he  was 
the  editor,  mainly  school  books,  and  who  was  employing  from  eight  to  ten  printers, 
refused  absolutely  to  grant  the  25  per  cent  increase.  After  long  negotiations  a 
strike  was  finally  declared  on  June  17th.  It  may  seem  surprising  to-day  that  the 
young  organization  should  spend  so  much  time  in  negotiations  before  ordering 
a  strike,  but  considering  conditions  as  they  were  then,  small  membership,  more 
than  half  of  the  German  printers  were  outside  of  the  organization,  the  fact  that 


OTHER    PRINTING    TRADES    ORGANIZATIONS.  547 

it  was  not  known  to  what  extent  the  members  of  the  union  could  be  relied  on 
in  keeping  up  the  strike,  the  numerous  printers  out  of  work  or  working  at  some 
other  trade  and  waiting  for  a  chance  to  return  to  their  own  trade,  and  last,  but 
not  least,  the  scantiness  of  funds  on  hand,  it  is  easy  to  understand  the  poHcy  of 
hesitation. 

Several  other  small  establishments  maintained  that  they  could  not  afford  to 
pay  the  higher  rates.  From  22  to  25  men  altogether  went  oiit  on  strike  on  this 
account.  The  movement  for  higher  wages  seemed  to  be  progressing  well,  and 
the  members  were  elated  over  what  appeared  an  easy  victory.  Nothing,  how- 
ever, had  been  heard  from  the  Staats-Zeitung,  when  it  was  learned  at  headquarters 
that  the  printers  of  that  paper  had  reached  an  agreement  with  the  publishers 
by  which  they  were  satisfied  with  a  10  per  cent  increase.  The  news  was  confirmed 
and  naturally  struck  the  workmen  like  lightning  from  a  clear  sky,  with  the  result 
that  the  advances  were  lost.  In  addition  Steiger  had  found  men  to  take  the 
places  of  his  former  employees,  and  German  printers  sprang  up  like  mushrooms, 
requesting  benefits  or  work.  The  initiation  fee  was  reduced  from  $3  to  $1  during 
the  strike,  but  'n  spite  of  this  few  new  members  were  added  to  the  union.  The 
surplus  accumulated  by  the  union  in  the  two  and  a  half  years,  on  account  of 
the  small  dues,  was  not  considerable,  and  the  profits  made  from  festivities  or- 
ganized by  the  union  were  insignificant  also.  In  order  to  aid  the  men  on  strike 
members  were  assessed  and  non-members  were  requested  also  to  contribute  to 
the  strike  fund.  Poor  results  were  obtained  from  the  latter,  and  even  members, 
especially  those  employed  by  the  Staats-Zeitung,  refused  to  pay  the  assessment. 
It  was  decided  then  by  the  union  to  publish  in  the  Oestliche  Post  the  names  of 
those  refusing  to  pay  the  assessment.  *  *  *  Finally  it  was  decided  to 
have  recourse  to  the  Federal  Council  of  the  International  Association  of 
Workingmen. 

Drastic  measures  were  taken  by  the  union  to  get  rid  of  a  number  of  printers 
claiming  benefits  or  work.  The  Executive  Committee  was  directed  "  to  assign 
first  to  open  positions  the  printers  of  the  least  skill,  and  to  stop  paying  them  any 
further  subsidies  after  they  had  lost  their  positions  on  account  of  unsatisfactory 
work."  It  was  also  decided  to  refuse  reinstatement  in  the  union  to  all  strike- 
breakers. On  September  14th  the  strike  was  declared  ended.  The  assessment 
collected  during  the  dispute  amounted  to  $448.14  and  $359.55  had  been  expended 
in  subsidies. 

The  question  of  affiliating  with  the  International  Typographical  Union  came 
up  again  during  the  strike,  and  it  was  sought  to  get  the  assistance  of  a  stronger 
union,  but  without  result.  The  idea  of  uniting  all  the  German  printers'  unions 
through  a  national  federation  was  again  brought  forward,  and  this  time  by  Phila- 
delphia. Although  the  results  of  the  first  strike  were  rather  poor,  the  members 
of  the  young  union  kept  their  courage.  It  was  decided  to  work  out  a  new  agree- 
ment to  be  submitted  to  the  owners.  The  rates  provided  by  the  agreement  were 
55  cents  per  1,000  ems  for  manuscript  and  50  cents  for  reprint  for  night  work;  47 
cents  per  1,000  ems  for  day  work,  and  time  rates  were  35  cents  per  hour  and  $20 
per  week.  Thirty  days'  notice  was  to  be  given  by  either  party  before  terminating 
employment.  After  a  few  obnoxious  points  had  been  removed  a  general  increase 
of  10  per  cent  was  obtained. 

The  year  1873  passed  quietly  as  far  as  the  wage  question  was  concerned, 
and  the  winning  of  new  members  was  slow  also,  the  roll  at  the  end  of  the  year 
showing  94  names  only.     The  calm  was  disturbed  when  in  September,  1874,  the 


548  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    vSIX. 

Journal  reduced  rates  5  cents  per  1,000  cms.  A  strike  followed  and  was  lost 
because  some  members  remained  at  work  and  four  men  on  strike  were  replaced 
by  strike-breakers.  The  paper  was  declared  unfair  and  the  members  working 
for  the  same  were  expelled  from  the  union.     *     *     * 

A  statistical  investigation  made  in  the  fall  of  1875  to  find  out  the  number 
of  members  working  in  the  different  shops  showed  that  there  was  not  a  single 
newspaper  employing  union  printers  exclusively.  The  Slaats-Zeitung  employed 
four  members  of  the  Typographia  among  40  printers,  the  Presse  employed  one 
non-member,  the  Tages- Nachrichten  and  the  Journal  non-members  only,  the 
Demokrat  had  as  many  non-members  as  members,  and  conditions  were  about 
the  same  in  the  job  houses.  This  information  was  an  incentive  for  efforts  to 
increase  the  membership,  which  was  done  with  some  degree  of  success.  *  *  * 
The  years  1 872-1 877  were  the  most  critical  for  Typographia  No.  7.  The  union 
missed  the  principal  weapon  through  which  it  would  have  been  able  to  resist 
wage  reductions  and  also  strengthen  its  ranks,  namely,  a  good  daily  labor  paper. 
Union  printers  had  to  rely  on  the  capitalist  press  in  their  struggles,  and  that 
press  was  no  more  favorably  inclined  toward  workingmen  then  than  it  is  to-day. 
Things  changed  in  1878  when  the  New  Yorker  Volks-Zeitung  began  to  appear. 
Through  it  the  workingmen  of  New  York  and  of  the  whole  country  were  put 
in  possession  of  a  militant  organ  which  could  not  be  valued  high  enough.  Besides 
wage  disputes,  the  Typographia  was  busy  with  the  question  of  apprenticeship, 
but  without  much  success.  Early  attention  was  paid  also  to  the  legal  protection 
of  members,  especially  in  the  matter  of  collecting  wages. 

Statistics  as  to  number  of  employees  In  the  German  printing  shops  of  New 
York  were  collected.     From  them  we  learn  that  in  1875  there  were  50  German 
printing  shops  in  New  York  and  of  those  8  did  the  printing 
Statistics  work  for  newspapers,  23  did  job  work,  and  19  did  both  kinds 

of  Printing  of  work.     There  were  1 1  German  dailies,  34  weeklies,  and  7 

Establishments.  Sunday  papers.  At  the  same  time  there  were  211  printers 
(167  compositors  and  44  pressmen),  and  115  apprentices  (64 
compositors  and  51  pressmen).  Eighty-five  of  the  printers  belonged  to  the  Typo- 
graphia. The  earnings  were  given  as  ranging  from  $12  to  $25  (the  rate  being 
40-55  cents  per  1,000  ems)  and  weekly  wages  from  $15  to  $20.  The  aggregate 
circulation  of  the  dailies  was  77,500,  of  the  weeklies  147,000,  and  of  the  Sunday 
papers  94,000.  Several  owners  were  engaged  in  some  other  business  besides 
printing,  as  they  included  lawyers,  notaries,  commission  merchants,  etc.  Among 
the  printers  many  had  saloons,  groceries,  wood  and  coal  yards.  The  cost  of 
living  of  a  small  family  was  from  $10  to  $12  per  week. 

A  great  deal  of  attention  was  paid  in  the  early  years  of  the  union  to  the  intel- 
lectual improvement  of  members.     A  relatively  large  amount 
Some  of  money  was  spent  for  the  constitution  of  a  library,  which 

Other  was  considerably  increased  by  gifts  from  members.     *     *     * 

Activities.  Furthermore  a  number  of  lectures  Vt^ere  given,  among  the 

speakers  being  William  Gundlach,  Dr.  Lilienthal,  Dr.  Alex- 
ander Jonas  and  Edward  Grosse.     *     *     * 

The  Typographia  took  part  also  in  the  organization  of  a  central  body  of 
German  unions  that  was  established  at  that  time  and  was  in  existence  until 
about  the  eighties.  The  Typographia  was  represented  by  two  delegates,  and 
supported  the  central  body  whenever  an  occasion  presented  itself,  as  when  it 
was  proposed  to  suppress  the  teaching  of  German  in  the  schools  and  in  the  struggle 
against  prison  labor  in  the  Kings  County  Penitentiary. 


OTHER    PRINTING    TRADES    ORGANIZATIONS.  549 

The  first  national  convention  of  German  printers  took  place  in  the  last  week 
of  April,  1873,  in  Philadelphia.  New  York  was  represented  by  two  delegates, 
Bauer  and  Engels.  Six  other  cities  also  sent  delegates.  There  and  then  the 
foundations  of  the  German-American  Typographia  were  laid  and  the  German 
Typographia  of  New  York  received  its  title  of  Typographia  No.  7.  This  desig- 
nation is  found  for  the  first  time  in  the  report  of  the  proceedings  of  the  meeting 
taking  place  on  Sunday,  December  27,  1873.  *  *  *  fhe  question  of  suppress- 
ing night  work  was  discussed  by  the  young  organization,  and  the  same  question 
came  up  at  the  first  printers'  convention,  but  no  practical  results  were 
obtained.   *     *     * 

Receipts  for  the  first  five  years  of  the  existence  of  the  German  Typographia 
amounted  to  $3,268.87  and  expenditures  to  $2,262.35.  The  amount  of  dues  and 
even  of  initiation  fees  in  arrears  was  always  high,  and  the  union  was  soon  forced 
to  rule  that  members  delinquent  for  six  weeks  forfeited  their  right  to  benefits. 
Whoever  owed  dues  for  six  weeks  was  barred  from  receiving  any  benefits  for  an- 
other six  weeks.  A  delinquency  of  six  months  resulted  in  loss  of  membership. 
It  was  nothing  extraordinary  in  the  first  years  of  the  Typographia  to  see  members 
lose  their  membership  for  non-payment  of  dues  and  be  reinstated  two  and  even 
three  times  in  the  same  year.  There  were  then  very  few  faithful  members  that 
wotild  never  be  in  arrears. 

Members  who  had  injured  the  union  through  deceit  or  strike-breaking  were 
severely  dealt  with.  Those  members  were  mostly  expelled  from  the  union,  in 
many  cases  with  the  additional  penalty  that  they  could  never  be  reinstated. 
But  the  founders  of  the  union  were  rather  lenient,  and  after  a  few  years  we  find 
the  same  delinquents  in  the  ranks  of  the  Typographia  again  just  as  if  they  had 
never  sinned  against  the  union.  Leniency  is  a  sign  of  strength,  and  perhaps  it 
was  also  shrewdness  on  the  part  of  the  union. 

Absence  from  a  general  meeting  resulted  in  a  fine  of  50  cents,  but  no  fine  was 
imposed  for  this  reason  on  members  Hving  above  Eightieth  street,  Manhattan,  or 
in  Brooklyn,  Staten  Island  and  elsewhere.  In  the  first  years  of  the  new  union 
its  officers  were  not  indemnified  for  their  work.  Later  on  the  two  secretaries, 
the  two  financial  officers  and  the  chairman  were  exempt  from  paying  dues.    *   *   * 

To  gain  new  members  general  meetings  of  printers  were  held  once  in  awhile 
and  circulars  sent  to  non-members.  With  the  assent  of  the  meeting  non-members 
could  take  part  in  it.  Only  a  few  of  the  members  of  former  printers'  unions 
were  active  in  the  new  union,  among  them  Mitzscherling,  who  had  been  vice- 
president  of  the  third  printers'  union  in  New  York,  and  it  was  better  so,  because 
the  old  elements  would  hardly  have  been  able  to  display  the  activity  of  the 
young  and  energetic  men  who  were  present  at  the  cradle  of  the  new  organiza- 
tion and  furthered  its  growth  in  such  an  unselfish  way.* 

In  a  later  production  the  writer  of  the  foregoing  stated  that  "  on 
May  I,  1886,  the  eight-hour  day  was  obtained,  together  with  an 
increase  in  wages.  The  membership  had  reached  over  400.  In  1891 
the  first  Mergenthaler  linotype  machines  were  introduced  into  Ger- 
man newspaper  printing  shops.    Wage  agreements  covering  the  new 


•  "  G.  J."  in  Deutsch-Amerikanische  Buchdrucker-Zeilung,  May  i-July  i,  1909,  from  a  translation 
by  Pierre  J.  B.  Haegy,  librarian  of  the  Department  of  Labor. 


550  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

work  were  presented,  but  not  accepted  by  the  proprietor  of  the 
largest  German  paper  of  New  York.  A  strike  resulted  and  was  lost. 
A  boycott  was  then  declared,  which  lasted  from  the  end  of  February 
to  the  end  of  September,  1892,  and  was  terminated  by  a  compromise. 
The  newly-created  evening  paper  became  a  union  shop,  and  two  and 
one-half  years  later  the  morning  paper  was  unionized  also.  Since 
that  time  there  has  not  been  an  important  German  printing  estab- 
lishment in  New  York  whose  printers  did  not  belong  to  Typographia 
No.  7.  At  the  end  of  1892  a  further  reduction  in  hours  was  obtained, 
at  first  for  night-workers  only,  whose  working  time  was  reduced 
to  five  nights  and  eight  hours,  and  later  it  applied  to  all.  Fewer 
strikes  to  enforce  demands  for  higher  wages  took  place  after  affiliation 
with  the  International  Typographical  Union,  wage  questions  being 
generally  settled  by  arbitration.  Many  of  our  members  are  not 
entirely  satisfied  with  the  present  system  and  regret  our  former  inde- 
pendence. They  forget,  however,  that  more  could  be  done  this  way 
to  build  up  a  strong  organization  and  also  to  help  the  general  labor 
movement."  ^ 

Cordial  good  will  between  Union  No.  6  and  the  local  Typographia 
was  ever  a  rarity.  There  were  times  when  they  joined  their  issues 
and  worked  in  harmony,  but  such  occasions  were 
Differences  infrequent  and  of  short  duration.  The  German 
Between  Union  union  on  August  6,  1872,  petitioned  the  organiza- 
No.  6  and  tion   of   English-speaking   printers   for   consent   to 

Gennan  apply  for  a  charter  from  the  International  Typo- 

Typographia.  graphical  Union.  Such  request  was  granted  on 
condition  "  that  the  German  union  adopt  the  scale 
of  this  union  for  all  other  than  German  work,  and  that  this  union 
adopt  the  German  scale  for  German  work;  no  strike  to  take  place  in 
an  office  where  members  of  No.  6  are  employed  without  the  permis- 
sion of  this  union."  At  the  same  meeting  the  president  was  directed 
to  appoint  "  a  delegation  of  three  to  attend  the  meetings  of  the  Ger- 
man union  and  that  we  invite  a  similar  delegation  from  that  body  to 
meet  with  us."  Amicable  relations,  however,  ended  before  the  lapse 
of  two  years,  and  on  May  12,  1874,  Union  No.  6  instructed  its  dele- 
gates to  oppose  the  issuance  of  an  International  charter  to  the  German 
union,  which  again  sought  the  co-operation  of  No.  6  on  March  6, 
188 1,  succeeding  then  in  inducing  the  latter  to  appoint  a  Conference 
Committee  of  three,  the  majority  of  whom  recommended  on  April  3d 


•Translated  from  pamphlet,  "Typographia  No.  7,  Vierzigstes  Stiftungsfest  [fortieth  anniver- 
earyl,  October  lo,  1909-" 


OTHER   PRINTING    TRADES    ORGANIZATIONS.  551 

an  interchange  of  working  cards,  which  report  was  disapproved,  al- 
though in  1875  at  the  International  convention  it  was  agreed  that 
the  two  unions  should  recognize  each  other's  cards.  Again  in  1883 
and  1888  efforts  were  futilely  made  to  reach  an  understanding,  yet 
negotiations  did  not  cease  altogether.  A  committee  from  Typo- 
graphia  No.  7  appeared  before  Union  No.  6  on  March  9,  1890,  and 
asked  for  the  appointment  of  a  Conference  Committee  to  meet  like 
representatives  of  the  German  union  "  for  the  purpose  of  settling 
the  dispute  between  the  two  organizations  in  a  way  that  will  be 
mutually  satisfactory."  No.  6  was  agreeable,  and  on  May  5th  its 
committee  reported  that  it  had  had  several  interviews  with  No.  7's 
conferees,  with  this  result: 

1.  The  committee  from  No.  7  stated  that  the  rate  for  German  composition 
of  No.  6  was  less  than  that  of  No.  7,  and  your  committee  would  recommend 
that  the  rate  per  1,000  ems  for  German  composition  by  members  of  No.  6  be 
made  equal  to  the  rate  of  No.  7  —  that  is,  53  cents  per  1,000  ems. 

2.  No.  7  asks  that  the  interchange  of  cards  between  the  two  unions  as  agreed 
on  at  the  International  convention  of  1875  be  carried  out,  and  your  committee 
recommends  such  action. 

3.  It  is  also  recommended  that  the  working  cards  of  either  union  be  recog- 
nized for  a  period  of  30  days,  but  that  after  that  time  a  member  shall  deposit 
his  card  in  the  union  under  whose  jurisdiction  he  is  working. 

4.  No.  7  also  asks  that  where  members  of  that  union  are  employed  exclusively 
on  German  work  in  a  No.  6  office  they  be  allowed  to  form  a  department  for 
German  work. 

Union  No.  6  adopted  the  first  three  recommendations,  but  rejected 
the  fourth.  Presently,  however,  a  complication  arose  that  for  the 
nonce  widened  the  breach  between  the  two  associations.  In  that 
year  the  proprietor  of  the  New  York  Morning  Journal  decided  to 
issue  a  German  edition  of  the  paper,  and  through  his  managing 
editor  asked  the  secretary  of  Union  No.  6  whether  that  organization 
would  furnish  a  force  of  German  compositors  for  the  new  venture. 
Having  in  mind  only  the  addition  of  another  chapel  to  his  union's 
roster,  that  official  unhesitatingly  answered  in  the  affirmative,  taking 
his  position  on  the  rather  unstable  ground  that  in  the  scale  of  prices 
for  bookwork  there  was  a  clause  fixing  the  rate  for  German  compo- 
sition, and  feeling  certain  that  a  force  of  German  printers  could  be 
easily  recruited  from  the  membership  of  No.  6.  Shortly  thereafter 
a  foreman  was  selected  and  the  chapel  organized.  Then  Typographia 
No.  7  claimed  jurisdiction  over  the  new  office.  Its  officers  made  a 
vigorous  but  unavailing  protest  to  the  Journal  management,  and 
the  paper  was  launched  only  to  encounter  the  opposition  of  many 
German  trade  unions.    No.  6's  officers  pointed  out  that  under  that 


552  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

union's  wage  schedule  the  compositors  would  earn  more  than  under  the 
Typographia's  scale  of  prices,  but  the  Germans  retaliated  by  declaring 
that  No.  6's  attitude  was  a  blow  at  the  eight-hour  day,  which  they 
had  recently  established.  By  enlisting  the  sympathy  of  scores  of 
German  organizations,  industrial,  fraternal  and  social,  the  Typo- 
graphia's crusade  against  the  new  paper  became  so  effective  that  the 
Journal  management  finally  called  upon  the  officials  of  No.  6  for 
reprisals,  and  on  November  2,  1890,  that  union  instructed  its  officers 
"  to  admit  to  membership  all  members  of  No.  7  who  are  working  in 
No.  6  offices,  and  that  they  insist  on  all  employees  in  No.  6  offices 
being  members  of  this  union."  As  a  result  a  demand  was  made  on 
the  Daily  News,  at  that  time  a  prosperous  and  influential  newspaper, 
that  it  discharge  the  members  of  the  Typographia  employed  on  its 
German  edition  and  supplant  them  with  German  compositors  from 
No.  6.  By  this  time  the  situation  had  become  so  tense  that  it  looked 
as  though  the  latter  would  have  to  recede  from  its  position  or  proceed 
to  the  other  extreme  and  try  to  destroy  a  sister  organization.  Per- 
ceiving a  way  out  of  the  difficulty.  No.  6's  president,  Charles  J. 
Dumas,  who  personally  felt  from  the  outset  that  the  German  union 
had  the  better  of  the  argument,  had  a  conference  with  representatives 
of  No.  7  and  made  the  following  proposal:  That  No.  6  would  relin- 
quish control  of  the  German  Journal  and  make  no  attempt  to  oust 
the  Typographia  members  from  other  offices,  on  condition  that  the 
latter  association  would  obtain  a  charter  from  the  International 
Typographical  Union,  but  would  at  the  same  time  retain  its  connec- 
tion with  the  German-American  Typographia.  This  proposition  was 
favorably  received  and  a  truce  was  declared  pending  negotiations. 
Soon  afterward  Union  No.  7  was  chartered  by  the  International 
as  Local  No.  274,  and  on  February  i,  1891,  No.  6  ratified  this 
agreement: 

1.  OfiQces  exclusively  German  shall  be  controlled  by  New  York  German  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  274. 

2.  In  offices  where  composition  is  done  in  both  EngUsh  and  German  three'or 
more  members  of  either  the  EngUsh  Union  (No.  6)  or  the  German  Union  (No. 
274)  shall  have  the  right  to  form  themselves  into  a  separate  chapel  of  such  re- 
spective union  and  elect  a  chairman  and  secretary;  provided,  however,  that  the 
members  of  the  union  who  are  in  a  minority  in  such  office  shall  adopt  such  rules 
and  regulations  as  will  insure  unity  of  action  in  all  cases  where  the  common 
interest  is  at  stake. 

3.  Compositors  employed  exclusively  on  German  work  in  an  office  controlled 
by  Typographical  Union  No.  6  shall  be  compelled  by  the  chairman  of  such  office 
to  join  German  Union  No.  274.  Compositors  working  exclusively  on  English 
in  an  office  controlled  by  German  Union  No.  274  shall  be  compelled  to  join  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  6. 


OTHER    PRINTING    TRADES    ORGANIZATIONS.  553 

In  essentials  the  arrangement  into  which  the  two  unions  had  en- 
tered was  satisfactory  to  the  members  of  each,  but  as  to  details  much 
remained  to  be  accomplished  before  the  attainment 
of  perpetual  peace.      No.  6  had  appointed  a  com-      Perpetual 
mittee  to  determine  the  jurisdiction  of  both  associa-      Peace 
tions,  and  on  May  3,1891,  the  committeemen  reported      Attained. 
in  favor  of  referring  the  matter  to  the  International 
Typographical  Union  for  legislative  action,  in  which  recommenda- 
tion the  local  body  conciirred. 

When  the  German  printers  were  about  to  found  a  national  asso- 
ciation eighteen  years  previously  they  discussed  the  advisability  of 
uniting  with  the  International  organization  of  English-speaking 
printers.  The  general  Typographia  was  started  in  Philadelphia. 
Several  societies  of  German  compositors  had  arisen  in  the  Quaker 
City  and  had  disbanded  shortly  after  their  formation,  but  on  June  29, 
1872,  the  Gutenberg  Society  began  its  existence  with  31  members. 
On  July  13  th  it  decided  to  form  a  closer  relationship  with  other 
organizations  of  German  printers  in  various  cities.  A  lively  corre- 
spondence ensued.  The  New  York  Typographia  at  once  agreed  to 
the  plan,  and  at  its  request  the  Philadelphians  sent  two  delegates  to 
represent  them  at  a  general  meeting  of  the  Metropolitan  organization 
on  October  26th,  when  an  Agitation  Committee  was  selected  for  the 
purpose  of  establishing  unions  in  all  large  and  small  cities,  and  to 
invite  existing  societies  to  elect  delegates  to  a  convention  of  German 
printers.  A  meeting  of  the  committee,  which  consisted  of  Jean  Weil 
and  Paul  Engels,  of  New  York,  and  Louis  Pabst  and  Charles  G. 
Bachmann,  of  Philadelphia,  was  held  in  December,  at  which  time 
it  was  decided  to  issue  a  call  to  all  German  printers  and  societies 
to  organize  a  general  German  Printers'  Union,  with  the  object  of 
later  forming  a  closer  alliance  with  the  International  Typographical 
Union.  This  call  received  a  ready  response,  and  on  April  22,  1873, 
the  initial  convention  of  the  Typographia  was  held  in  Philadelphia. 

The  International  convention  of  1891  considered  the  matter  that 
had  been  referred  to  it  by  Union  No.  6  relative  to  the  jurisdictional 
contention  and  appointed  a  committee  to  arrange  for  an  amalga- 
mation of  the  German-American  Typographia  with  the  International 
body  of  printers.  At  the  1892  session  of  the  latter  the  committee 
reported  as  follows: 

In  the  German-American  Typographia  there  are  22  subordinate  bodies,  with 
a  membership  of  about  i  ,400  in  good  standing. 

A  system  of  benefits  is  in  operation  in  the  German-America  Typographia, 
such  as  out-of-work,  sick,  traveling,  strike  and  funeral,  for  each  of  which  there  is 
a  separate  fund. 


554  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

In  the  opinion  of  its  representatives  it  would  be  detrimental  to  the  interests 
of  the  German-speaking  printers  to  surrender  their  membership  in  that  body, 
but  upon  the  following  grounds  it  is  more  than  probable  that  an  equitable  con- 
solidation of  the  two  forces  can  be  accomplished: 

That  the  autonomy  of  their  trade  be  undisturbed  —  i.  e.,  the  short-hour  day, 
the  alphabet  measurement  of  type  and  out-of-work  benefit. 

That  all  the  special  benefit  features  be  retained. 

That  the  system  of  exchange  membership  cards  be  adopted  by  which  it  will 
be  optional  for  any  member  to  sever  his  connection  with  either  union  upon  de- 
positing his  card  with  a  union  of  the  opposite  language. 

That  the  German-American  Typographia  contribute  to  the  International 
Typographical  Union  general,  defense,  funeral  and  Home  funds,  and  in  lieu 
thereof  be  entitled  to  all  the  benefits  of  the  International  Typographical  Union. 

That  a  secretary-treasurer,  from  among  its  membership,  be  elected  by  the 
German-American  Typographia,  who  shall  be  the  fourth  vice-president  of  the 
International  Typographical  Union,  a  member  of  the  Executive  Council,  and 
shall  attend  to  all  the  business  of  the  German- American  Typographia,  submitting 
the  same  finally  to  the  International  Typographical  Union  secretary-treasurer, 
and  said  German-American  Typographia  secretary-treasurer  shall  be  paid  by 
that  body. 

That  a  percentage,  to  be  agreed  upon,  shall  be  returned  to  the  German- Ameri- 
can Typographia  to  defray  running  expenses,  and  the  surplus,  if  any,  to  be  re- 
covered into  the  International  Typographical  Union  treasury. 

That  subordinate  unions  of  the  German-American  Typographia  be  entitled 
to  representation  in  the  International  Typographical  Union  on  the  same  basis 
as  English-speaking  unions. 

That  constitutions  and  general  laws  be  printed  in  German  at  the  expense  of 
the  German-American  Typographia. 

That  in  the  interchange  of  cards  the  rules  of  the  German-American  Typo- 
graphia shall  be  in  force,  i.  e.,  that  in  order  to  secure  the  out-of-work  benefits 
an  applicant  must  be  a  competent  German  compositor,  and  the  German-Ameri- 
can Typographia  reserves  to  itself  the  power  to  reject. 

The  report  of  the  committee  was  referred  to  the  Executive  Council 
to  add  the  necessary  details  in  conformity  with  International  law, 
and  then  submitted  to  a  general  vote  of  the  member- 
Typographia        gj^jp^   which  subsequently   approved   the   proposed 
with  ^^™^*^^      merger  by  a  vote  of  8,324  yeas  to  3,333  nays.     It 
International.      ^^^  ^^^^  ratified  by  the  Typographia.     The  amalga- 
mation treaty  became  effective  on  July   i,    1894. 
Under  it  members  of  the  Typographia  are  privileged  to  elect  by  gen- 
eral vote  a  second  vice-president,   who  also  serves  as  secretary- 
treasurer  of  the  German  branch.     He  and  three  (now  five)  other 
members  of  the  latter  constitute  an  Advisory  Board.     The  secretary- 
treasurer  has  general  supervision  of  such  features  of  the  branch  as 
are  not  contemplated  by  existing  laws  of  the  International  Typo- 
graphical Union,  and  decides  all  questions  that  arise  between   mem- 


OTHER    PRINTING    TRADES    ORGANIZATIONS.  555 

bers  and  unions  regarding  benefit  provisions  and  the  practices  there- 
under. Appeals  from  his  decision  may  be  made  to  the  Advisory 
Board,  but  any  person  feeling  aggrieved  at  the  findings  of  the  latter 
may  in  turn  appeal  to  an  International  convention,  when  the  matter 
must  be  referred  to  the  German  delegates,  the  decision  of  a  majority 
of  whom  being  recorded  as  the  final  judgment  of  that  general  body. 
All  laws  appertaining  to  the  benefit  features  of  the  German- American 
Typographia  in  operation  on  January  i,  1893,  remained  in  force, 
subject  to  amendment.  The  German  branch  was  given  absolute 
control  of  its  out-of-work,  sick,  traveling  and  death  benefits,  but  its 
laws  in  regard  to  strike  relief  were  superseded  by  the  International 
requirements.  Upon  all  other  subjects,  excepting  type  measure- 
ments and  laws  and  customs  governing  foremen,  the  statutes  of 
the  International  in  effect  on  January  i,  1893,  and  as  thereafter 
amended,  predominated.  Members  in  good  standing  desirous  of 
transferring  their  membership  to  a  union  of  another  language  receive 
International  Union  certificates,  which  are  furnished  upon  payment 
of  a  current  month's  dues,  and  must  be  deposited  with  the  proper 
officers  of  such  opposite  union  within  48  hours.  For  beneficial  pur- 
poses members  of  German  locals  depositing  traveling  cards  with 
English  unions  have  the  option  of  retaining  membership  in  subor- 
dinate organizations  of  their  own  language.  If  they  redeposit  their 
traveling  certificates  with  the  German  branch  they  are  entitled  to  all 
benefits  the  same  as  though  their  affiliation  with  such  branch  had 
been  continuous,  German  members  of  English  unions  retaining 
benefit  membership  in  the  German  branch  have  the  right  to  partic- 
ipate in  the  discussion  of,  and  to  vote  upon,  all  proposed  changes 
in  the  laws  and  rules  bearing  upon  the  benefits  to  which  they  are 
contributors.  A  duly  accredited  certificate  is  sufficient  to  entitle 
the  holder  to  membership  in  any  union  in  which  he  may  desire  to 
deposit  it,  and  subordinate  bodies  are  forbidden  to  reject  such  card. 
Seven  or  more  union  printers  employed  on  German  work  in  any 
city  or  town  are  obliged  to  organize  a  German  branch. 

German- American  Typographical  Union  No.  274  was  retrans- 
formed  into  German  Typographia  No.  7  when  its  national  body 
amalgamated  with  the  International  Typographical  Union.  Hugo 
Miller,  an  eminent  member  of  No.  7,  and  secretary-treasvirer  of  the 
German- American  Typographia  since  1886,  was  elected  second  vice- 
president  of  the  International  and  secretary-treasurer  of  the  German 
branch  when  the  consolidation  treaty  was  consummated,  and  he  con- 
tinues to  be  the  incumbent  of  that  important  station. 


556  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX.^ 

III. 

Pressmen. 

For  a  number  of  years  after  its  inception  pressmen  were  admitted 
to  membership  in  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  which  maintained  a 
special  scale  of  wages  for  men  engaged  at  that  branch  of  the  printing 
industry,  the  schedule  of  prices  as  late  as  1857  showing  that  the 
weekly  rates  for  both  hand  and  power  pressmen  were  $11  and  $13, 
respectively,  for  day  and  night  labor,  the  working  time  then  being 
ten  hours  per  day.  Piece  rates  were  also  provided  for  book  and  job 
work.  Four  years  afterward  there  was  an  organization  in  New  York 
called  the  Franklin  Union  of  Printing  Pressmen,  but  it  does  not 
appear  to  have  made  much  headway  toward  controlling  the  trade, 
as  No.  6  still  exercised  jurisdiction  over  pressmen  in  1864,  in  which 
year  it  inserted  in  its  scale  of  prices  a  provision  that  "  no  pressman 
shall  work  for  a  stun  less  than  $20  per  week  for  day  work  or  $22  for 
night  work." 

On  Saturday  night,  March  26,  1864,  the  New  York  power  press- 
men organized  a  union  and  elected  James  Calvin  president,  Isaac 
Van  Duser  vice-president,  James  Crans  secretary,  and  Thomas 
Hart  treasurer.  A  committee  was  appointed  to  draft  a  constitution, 
and  the  main  purpose  of  the  union,  it  was  stated,  was  to  seek  an  ad- 
vance of  25  per  cent  in  wages.  Although  the  Typographical  Union 
up  to  1869  retained  in  its  constitution  a  section  permitting  pressmen 
and  press  feeders  to  be  admitted  to  membership,  it  discontinued  in 
that  year  its  rule  to  provide  a  wage  schedule  for  those  workers  — 
in  fine,  since  then  it  has  ceased  to  claim  jurisdiction  over  pressroom 
employees.  In  1872  the  Adams  Press  Printers'  Association  was  the 
title  of  the  New  York  pressmen's  organization,  the  members  of  which 
had  engaged  in  a  strike  for  the  eight-hour  day  and  an  advance  of  20 
per  cent  in  wages.  On  August  6th,  that  year,  after  the  dispute  had 
been  in  progress  for  a  month,  an  appeal  for  funds  to  relieve  the 
strikers  was  made  to  the  compositors'  union,  which  granted  to  them 
a  loan  of  $250. 

Desirous  of  an  effective  coalition  of  compositors  and  pressmen  in 
the  general  association  of  printers.  Union  No.  6,  on  May  7,  1882, 
directed  its  president  and  secretary  to  wait  upon  the  officers  of  the 
pressmen's  union  and  acquaint  them  with  the  benefits  to  be  derived 
from  unity  with  the  International  Typographical  Union.  As  an 
outcome  of  that  conference  No.  6  on  July  2d  passed  a  series  of  reso- 
lutions recommending  "  the  granting  of  a  charter  by  the  president 


OTHER   PRINTING   TRADES    ORGANIZATIONS.  557 

of  the  International  to  the  body  known  and  styled  as  the  New  York 
Pressmen  and  Feeders'  Union,"  and  the  latter  was  importuned  "  to 
receive  into  full  membership  every  person  connected  with  the  trade, 
irrespective  of  past  differences."  New  York  Pressmen's  Union  No. 
9  was  chartered  forthwith.  It  comprised  both  journeymen  and 
their  assistants.  The  fact  that  the  feeders  were  thus  associated  with 
the  pressmen  caused  much  discord  in  the  trade.  There  was  another 
society  in  the  cit}^  called  the  Adams  and  Cylinder  Pressmen's  Asso- 
ciation, composed  exclusively  of  journeymen,  which  was  a  formidable 
rival  of  Union  No.  9  and  opposed  to  its  demands,  it  being  contended 
that  as  long  as  pressmen  (workmen  of  high-grade  skill)  and  feeders 
of  presses  (unskilled  workers  learning  the  trade)  were  in  the  same 
union  trouble  would  continue,  as  the  latter  so  greatly  outnumbered 
the  former  in  the  membership  that  most  of  the  legislation  was  enacted 
in  their  interest  and  to  the  detriment  of  the  pressmen.  Union  No. 
6  did  not  relish  the  idea  of  becoming  involved  in  the  controversy, 
but  there  were  some  in  its  ranks  who  believed  that  the  course  of 
No.  9,  an  organization  in  affiliation  with  the  International,  should 
be  upheld  in  preference  to  an  independent  society.  A  special  meet- 
ing was  called  on  October  8,  1886,  "  for  the  purpose  of  co-operating 
with  New  York  Pressmen's  Union  No.  9  in  its  efforts  to  maintain 
its  scale  of  prices,"  but  No.  6  at  that  session  declined  to  "  sustain 
No.  9  in  the  present  strike."  Another  special  meeting  was  called  on 
the  seventeenth  of  the  same  month  "  for  the  purpose  of  co-operating 
with  New  York  Pressmen's  Union  No.  9  in  its  demands  for  the 
payment  of  its  established  scale  of  prices  in  the  offices  now  on  strike, 
by  ordering  out  our  members  at  work  in  these  offices  until  such 
time  as  the  difficulties  are  adjusted  and  the  supremacy  of  the 
International  Typographical  Union  is  acknowledged  wherever  a  sis- 
ter union  is  in  distress."  Representatives  of  No.  9  and  of  the  asso- 
ciation of  Adams  and  Cylinder  men  were  admitted  to  the  meeting 
and  gave  their  views  of  the  situation.  No.  6,  however,  was  obdurate 
so  far  as  the  case  of  No.  9  was  concerned,  and  resolved  that  the 
"  whole  matter  be  dismissed  and  the  action  of  the  last  meeting  be 
sustained." 

Eventually  the  rivalry  extended  to  other  sections,  resulting  in 
the  formation  of  a  general  dual  organization  entitled  the  Interna- 
tional Printing  Pressmen's  Union,  to  which  was  attached  News- 
paper Printers'  Union  No.  i,  organized  in  New  York  in  1886.  This 
new  association  made  serious  inroads  into  the  membership  of  the  press- 
men's locals  connected  with  the  International  Typographical  Union, 
in  1892  alone  seven  subordinate  organizations  of  pressroom  workers 


558  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

having  siirrendered  their  charters,  and  at  the  end  of  April,  that  year, 
the  number  of  pressmen's  associations  in  operation  was  22,  with  a 
total  membership  of  1,210,  of  whom  466  were  in  arrears.  Union 
No.  9  had  459  members  then,  but  only  120  of  them  were  in  good 
standing,  while  in  1893  the  figures  were  155  and  130,  res]:)ectively. 
In  the  same  twelvemonth  the  aggregate  membership  throughout 
the  United  States  had  fallen  to  860,  with  682  in  good  standing.  It 
was  reported  that  year  by  the  second  vice-president  of  the  Inter- 
national Typographical  Union  that  the  rival  International  had  584 
pressmen  enrolled  in  seventeen  local  bodies.  Peace  overtures,  how- 
ever, soon  began  to  be  made.  An  alliance  of  the  antagonistic  ele- 
ments finally  was  accomplished  after  the  International  Typographical 
Union  in  1895  had  permitted  its  pressmen  to  have  their  own  general 
organization,  granting  them  complete  autonomy  in  their  trade,  but 
co-operating  with  them  through  Allied  Printing  Trades  Councils 
in  places  having  more  than  one  local  association  in  the  printing 
industry. 

It  was  therefore  welcome  news  to  the  members  of  Union  No.  6 
when  they  were  apprised  of  the  fact  that  there  "  was  now  only  one 
organization  of  pressmen  and  one  organization  of  press  feeders  in 
New  York  City,"  on  July  5,  1896,  on  which  date  the  assembled  typog- 
raphers decided  to  recognize  those  two  associations,  which  had  been 
chartered  by  the  International  Printing  Pressmen's  Union,  the  title 
of  that  association  afterward  being  changed  to  International  Printing 
Pressmen  and  Assistants'  Union  of  North  America,  and  these  New 
York  City  Unions  are  at  present  connected  with  it:  Newspaper 
and  Web  Press  Printers  No.  25,  Book  and  Job  Pressmen  No.  51, 
Frankling  Association  of  Press  Feeders  No.  23,  and  Job  Press  Feeders 
No.  I. 

IV. 

Machine-Tenders. 

Coincident  with  the  introduction  of  composing  machines  skilled 
mechanics  began  to  be  employed  in  printing  offices  to  keep  in  repair 
the  delicate  mechanism  of  these  devices .  The  term  '  'machine-tenders ' ' 
was  thereupon  applied  to  those  specialized  workers,  many  of  whom 
were  members  of  machinists'  unions.  Reckoning  that  the  support 
of  the  machine-tenders  might  prove  of  value  to  the  printers  the  Execu- 
tive Council  of  the  International  Typographical  Union,  acting  under 
a  resolve  adopted  at  the  convention  of  1892  directing  it  to  confer 
with  officials  of  "  the  National  Machinists'  Union  with  a  view  of 


OTHER    PRINTING   TRADES    ORGANIZATIONS.  559 

bringing  about  co-operation  between  machinists  and  printers  in 
offices  where  machines  are  operated  by  union  men,"  opened  nego- 
tiations with  the  International  Association  of  Machinists,  the  only 
body  of  that  trade  affiliated  with  the  American  Federation  of  Labor. 
The  draft  of  an  agreement  was  presented  to  the  Executive  Board  of 
the  machinists'  association,  the  main  provisions  relating  to  mutual 
assistance  in  the  event  of  lockouts  or  justifiable  strikes.  The  ma- 
chinists insisted  upon  the  addition  of  a  clause  by  which  the  printers 
would  bind  themselves  to  demand  that  only  union  men  be  employed 
in  the  manufacture  of  linotype  machines.  The  typographers  were 
unwilling  to  pledge  themselves  to  thus  aid  the  machinists  in  perform- 
ing missionary  work  to  unionize  manufacturing  establishments  and 
the  negotiations  ceased  for  a  time.  Subordinate  organizations  of  the 
International  Typographical  Union  were,  however,  directed  to  insist 
that  machine-tenders  employed  in  union  printing  offices  must  be 
attached  to  local  associations  of  machinists. 

Then  Typographical  Union  No.  6  took  an  active  interest  in  the 
question,  on  January  7,  1894,  ratifying  the  following  plan  submitted 
by  a  committee  that  had  conferred  with  the  local  district  of  the 
International  Association  of  Machinists: 

1.  That  only  qualified  linotype  machinists,  members  of  the  International 
Association  of  Machinists,  shall  be  allowed  to  hold  positions  as  machinists  in 
any  office  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6. 

2.  That  the  cards  of  the  machinists  shall  be  examined  by  the  chairman  of  the 
chapel  and  a  separate  report  made  to  the  secretary  of  No.  6,  where  aforesaid 
report  may  be  obtained  by  the  secretary  of  the  local  lodge  of  the  International 
Association  of  Machinists,  the  machinists  of  the  various  chapels  to  pay  monthly 
dues  levied  upon  chapel  members  for  the  payment  of  the  chairman's  salary. 

3.  In  offices  where  machines  are  to  be  erected  the  chairman  of  the  chapel  shall 
demand  to  see  the  cards  of  the  machinists  erecting  or  repairing  said  machines. 

4.  No  machinist  of  the  International  Association  of  Machinists  shall  erect 
machines  in  non-union  offices  within  the  jurisdiction  of  No.  6  without  the  written 
consent  of  the  officers  of  the  union. 

5.  No  member  of  No.  6  shall  work  on  a  linotype  machine  unless  placed  there 
and  repaired  by  a  member  of  the  International  Association  of  Machinists. 

6.  No  machinist  shall  repair,  or  in  any  other  way  aid  the  running  of  a  linotype 
machine  in  any  printing  office  unless  the  same  is  used  by  a  member  of  No.  6. 

7.  In  case  of  a  strike  called  by  the  International  Association  of  Machinists  the 

association  shall  pay  all  members  of  No.  6  called  out  the  sum  of  $ ^  per  week 

to  married  men  and  $ ^  to  single  men. 

8.  When  members  of  the  International  Association  of  Machinists  are  called 
out  by  the  officers  of  No.  6  to  assist  members  of  the  union  in  trouble  No.  6  shall 

pay  members  of  the  International  Association  of  Machinists  the  sum  of  $ * 

per  week  to  married  men  and  $ '  to  single  men. 


'  Amount  not  stated  in  the  original. 


560  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX, 

9.  It  is  hereby  agreed  that  a  qualified  Unotype  machinist  of  the  International 
Association  of  Machinists  is  to  make  all  repairs  whatsoever  wherein  the  parts 
of  the  machines  are  to  be  removed  or  adjusted. 

10.  Machinists  having  grievances  involving  operators  shall  refer  the  same  to 
the  chairman  of  the  chapel  for  settlement. 

11.  Operators  having  grievances  involving  the  machinist  shall  refer  the  same 
to  the  chairman  of  the  chapel  for  settlement. 

12.  All  questions  arising  in  the  future  involving  members  of  both  organizations 
not  specified  in  the  foregoing  articles  shall  be  referred  to  a  special  committee 
appointed  by  both  organizations  for  settlement. 

13.  When  any  trouble  arises  between  members  of  both  unions  and  their  em- 
ployers, that  cannot  otherwise  be  settled,  the  officers  of  each  vmion  shall  call  out 
its  members. 

14.  No  member  of  No.  6  shall  be  permitted  to  work  in  the  assembling  rooms 
of  a  linotype  factory. 

15.  This  agreement  shall  be  submitted  to  the  Grand  Lodge  of  the  International 
Association  of  Machinists  and  to  the  International  Typographical  Union  for 
their  endorsement. 

16.  This  agreement  shall  go  into  effect  immediately. 

Later  in  1894  the  International  officers  were  instructed  by  the 
general  convention  of  compositors  to  effect  a  working  agreement 
with  the  machinists,  and  the  printer-negotiators  urged  that  a  pro- 
vision be  inserted  in  the  projected  compact  that  members  of  typo- 
graphical unions  be  permitted  to  repair  machines  if  employers  were 
willing  to  have  them  perform  such  work.  This  was  agreeable  to  the 
machinists,  who  then  insisted  that  men  in  their  trade  should  be 
allowed  to  work  as  operators.  Both  provisions  were  incorporated 
in  a  proposed  agreement  that  was  submitted  to  the  referendum  and 
were  rejected  by  the  membership  of  the  typographical  unions  by  a 
decided  majority. 

In  1892  machine-tenders  in  Brooklyn  formed  themselves  into  a 
society  called  the  Associated  Typesetting  Machine  Engineers,  and 
when  Greater  New  York  became  incorporated  in  1898  the  head- 
quarters of  the  organization  were  transferred  to  Manhattan  Borough. 
Brooklyn  Lodge  No.  399  of  the  International  Association  of  Machin- 
ists entered  a  protest  on  November  3,  1895,  against  the  alliance  of 
Union  No.  6  with  the  typesetting  engineers,  declaring  that  the  latter 
had  seceded  from  the  International  Association  and  were  endeavor- 
ing to  force  members  of  Lodge  No.  399  into  their  organization.  A 
committee  that  Union  No.  6  had  appointed  to  confer  with  the  ma- 
chinists reported  on  the  same  date  that  the  typesetting  engineers 
had  offered  an  excellent  argument  for  their  recognition.  "  Their 
membership  controls  every  linotype  machine  within  the  jtirisdiction 
of  the  International  Typographical  Union  in  New  York  City,  Brook- 


OTHER    PRINTING   TRADES    ORGANIZATIONS.  56 1 

lyn  (except  one)  and  are  organized  in  Boston,  Newark,  Jersey  City 
and  Hoboken,"  said  the  committee,  "  and  they  claim  to  have  several 
other  cities  in  process  of  organization.  They  also  claim  to  contain 
in  their  membership  the  highest  grade  of  competent  linotype  machin- 
ists.and  request  No.  6  to  recognize  them  under  these  conditions :  *  The 
Associated  Typesetting  Machine  Engineers  to  support  its  own  mem- 
bers whether  they  are  called  out  by  their  own  officers  or  the  officers 
of  Typographical  Union  No.  6.  The  Associated  Typesetting  Ma- 
chine Engineers  to  pay  quarterly  into  the  treasury  of  Typographical 
Union  No.  6  a  per  capita  tax  for  its  members  who  are  employed  in 
the  printing  offices  under  the  jurisdiction  of  No.  6.  Both  organi- 
zations shall  act  in  conjunction  with  each  other  whenever  any  trouble 
arises  in  an  office  where  members  of  both  organizations  are  employed. 
In  consideration  of  the  above-mentioned  per  capita  tax  being  paid 
to  Typographical  Union  No.  6  the  latter  is  to  pay  its  own  members 
such  benefits  as  they  are  entitled  to  under  their  laws,  whether  they 
are  called  out  by  their  own  officers  or  for  the  purpose  of  seciu-ing  the 
legitimate  demands  of  the  Associated  Typesetting  Machine 
Engineers.'  Your  committee  has  come  to  the  unanimous  conclusion 
that  (i)  under  existing  conditions  consequent  to  the  Associated  Type- 
setting Machine  Engineers'  secession  from  the  International  Asso- 
ciation of  Machinists  and  the  latter  body's  affiliation  with  us  through 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  we  cannot  affiliate  with  the 
Associated  Typesetting  Machine  Engineers  as  a  body;  that  (2)  in 
our  opinion  the  only  solution  of  the  question  regarding  the  linotype 
engineers  in  relation  to  affiliation  with  the  International  Typo- 
graphical Union  would  be  to  form  a  special  branch  for  typesetting- 
machine  machinists  in  our  organization  and  receive  the  machinists 
as  individual  members,  subject  to  our  constitution  and  by-laws." 

Union  No.  6  prolonged  the  official  Hfe  of  the  Inquiry  Committee 
"  imtil  it  can  make  a  more  intelligible  report  on  the  merits  of  the 
two  machinists'  organizations,  and  ascertain  the  more  profitable 
position  that  No.  6  should  occupy  in  this  revolution  of  our  craft." 
The  final  report  of  the  committee  was  presented  on  December  ist 
and  the  union  adopted  its  recommendations,  which  were  as  follows: 
"After  joint  discussion  with  the  machinists,  and  serious  deliberation 
among  ourselves,  it  is  the  conclusion  of  this  committee  that  the  only 
feasible  and  practical  method  of  dealing  with  the  question,  and  by 
which  the  interests  of  No.  6  will  be  best  subserved,  is  the  formation 
of  some  plan  by  which  all  linotype  machinists  may  be  admitted  as 
individuals  to  membership  in  our  union,  having  in  view  their  careful 
separation  from  our  regular  members  and  the  prohibition  of  any 


562  NEW    YORK.   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

further  privileges  than  are  now  enjoyed  as  machinists.  That  No. 
6  acquaint  sister  unions  with  this  sentiment  and  request  them  to 
instruct  their  delegates  to  the  next  International  Typographical 
Union  convention  to  vote  for  a  change  in  the  International  Typo- 
graphical Union  constitution  that  will  admit  the  machinists  to  sub- 
ordinate unions  as  individuals." 

But  this  action  did  not  promote  immediate  harmony.  Union  No.  6 
again  discussed  the  matter  on  April  5,  1896,  and  requested  the  local 
Allied  Printing  Trades  Council  to  convene  and  take  into  con- 
sideration the  question  of  the  differences  between  the  two  organiza- 
tions of  machinists,  with  a  view  to  adjusting  them  according  to  the 
expressed  wishes  of  the  printers.  On  April  igth,  at  the  suggestion 
of  the  council,  the  union  appointed  a  committee  to  co-operate  with 
the  former  in  its  efforts  to  bring  about  an  amalgamation.  That 
committee  reported  on  June  7th  that  "  it  was  evident  that  the  Asso- 
ciated Typesetting  Machine  Engineers  had  seceded  from  the  Inter- 
national Association  of  Machinists  some  four  years  ago.  During  that 
time  they  have  succeeded  in  establishing  a  scale  of  prices  suitable 
to  their  branch  of  the  trade,  and  have  been  in  control  of  most  of  the 
printing  offices  in  New  York  and  other  cities.  The  International 
Association  of  Machinists  being  the  parent  organization  and  your 
committee  being  against  the  encouragement  of  secession  from  the 
ranks  of  organized  labor,  we  deemed  it  advisable  and  expedient  to 
urge  the  Associated  Typesetting  Machine  Engineers  to  rejoin  the 
International  Association  of  Machinists.  Consequently  at  our  last 
session  we  received  the  proposition  from  the  Associated  Typesetting 
Machine  Engineers  that  they  will  ever  be  ready  to  join  the  Interna- 
tional Association  of  Machinists  as  a  distinct  and  separate  body 
(theirs  being  a  different  branch  of  work)  upon  the  same  basis  as  the 
various  organizations  now  working  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
International  Typographical  Union.  On  the  other  side,  the  Interna- 
tional Association  of  Machinists  through  their  General  Executive 
Board  propose  to  issue  a  special  transfer  to  each  member  of  the  Asso- 
ciated Typesetting  Machine  Engineers  on  the  payment  of  $3  to  the 
Grand  Lodge,  the  transfer  to  be  deposited  in  any  lodge  of  the  Inter- 
national Association  of  Machinists.  Your  committee  is  of  the  opinion 
that  such  a  proposition  is  only  a  stumbling  block  in  the  way  of  prog- 
ress and  unity;  and  would  therefore  call  upon  all  our  brothers  who 
have  the  interests  of  Labor  at  heart  to  stand  by  the  proposition  of 
the  Typesetting  Machine  Engineers,  which  in  our  estimation  is  honest, 
fair  and  feasible,  and  tends  to  terminate  a  useless,  bitter  war  between 
the  two  machinists'  unions,  to  the  advantage  of  the  allied  crafts,  and 


OTHER    PRINTING    TRADES    ORGANIZATIONS.  563 

Labor  in  general."  The  matter  was  referred  to  the  International 
convention  of  1896,  which  rescinded  its  rule  providing  tliat  machine- 
tenders  should  be  connected  with  machinists'  unions,  and  directed 
subordinate  typographical  organizations  to  require  that  tenders  "  be 
selected  whenever  possible  from  the  members  of  the  local  typograph- 
ical unions."  This  course  was  resented  by  the  International  Asso- 
ciation of  Machinists,  and  all  negotiations  for  a  peace  pact  were  for- 
ever sundered.  Jurisdiction  over  the  tenders  was  assumed  by  the 
International  Typographical  Union  in  1898,  and  its  general  laws  were 
again  amended  in  1899  so  as  to  read:  "All  machine-tenders  shall  be 
members  of  the  International  Typographical  Union  and  the  local 
unions  shall  provide  and  maintain  a  scale  covering  such  positions, 
and  they  shall  at  all  times  be  under  the  control  and  amenable  to  all 
laws  and  regulations  of  said  local  unions;  provided,  that  assistants 
or  helpers  employed  by  foremen  to  assist  machine-tenders  shall  be 
journeymen  members  of  the  local  typographical  union,  and  the  local 
union  shall  provide  and  maintain  a  scale  covering  such  positions; 
provided,  further,  that  such  apprentices  shall  not  be  considered  as 
in  conflict  with  the  ntimber  already  allotted  by  local  laws;  provided, 
further,  that  this  shall  not  be  construed  as  applying  to  those  now 
working  as  machine-tenders'  helpers  or  apprentices." 

On  June  29,  1899,  the  International  Executive  Council  entered 
into  an  agreement  with  the  National  Board  of  the  Associated  Type- 
setting Machine  Engineers,  requiring  that  in  places  w^here  machine- 
tenders  were  organized  they  should  become  branches  of  local  typo- 
graphical tmions,  with  authority  to  hold  monthly  meetings  for  the 
purpose  of  discussing  trade  matters,  hearing  complaints  regarding 
infractions  of  wage  scales  or  violations  of  union  rules,  and  making 
recommendations  or  propositions  as  to  changes  in  prices  for  the 
labor  of  their  members.  But  all  legislation  affecting  them  had  to  be 
enacted  by  parent  typographical  bodies,  upon  which  was  imposed 
the  obligation  of  defraying  the  expenses  of  branch  meetings. 

Such  compact  was  declared  to  have  been  justified  by  the  conditions 
that  existed  in  the  printing  industry  at  the  time  it  was  made,  but  a 
recent  decision  handed  down  by  the  International  Executive  Council 
practically  nullified  its  provisions.  That  decision  was  rendered  on 
April  10,  1 9 10,  in  the  case  of  the  New  York  Machine-Tenders'  Branch 
against  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  which  contended  that  the  former 
had  exceeded  its  prerogatives.  In  passing  upon  the  matter  the 
Executive  Council  found  that  a  union  within  a  union  was  an  impossi- 
bility, that  International  doctrine  decreed  that  dual  jurisdiction  in 
composing  rooms  was  impracticable,  and  that  sooner  or  later  one 


564  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

union  would  have  to  sucoimb  to  the  other.    The  conclusions  reached 
by  the  council  were : 

It  was  felt,  when  the  Machine-Tenders'  Branch  submitted  a  constitution  and 
by-laws  for  the  branch  under  which  the  branch  intended  to  act  thereafter,  that 
eventually  the  question  of  jurisdiction  between  the  parent  body  —  No.  6  — 
and  the  branch  might  be  raised,  and  the  president  of  the  International  Typo- 
graphical Union  was  careful  to  point  out  that  if  any  provision  of  its  constitution 
and  by-laws  conflicts  with  International  law,  such  conflicting  provision  or  pro- 
visions must  be  immediately  corrected  upon  the  matter  being  called  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  officers  of  the  Machine-Tenders'  Branch. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  was  recognized  that  a  peculiar  condition,  owing  to  the 
existence  of  the  branch,  had  grown  up  in  New  York  City,  and  that  if  under  the 
laws  as  proposed  the  parent  body  —  No.  6  —  and  the  branch  could  more  equi- 
tably handle  the  situation,  it  was  not  wise  nor  incumbent  upon  the  International 
officers  to  interfere.  But  the  result  has  been  as  foreseen.  Organizing  into  a 
branch,  adopting  a  constitution  and  by-laws,  the  machine-tenders  immediately 
became  ambitious  to  fully  and  completely  control  all  the  affairs  in  composing 
rooms  relating  to  the  employment  of  machine- tenders,  and  virtually  and  dis- 
tinctly deny  the  right  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  to  interfere  with  such  con- 
trol. Such  a  condition  arising,  the  Executive  Committee  of  No.  6  promptly  met 
the  challenge  contained  in  the  action  then  taken,  reasserted  the  authority  of 
No.  6  over  composing  rooms  in  New  York  City,  subject  to  the  provisions  of  the 
International  law,  and  this  position  by  the  Executive  Committee  was  endorsed 
by  Typographical  Union  No.  6. 

The  action  thus  taken  brings  us  back  to  a  consideration  of  the  agreement  bearing 
the  date  June  29,  1899,  and  summarized  in  this  decision.  This  agreement  is  the 
only  instrument  under  which  the  Machine-Tenders'  Branch  in  New  York  can 
exist,  or  has  existed.  Three  important  provisions  in  that  agreement  are  quoted 
in  this  decision,  and  it  is  asserted  that  the  entire  trend  of  the  decision  and  the 
intention  of  the  Executive  Council  at  that  time  was  that  Typographical  Union 
No.  6  should  maintain  its  supremacy  and  authority  in  the  union  composing  rooms 
in  New  York  City.  To  analyze  the  provisions  quoted  will  mean  that  the  branch 
may  hear,  or  shall  hear,  complaints  regarding  infractions  of  the  scale,  violation 
of  union  rules,  recommendations  or  propositions  as  to  changes  in  the  scale  or 
rules  of  the  union,  but  the  union  itself  must  correct  any  abuses  that  may  develop 
through  such  hearings.  Immediately  following  this  provision  it  is  distinctly 
stated  that  the  branch  shall  prepare  and  through  their  committee  shall  submit 
all  cases  requiring  executive  action  to  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  union. 

Summarizing  its  decision  the  Executive  Council  stated  that  it  had 
no  objection,  nor  would  it  raise  any,  to  an  agreement  that  did  not 
contravene  International  law,  under  which  a  local  union  and  its 
branch  may  peaceably  operate,  "  but  at  the  present  time,  when  the 
question  is  raised,  or  should  the  question  be  raised  at  any  time  in 
the  future,  no  matter  what  local  agreements  may  be  in  existence,  the 
supremacy,  authority,  jurisdiction  and  integrity  of  New  York  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  6  will  be  maintained  by  the  Executive  Council 
of  the  International  Typographical  Union."     Later  decisions  by  the 


OTHER   PRINTING   TRADES    ORGANIZATIONS.  565 

president  of  Union  No.  6,  and  upheld  by  the  latter,  having  invali- 
dated the  branch's  constitution  and  by-laws,  which  were  declared 
to  be  unconstitutional,  the  union  determined  on  April  2,  19 11,  to 
formulate  laws  and  rules  for  the  regulation  of  the  Machine-Tenders' 
Branch,  so  that  it  should  be  conducted  only  in  an  educational  ca- 
pacity. Under  this  new  code  it  is  optional  with  machinist  members 
of  Union  No.  6  as  to  whether  they  shall  affiliate  with  the  branch,  the 
objects  of  which,  as  stipulated  in  the  amended  laws,  are  to  consider 
and  discuss  at  monthly  meetings  all  measures  connected  with  its 
section  of  the  printing  trade  that  may  come  before  the  union,  and 
to  make  such  recommendations  as  may  seem  proper,  machinist- 
members  to  possess  equal  rights  with  printer-members  in  the  parent 
body's  proceedings,  as  well  as  to  receive  its  protection  and  a  just  share 
of  all  benefits.  Provision  is  made  for  the  annual  election  of  a  chair- 
man, vice-chairman  and  secretary,  the  latter  official  being  required 
to  attend  all  sessions  of  the  branch  and  to  keep  the  minutes  of  the 
same  "  in  a  book  provided  for  that  purpose,  which  shall  always  be  the 
property  of  the  union."  Machine-tenders'  substitutes  must  now 
report  at  the  regular  House  of  Call,  where  suitable  arrangements  are 
made  for  safely  storing  their  tools.  The  clerk  of  the  Benefit  Board 
receives  all  calls  for  machinist  substitutes  and  apportions  the  same 
according  to  priority  on  the  list  kept  by  him. 


V. 

Woman's  Auxiliary. 

What  has  proved  to  be  a  valuable  additament  to  printers'  organiza- 
tions is  the  Woman's  International  Auxiliary  to  Typographical 
Union,  which  was  founded  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  on  August  13,  1902. 
It  has  at  present  60  branches  in  the  United  States  and  one  in  Canada. 

That  which  was  originally  called  the  Ladies'  Auxiliary  of  the 
Bronx  Defense  Committee,  organized  November  13,  1906,  was  on 
March  8,  1909,  instituted  with  seven  members  in  New  York  City  as 
Woman's  Auxiliary  No.  20  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  and  has 
co-operated  to  good  advantage  with  that  compositors'  association  in 
many  of  its  uplift  enterprises.  Its  membership  is  now  40.  The  first 
president  of  the  Metropolitan  branch  was  Mrs.  James  R.  McLean, 
the  secretary  being  Mrs.  Julia  A.  Ailing  and  the  treasurer  Mrs.  Henry 
D.  Sotde.  At  present  the  officers  are:  President,  Mrs.  Charles  M. 
Carter;  vice-president,  Mrs.  A.  J.  Greenwood;  secretary-treasurer, 
Mrs.  Paul  G.  Field;  guide,  Mrs.  L.  G.  Burchell. 


566  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Eligible  to  membership  in  the  auxiliary  are  the  wives,  mothers, 
unmarried  daughters,  unmarried  sisters  and  widows  of  members  of 
the  International  Typographical  Union,  besides  women  members  of 
the  same.  An  applicant  for  admission  must  have  reached  the  age  of 
1 6  years  and  may  retain  her  membership  in  the  event  of  her 
marriage  to  a  man  not  a  printer.  The  objects  of  the  auxiliary  are 
to  create  a  closer  and  more  fraternal  feeling  between  the  families  of 
union  printers ;  to  instil  the  principles  of  trade  unionism  in  the  relatives 
of  such  members ;  to  advance  the  interests  of  all  labels  recognized  by 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  and  particularly  that  of  the  Allied 
Printing  Trades ;  to  promote  sociability ;  to  render  assistance  necessary 
in  time  of  sickness  and  trouble,  and  for  such  other  beneficial  ptirposes 
as  the  majority  of  the  members  may  elect. 


77TT'^'"R^~^T  aTTO'^'' 


///  ill  III  lllioiii  lliisf  I 'if. \{  Ills  s/iiili  I  mill. 


u-  tjji,  <<"/;.//  Ill,  Jliilrni.iliaiM  (T>/i,ir|/.i;./m.i/  lliiii'ii.  ai  Jltiillj  .liiirnr.i  r:l.i!ili;lii-ii  foi  llir  fiiir(io:r  of 
I'li/lh  oi,}.uii:.iliti!i  .luu'iiii  JHrrllbrr:  Df  tin  {I'l.ill  .iijit  nnxfnr.fti  of  Dekq.ttr',  fronf  iriifiOtli.lfilm.il  ililtflir.  I 
1,'ii ,  01  lilt    tl'otinliij.  .mil  itlinit  ^1',',1-inl'lr .  ^Itioii.iihj  in  i'uiiri.il  (Tomriition.  flolh.  itfioit  ftrofiri  .ififihi.ilioii. 


rifnimi,  .1 
II  llilTrifiil 
ilr.lill  Itilto 
ml  to  tliiit 


■.or.   (Thi;  fli.iiiii    loilliir.l.ililr.bmnl.tmlliilmtifi.iiiilcn.liiirof.iV'iifioiii.ifilm.ililiiioii.it    •    ' ,  '"     ,y    ■  :      ' 
hum  II  .r.  the        ■    ....  /,  (Tiifwm.ifihii.il  ihiioii  JU      r       of  i    '.■'■-,.,.      .     -       -      i    '       - 

Jloil .  Hie  ifMrlilioii:  ol  llii;  irii.irlcr  .ire  ;,iiili.  (rii.it  '..ml  ilmo,i  -.li:!!!  br  ■.iihoirliii:ilr  to  .mil  nmifiln  k  itli  .ill  llit  rnimrniinit:  of  tin- 
hUitmii  0/  llir  Jliitiiii.ltioii.il  0" Ofioilr.iiihu.il  ililioii:  ^li.il  ll  ■.h.lll  not.  .it  .mij  lime,  f.til  to  be  irfin-.cntrll  .it  the  .1mili.il  S-e::ioii:. 
h.ill.loi  .ill  liiilT.  be  liiiiiletl  .iiid  lOiihollril  bij  the  tfii.tctiiieiil:  fi.r.-.eil  .it  :mh  ^e'.'^ioii:  of  the  Jhitnimtioii.il  iTofioip.tfihii .il  Union 

Sii  louit  .r,  Ibe  ';.ttii  ihium  .iilbeic:  lo  Ibr  .iboi  e  roiitlitioii:.  Ibi:  (.rb.iilrr  h  rem.iiii  iii  Jfiill  Jforre:  hit.  iiyoii  iiifr.ietioii  theieof. 
.'■   .  Ibe  Jlnlrni.itioii.il  O'ljfioitr.iiibujl  llmmi  m.iii  itiabe  ■mIuI  (Tb.irtcr.  nbrii  ,tll  firivihqc!,  :,ccitrril  IberehlJ  '.ll.tll  be  .imiiilleil 

^11  il  itnf,;  H  Itrreaf.  »r  b.ii  e  brmmlo  ■.rl  our  h.mil:  .mil  .ilfixeil  Ibr  Sc//  of  the  Jliilryiulion.il  ^ijfioiii.ifihir.il 
iliiiaii.  Ibr.       1  .  ,  ^  ,  ,  r/.m  of        )    '         ■  ■■  ■■     .  W,  V 


Charter   Issued  by  International  Typographical  Union  to    New  York  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  6. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 
GENERAL  ORGANIZATION  OF  PRINTERS. 

BEGINNING  with  the  year  1850  there  have  been  59  conven- 
tions of  the  general  organization  of  printers  in  America — 
18  Nationaland  41  International.  Typographical  Union  No.  6 
has  been  represented  at  all  of  these  conclaves  with  but  a  single  excep- 
tion, that  being  in  Louisville,  Ky.,  in  1877,  which  session  was  held 
soon  after  a  long  strike  of  the  New  York  association,  and  its  treasury 
had  in  consequence  suffered  so  great  a  depletion  that  it  was  unable  to 
send  delegates  that  year.  Activity  in  the  affairs  of  the  general  body 
of  the  craft  has  marked  the  course  of  the  Metropolitan  society  since 
the  initial  convention  in  1850.  It  took  a  leading  part  in  calling  and 
organizing  that  early  combination  of  typographers.  Together  with 
the  unions  in  Philadelphia  and  Boston  it  issued  an  invitation  to  the 
journeymen  printers  of  the  United  States  to  meet  in  national  assem- 
bly in  New  York  on  the  first  Monday  in  December,  1850,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  determining  upon  a  plan  for  a  general  co-operation  not  only 
in  regard  to  the  maintenance  of  prices,  but  the  building  up  of  a  system 
whereby  work  at  fair  rates  and  the  profits  of  it  also  would  be  effectu- 
ally secured  to  the  craft.  Each  imion  was  entitled  to  five  delegates 
in  the  convention  and  every  city  or  town  wherein  ten  journeymen 
were  employed,  and  in  which  there  was  not  any  organization,  was 
privileged  to  send  three  representatives. 

Agitation  for  a  country- wide  association  of  typographical  trades 
started  in  1843,  when  a  futile  attempt  was  made  to  form  a  national 
society  under  the  title  of  The  Order  of  Faust.  A  printer  who  had 
taken  a  prominent  part  in  that  movement  wrote  six  years  later  that 
"  The  Order  of  Faust  could  have  been  successfully  carried  out  had 
there  been  the  least  effort  made  to  extend  it,  as  there  were  men  in 
Washington,  Albany,  Cincinnati,  Boston  and  Philadelphia  ready  to 
form  co-operative  branches.  Its  proceedings  were  secret  and  were 
confined  entirely  to  journeymen."  ^  Many  New  Yorkers  were  mem- 
bers of  the  order.  "  It  was  apparent  at  that  time,"  said  Samuel 
Slawson,  of  St.  Louis,  Mo.,  writing  in  1858,  "  that  the  abuses  which 


W.  T.  Kelly,  of  New  York,  in  the  Boston  Guide,  a  craft  monthly  periodical,  for  May,  1849. 

[567] 


568  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

had  crept  into  the  trade  one  by  one,  oppressing  the  journeymen  in 
their  relations  with  the  employers,  and  the  many  disadvantages 
arising  out  of  disconcerted  and  disconnected  action  on  the  part  of 
various  unions  and  societies,  called  loudly  for  some  means  of  redress. 
To  devise  measures  for  the  correction  of  these  abuses,  and  to  har- 
monize interests  which  were  identical  in  their  nature  throughout 
the  country,  by  united  and  earnest  action  in  one  common  cause,  a 
circular  was  issued  about  the  first  of  November,  1850,  by  the  New 
York,  Philadelphia  and  Boston  unions  calling  on  sister  unions  and 
societies  to  send  delegates  to  a  national  convention  of  journeymen 
printers,  to  be  held  in  New  York  on  the  second  day  of  December 
following."  In  May,  1849,  the  Boston  Guide  editorially  urged 
the  formation  of  an  American  Printers'  Union,  to  be  composed  of 
accredited  delegates  from  all  parts  of  the  United  States.  "  This 
union,"  suggested  the  editor,  "  should  be  possessed  of  the  power  of 
granting  charters  to  subordinate  unions,  to  endeavor  to  promote 
their  formation  throughout  the  country ;  to  act  as  a  council  of  advice, 
and  exercise  a  general  control.  The  subordinate  unions  should  have 
the  power  of  settling  the  prices  in  their  several  districts,  and  should 
exercise,  under  the  supreme  union,  a  general  control  each  in  its 
district." 

Stoneall's  Hall  was  the  coimcil  place  of  the  National  Convention 
of  Journeymen  Printers  of  the  United  States  that  assembled  in  the 
evening  of  December  2,  1850,  the  five  representa- 
National  tives  of  the  New  York  Printers'  Union  being  Frank- 

Convention  of  lin  J.  Ottarson,  Edgar  H.  Rogers,  Thomas  R.  Glen, 
Journeymen  ^^niam  MoHneux  and  Peter  McDonald.  Delegates 
Printers  in  New  .   r  .1      ^  1  •     1        •  r 

York  City  '^eve  also  present  from  the  typographical  imions  or 

Albany,  N.  Y.,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  Baltimore,  Md., 
Louisville,  Ky.,  and  Trenton,  N.  J.  Temporary  organization 
was  effected  by  calling  John  F.  Keyser,  of  Philadelphia,  to  the 
chair  and  appointing  F.  J.  Ottarson  secretary.  When  the  convention 
was  permanently  organized  John  W.  Peregoy,  of  Baltimore,  was 
elected  president,  George  E.  Greene,  of  Louisville,  and  M.  C. 
Brown,  of  Philadelphia,  vice-presidents,  and  F.  J.  Ottarson  and  John 
Hartman,  of  Trenton,  secretaries.  On  the  following  day  it  was  resolved 
"  that  a  standing  National  Executive  Committee  of  three  from  each 
State  be  appointed  to  enforce  the  execution  of  all  resolutions  of  this 
convention  bearing  upon  the  different  sections  here  represented;  to 
gather  information  on  all  matters  of  interest  to  the  trade;  to  report 
the  same  quarterly  to  the  different  unions  and  to  the  next  convention 
when  it  assembles;  to  make  arrangements  for  the  assembling  of  the 


GENERAL    ORGANIZATION    OF    PRINTERS.  569 

next  convention ;  and  also  to  attend  to  whatever  else  the  convention 
may  direct  during  the  interim  between  the  adjournment  of  this  and 
the  assembling  of  the  next  convention."  These  committemen  were 
on  the  last  day's  session  (December  5th)  apportioned  among  the  five 
States  as  follows:  New  York,  Thomas  J.  Walsh,  of  Albany,  Edgar  H. 
Rogers  and  Peter  McDonald,  of  New  York  City;  Pennsylvania,  John 
F.  Keyser,  R.  B.  Smith,  and  W.  B.  Eckert,  of  Philadelphia ;  New  Jersey, 
Charles  Bechtel,  John  Hartman  and  William  Gillespy,.  of  Trenton; 
Maryland,  M.  F.  Conway,  Frederick  Young  and  John  W.  Peregoy, 
of  Baltimore;  Kentucky,  George  E.  Greene,  J.  L.  Gibbons  and  Ray- 
mond Lynch,  of  Louisville. 

It  was  determined  by  the  convention  to  "  strenuously  urge  the 
journeymen  printers  of  every  city  and  town  in  the  United  States 
(provided  there  are  six  or  more  employed  in  such  place)  to  form  them- 
selves into  unions  and  establish  connection  with  each  other  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  united  action  upon  every  question  involving  the 
interests  of  the  trade;  and  that  on  and  after  the  first  day  of  February, 
185 1,  no  journeyman  printer  coming  from  any  city  or  town  known  to 
contain  the  organization  provided  for  above  will  be  allowed  to  work 
in  any  locality  embraced  within  this  organization  unless  he  exhibit 
a  certificate  of  membership  from  the  society  situated  in  the  place 
from  which  he  comes."  Formation  of  unions  by  printers  in  all  sec- 
tions of  the  United  States  was  recommended  upon  the  following 
basis: 

1.  Regulation  and  adjustment  of  the  different  scales  of  prices  so  as  not  to 
conflict  with  each  other. 

2.  Giving  traveling  certificates  to  their  members,  in  good  standing,  to  be  legal 
for  one  year,  which  shall  recommend  the  holders  thereof  to  assistance  and  traveling 
expenses  from  the  union  in  any  city  or  town  where  they  cannot  obtain  work; 
provided,  said  holders  have  done  nothing  in  the  meantime,  by  a  course  of  intem- 
perance or  otherwise,  to  disqualify  them  from  the  same,  of  which  fact  the  National 
Executive  Committee  shall  notify  the  unions  or  societies  in  other  places. 

3.  Keeping  a  registry  of  the  names  of  "  rats  "  and  other  unworthy  members 
of  the  trade,  and  description  of  their  person,  to  be  sent  to  every  union  or  society 
in  the  country,  and  to  be  kept  by  each  union  for  reference. 

4.  Receiving  no  stranger  as  a  member  of  any  union  or  society  who  shall  not 
produce  a  legal  certificate  of  membership  from  the  society  or  union  of  the  place 
to  which  he  belongs. 

5.  Levying  a  monthly  tax  upon  each  member,  sufficiently  large  to  enable  it  to 
accumulate  within  two  years  a  sum  equivalent,  at  least,  to  $10  for  each  member, 
as  a  reserve  fund,  in  view  of  their  being  compelled  to  quit  work  in  vindication 
of  their  rights. 

6.  Establishing  the  right  of  any  sister  union  or  society  to  call  upon  them  for 
pecuniary  assistance,  if  necessary,  to  the  amount  of  $1  from  each  member;  pro- 
vided, that  all  sums  thus  loaned  shall  be  repaid  in  monthly  instalments,  equivalent 


57©  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

to  at  least  5  per  cent  of  the  original  loan;  the  first  instalment  to  be  paid  within 
one  month  after  the  difficulty  calling  for  the  loan  shall  have  passed  away. 

7.  Granting  certificates  from  one  union,  to  enable  the  members  thereof  to 
become  attached  to  any  other,  without  paying  an  entrance  fee,  provided  the 
holder  intends  residing  permanently  within  the  bounds  of  the  union  into  which 
he  seeks  admission. 

Considerable  time  was  devoted  by  the  convention  to  a  discussion  of 
the  apprenticeship  question,  and  a  resolution  was  passed  urging  the 
various  unions  throughout  the  country  to  limit  the  number  of  learners, 
such  restrictive  measure  being  in  reality  a  protest  against  the  exploita- 
tion of  child  labor  in  the  printing  trade.  In  connection  with  this 
subject  it  was  resolved  "  that  the  employing  printers  of  the  United 
States  are  urgently  requested  to  have  their  apprentices  indentured 
for  a  period  of  not  less  than  five  years."  Several  delegates  inveighed 
against  the  contract  system  of  doing  public  printing,  but  the  con- 
vention recorded  itself  in  opposition  to  the  Federal  Government 
establishing  a  plant  to  perform  its  own  work,  and  directed  the  Execu- 
tive Committee  to  ascertain  from  the  different  unions  whether  their 
members  would  subscribe  sufficient  funds  to  warrant  the  creation  of 
a  national  joint  stock  office  for  performing  the  printing  of  the  United 
States  Government. 

It  was  the  belief  of  many  of  those  early  trade  unionists  that  the 
beneficial  featiu-es  of  labor  organizations  were  detrimental  to  their 
progress.  They  contended  that  success  could  be  attained  only 
through  the  conduct  of  affairs  along  purely  trade  lines  and  by  meas- 
ures that  were  absolutely  protective  in  character.  Such  opinion  per- 
vaded the  1850  convention,  which  put  through  a  resolution  "  that 
it  be  recommended  to  all  typographical  trade  associations  to  abolish 
the  so-called  benefit  system."  Not  any  attention,  however^  was 
paid  to  the  recommendation  by  the  New  York  union,  which  continued 
its  benevolent  objects  until  the  dispute  in  1853  with  the  Co-operative 
Printers'  Union,  and  when  that  affair  was  settled  it  resumed  the  pay- 
ment of  benefits,  considering  that  the  system  was  productive  of  much 
good  and  tended  to  promote  cohesiveness  in  its  ranks. 

By  authority  of  the  convention  an  address  was  issued  to  the  jour- 
neymen printers  of  the  United  States  on  December  7,  1850.  After 
stating  that  in  consequence  of  the  short  space  of  time  intervening 
between  the  receipt  of  the  circular  calling  the  convention  and  the 
date  of  holding  the  same  but  five  States  had  sent  delegates,  the  ad- 
dress continued : 

It  is  useless  for  us  to  disguise  from  ourselves  the  fact  that,  under  the  present 
arrangement  of  things,  there  exists  a  perpetual  antagonism  between  Labor  and 
Capital.      The    toilers    are  involuntarily  pitted  against  the  employers;  one  side 


GENERAL    ORGANIZATION    OF    PRINTERS.  57 1 

striving  to  sell  their  labor  for  as  much,  and  the  other  striving  to  buy  it  for  as 
little,  as  they  can.  In  this  war  of  interests.  Labor,  of  itself,  stands  no  chance. 
The  power  is  all  on  the  other  side.  Every  addition  to  the  number  of  laborers 
in  the  market  decreases  their  power;  while  the  power  of  Capital  grows  in  a  ratio 
commensurate  with  the  increase  of  the  capital  itself.  On  the  one  side,  the  greater 
the  number  of  dollars,  the  greater  the  ability  to  succeed  in  the  conflict;  on  the 
other,  the  greater  the  number  of  laborers,  the  less  the  ability  to  succeed.  Add 
to  this  the  fact  that  wealth  accumulates,  on  the  one  side,  much  faster  than  the 
laborers  accumulate  on  the  other,  and  the  utter  impotency  of  unorganized  labor 
in  a  warfare  against  Capital  becomes  manifest. 

To  remedy  the  many  disastrous  grievances  arising  from  this  disparity  of  power 
combination,  for  mutual  agreement  in  determining  rates  of  wages,  and  for  concert 
of  action  in  maintaining  them,  has  been  resorted  to  in  many  trades,  and  prin- 
cipally in  our  own.  Its  success  has  abundantly  demonstrated  its  utility.  Indeed, 
while  the  present  wages  system  continues  in  operation,  as  an  immediate  pro- 
tection from  pressing  calamities,  it  is  clearly  the  only  effective  means  which 
Labor  can  adopt.  So  far  as  it  extends  it  destroys  competition  in  the  labor  market; 
unites  the  working  people  and  produces  a  sort  of  equilibrium  in  the  power  of  the 
conflicting  parties. 

This  being  the  case,  it  appears  evident  that  an  extensive  organization,  em- 
bracing the  whole  country,  would  secure  to  our  own,  or  any  other  trade,  a  power 
which  could  be  derived  from  no  other  source.  The  delegates  here  assembled  have 
come  together  deeply  impressed  with  this  conviction.  They  regard  such  an 
organization  not  only  as  an  agent  of  immediate  relief,  but  also  as  essential  to  the 
ultimate  destruction  of  those  unnatural  relations  at  present  subsisting  between 
the  interests  of  the  employing  and  employed  classes.  All  their  activities  have 
accordingly  been  regulated  with  a  view  to  the  establishing  of  such  an  organiza- 
tion. They  have  recommended  the  formation  of  societies  in  all  the  cities  and 
towns  throughout  the  country.  They  have  rendered  it  obligatory  upon  all  mem- 
bers of  the  profession  traveling  to  any  point  embraced  in  the  representation 
here,  for  work,  to  have  with  them  certificates  of  membership  from  the  society 
located  in  the  place  from  which  they  come.  They  have  established  a  National 
Executive  Committee,  to  urge  the  enforcement  of  their  recommendations  and 
requirements.  They  have  also  instructed  that  committee  to  use  their  utmost 
exertions  to  have  a  full  representation  of  the  whole  country  in  the  next  national 
convention,  which  they  have  ordered  to  be  held  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  on  the 
twelfth  of  next  September. 

The  members  of  this  convention  are  well  assured  that,  to  secure  the  adoption 
of  the  measures  they  recommend,  they  must  recommend  those  alone  which  are 
best  calculated  to  effect  the  immediate  well-being  of  the  individual  members 
of  the  trade.  The  establishment  of  a  general  organization  must  be  effected  upon 
certain  principles.  In  proportion  as  the  advantages  of  the  operation  of  those 
principles  are  felt  and  observed,  the  establishment  of  that  organization  will  be 
rendered  certain  or  doubtful. 

Then  followed  the  principles,  under  seven  headings,  upon  which 
the  convention  urged  the  founding  of  printers'  societies.  Labor 
copartnership  formed  a  prominent  part  of  the  address,  which  dwelt 
as  follows  upon  that  subject: 


572  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

The  project  of  establishing  a  joint  stock  oflfice,  in  Washington  City,  for  the 
purpose  of  executing  the  printing  of  the  United  States  Government,  was  intro- 
duced into  the  convention;  but  its  newness  as  a  matter  of  practical  concern  to 
the  great  body  of  journeymen  printers,  with  the  necessity  of  having  a  thorough 
deliberation  on  so  important  a  matter  and  the  propriety  of  delegates  being  elected 
with  special  regard  to  its  consideration,  prompted  its  reference  to  the  next  con- 
vention. The  practicability  of  the  working  people  employing  themselves,  and 
realizing  the  profits  of  their  own  labor,  there  can  be  no  doubt  might  be  illustrated 
and  established,  if  the  journeymen  printers  of  the  United  States  would  resolve 
to  try  the  experiment.  In  fact,  our  Philadelphia  brethren  have  already,  to  a 
great  extent,  succeeded  in  an  effort  of  the  kind.  A  publishing  establishment 
has  been  instituted  in  that  city  by  the  union  there,  and  thus  far  has  answered 
the  most  sanguine  expectations  of  its  projectors  and  friends.  If  a  similar  concern, 
on  a  large  scale,  could  be  instituted  in  Washington,  a  similar  result  might  be 
reasonably  apprehended.  The  subject  is,  at  least,  well  worthy  a  full  and  deliberate 
consideration ;  and  may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  important  and  interesting 
which  wiU  engage  the  attention  of  the  next  convention. 

Combination  merely  to  fix  and  sustain  a  scale  of  prices  is  of  minor  importance 
compared  to  that  combination  which  looks  to  an  ultimate  redemption  of  Labor. 
Scales  of  prices,  to  keep  up  the  value  of  labor,  are  only  necessary  under  a  system 
which,  in  its  uninterrupted  operation,  gives  to  that  value  a  continued  downward 
tendency.  But  when  Labor  determines  no  longer  to  sell  itself  to  speculators, 
but  to  become  its  own  employer;  to  own  and  enjoy  itself  and  the  fruit  thereof, 
the  necessity  for  scales  of  prices  will  have  passed  away,  and  Labor  will  be  forever 
rescued  from  the  control  of  the  capitalist.  It  will  then  be  free,  fruitful,  honorable. 
The  shackles  of  a  disastrous  conventionalism  will  have  fallen  from  its  limbs;  and  it 
will  appear  in  the  character  which  nature  designed  it  to  sustain.  This  is  cer- 
tainly a  consummation  most  devoutly  to  be  wished;  and,  however  difficult  it 
may  be  to  attain,  if  within  the  range  of  possibility,  ought  to  constitute  the  great 
end  to  which  all  our  other  aims  and  efforts  should  be  made  subsidiary. 

The  journeymen  printers  of  the  United  States  are  earnestly  invoked,  by  their 
brethren  here,  to  employ  their  most  effective  endeavors  in  the  prosecution  of 
this  work.  Its  success  now  rests  with  them;  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  they  will  feel 
the  fuU  weight  of  the  responsibility.  We  beg  them  to  take  into  favorable  con- 
sideration the  measures  we  have  recommended  for  their  adoption.  We  beg 
them  to  assist  the  National  Executive  Committee,  by  every  possible  means,  in 
the  fulfillment  of  its  duties.  We  beg  them  to  circulate  the  official  proceedings 
of  this  convention  (published  in  pamphlet  form  by  the  union  of  Philadelphia) 
wherever  such  circulation  will  be  calculated  to  excite  an  interest  in  the  move- 
ment. And  we  beg  them  finally  to  send  a  fuU  representation  to  the  next  con- 
vention from  every  section  of  the  country.  They  owe  a  duty  which  they  are 
thus  called  upon  to  discharge,  not  only  to  us,  who  have  commenced  in  this  move- 
ment —  not  alone  to  themselves,  who  are  so  deeply  interested  in  it  —  but  also 
to  the  laborers  of  all  trades  and  vocations,  who  are  anxiously  awaiting  the  devel- 
opment of  some  sure  plan  of  amelioration,  which  they  can  all  adopt.  Public 
opinion  places  us  at  the  head  of  the  mechanical  professions.  Let  us  not  belie  that 
opinion,  by  falling  behind  it.  Something  is  expected  of  us;  and  when  the  next 
convention  assembles  let  its  numbers  and  its  actions  justify  and  realize  the 
public  expectation.  Let  something  be  evolved  during  its  deliberations  which 
will  redound  to  the  benefit  of  our  own  trade,  and,  by  way  of  example,  to  the 
benefit  of  all  others. 


GENERAL    ORGANIZATION    OF    PRINTERvS.  573 

At  the  second  convention,  held  in  Baltimore  in  September,  185 1, 
Franklin  J.  Ottarson,  Edgar  H.  Rogers  and  H.  A.  Guild  (who  was 
one  of  the  secretaries)  represented  the  New  York 
union.      Delegates   were  also   in  attendance   from    Second  General 
Albany,  Utica,  Baltimore,  Boston,  Cincinnati,  Har-    Meeting  of 
risburg,  Louisville,  Philadelphia,  Pittsburgh,  Rich-    t^®  Craft, 
mond,  Va.,  and  Trenton.    Uppermost  in  the  minds 
of  those  who  were  present  at  the  meeting  was  the  question  as  to 
whether  the  convention  should  declare  for  a  permanent  organization. 
A  majority  of  the  committee  to  which  was  referred  various  matters 
for  the  consideration  of  the  session  reported  in  favor  of  the  propo- 
sition.   These  men  were  Edgar  H.  Rogers,  of  New  York,  J.  Richard 
Lewellen,  of  Richmond,  A.  W.  Rook,  of  Pittsburgh,  W.  B.  Eckert,  of 
Philadelphia,  and  A.  C.  Pool,  of  Harrisburg.     They  stated  that  they 
were  fully  convinced  that  "  the  most  practicable  and  speedy  method 
of  attaining  the  various  objects  sought  to  be  effected  for  the  relief 
and  benefit  of  the  craft  will  be  found  in  the  organization  of  the 
National  Printers'  Union,  which  shall  be  legislative  in  its  character. 
We  therefore  respectfully  recommend  the  appointment  of  a  commit- 
tee, with  insti-uctions  to  report  at  as  early  a  moment  as  possible,  for 
the  purpose  of  drafting  a  constitution  for  the  permanent  organization 
and  government  of  a  National  Printers'  Union." 

Thomas  J.  Walsh,  of  Albany,  M.  F.  Conway,  of  Baltimore,  and 
Henry  T.  Ogden,  of  Cincinnati,  three  very  able  men  on  the  com- 
mittee, presented  a  minority  report,  strongly  advising  against  a  per- 
manent organization  at  that  time.  They  regarded  ' '  a  national  organi- 
zation of  the  trade  —  solid,  effective  and  complete  —  as  the  first 
object  to  be  attained  in  the  prosecution  of  our  work,"  and  suggested 
this  declaration  of  principles : 

The  efforts  of  the  journeymen  printers  of  the  United  States  to  reform  the 
existing  condition  of  the  trade  are  predicated  on  the  following  evident  truths: 
I .  A  human  being,  willing  to  labor  usefully  for  a  subsistence,  ought  at  all  times 
to  have  opportunity  for  so  doing.  2.  Every  one  should  receive  just  what  his 
labor  is  worth,  whether  there  be  more  work  than  workers,  or  more  workers  than 
demand  for  them.  3.  There  never  was,  and  never  can  be,  a  general  surplus  of 
labor,  till  the  earth  is  subdued,  fertilized,  and  made  fruitful;  nor  until  every 
person  has  all  his  legitimate  physical  and  mental  wants  abundantly  satisfied. 
4.  The  world  around  us  proceeds  on  principles  directly  opposite  to  these.  5. 
There  must  be  a  way  of  changing  from  wrong  to  right,  if  men  will  but  honestly 
search  for  and  faithfully  pursue  it. 

As  to  the  purpose  of  the  convention  the  minority  report  declared 
"  that,  inasmuch  as  there  are  but  eleven  unions  represented  in  this 
body,  while  there  must  be  at  least  50  in  active  operation  throughout 


574  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

the  country,  and  the  unorganized  material  for  as  many  more,  any 
effort  to  construct  a  permanent  system  of  national  organization,  to 
bear  equally  upon  those  now  represented  and  hereafter  to  be  repre- 
sented, would  be  an  unwarranted  assumption  of  power,  calculated 
to  spread  discontent  and  defeat  the  paramount  purposes  we  have  in 
view.2  The  main  work  of  this  convention  is  to  adopt  whatever 
measures  may  be  required  to  effect  a  union  and  concert  of  action 
among  the  printers  of  the  United  States,  leaving  to  subsequent  con- 
ventions the  adoption  of  more  direct  measures  of  relief."  It  was 
suggested  that  all  typographical  unions  be  requested  to  send  dele- 
gates to  future  national  conventions;  that  in  places  where  journeymen 
had  the  power  it  be  recommended  that  "  no  individual  coming  from 
a  city  or  town  known  to  contain  ten  or  more  printers  in  an  unorgan- 
ized condition,  shall  be  allowed  to  work  at  the  business  unless  he 
adduces  satisfactory  evidence  of  his  having  used  his  utmost  endeavors 
to  organize  those  ten  or  more  men  into  a  society  to  promote  the  gen- 
eral interests  of  the  trade;  that  all  societies  in  the  country  be  enjoined 
rigorously  to  enforce  the  measure,  making  it  necessary  for  every 
traveling  printer  to  adduce  a  certificate  of  membership  from  the 
society  in  the  place  he  last  worked  —  in  case  the  printers  in  such  place 
be  organized  —  before  he  can  obtain  employment  within  their  juris- 
diction." The  minority  report  also  recommended  that  a  special 
fund  be  instituted  by  societies  for  defraying  the  expenses  of  their  dele- 
gates to  conventions;  advocated  the  appointment  of  an  Executive 
Committee,  to  be  charged  with  the  duty  of  keeping  up  "  a  continual 
correspondence  with  one  another  relative  to  the  action  of  their  re- 
spective societies  on  the  resolutions  of  this  convention  and  the  prac- 
tical workings  thereof,  and  to  lay  before  their  societies  all  the  infor- 
mation they  may  thus  receive;  to  visit  personally  as  many  of  those 
sections  of  the  coimtry  not  represented  in  this  convention  as  they 
conveniently  can,  and  use  their  utmost  exertions  to  excite  an  interest 
in  this  movement  among  their  fellow-printers  in  such  places."  A 
recommendation  was  made  that  a  committee  of  one  from  each  repre- 
sented imion  be  appointed  to  prepare  a  form  of  organization  for  a 


*  Henry  T.  Ogden,  of  Cincinnati,  made  this  statement  in  an  interview  in  1904:  "  The  use  of 
the  number  '  50  '  was  not  the  result  of  careful  counting;  in  fact,  was  not  based  upon  any  actual 
knowledge.  It  was  a  mere  guess.  Mr.  Conway,  of  Baltimore,  Mr.  Walsh,  of  Albany,  and  myself 
thought  we  had  better  go  slow  on  permanent  constitutions,  and  as  one  of  the  arguments,  called 
attention  to  the  mass  of  unrepresented  printers.  Another  thing  is  that,  while  the  distinction 
between  the  old  benefit  society  with  non-trade-interference  constitution  and  the  union  idea  was 
very  clear  and  strong  in  1851,  there  was  still  a  hope  that  all  these  benefit  societies  would  unionize 
their  membership  bodily  as  soon  as  a  strong  national  union  was  formed,  and  we  were  still  counting 
on  these.  Nevertheless,  I  doubt  if  all  three  of  us  could  have  made  a  list  of  50,  even  counting  the 
benefit  societies." —  Ethelbert  Stewart,"  Early  Organizations  of  Printers,"  Bulletin  of  the  Bureau 
of  Labor  for  November,  1905,  page  938. 


GENERAL    ORGANIZATION    OF    PRINTERS.  575 

permanent  National  Society  of  Printers,  to  be  submitted  to  the  suc- 
ceeding convention,  embodying  the  following  principles: 

First  —  The  national  society  to  be  the  supreme  legislative  head,  vested  with 
certain  executive  powers,  to  be  exercised  during  recess  by  its  officers,  who  shall 
severally  be  elected  for  stated  periods  of  time,  corresponding  with  the  period 
of  time  elapsing  between  each  regvilar  session ;  and  to  hold  sessions  in  such  places 
as  it  may  determine. 

Second  —  All  unions  or  societies  in  existence  at  the  period  of  the  adoption  of 
such  form  of  organization  to  have  the  privilege  of  electing  delegates  to  the 
National  Union;  but  all  unions  thereafter  created  to  be  so  created  by  authority  of 
a  grant  from  the  National  Union. 

Third  —  All  subordinate  unions  to  exercise  full  control  and  authority  upon 
all  subjects  appertaining  to  the  welfare  of  the  trade,  not  incompatible  with  the 
enactments  of  the  National  Union;  making  regular  reports  thereof  to  the  National 
Union. 

The  minority  planned  to  secure  these  collateral  objects : 

That  the  limitation  of  apprentices  be  recommended  to  all  typographical  soci- 
eties as  a  measure  of  the  highest  importance  to  the  future  interests  of  the  trade 
at  large.  That  the  unions  or  societies  represented  in  this  convention  be  requested 
to  make  regulations  governing  the  apprenticeship  system;  wherein  it  shall  be 
necessary  for  every  apprentice  to  serve  at  least  five  years,  and  for  every  apprentice 
to  remain  in  one  office  during  the  whole  time,  unless  his  discharge  therefrom  be 
obtained  by  fair  and  honorable  means;  that  it  be  also  recommended  that  no 
apprentice  be  allowed  to  remain  on  trial  for  more  than  two  months;  and  no 
apprentice  who  has  been  on  trial  in  one  office  shall  be  taken  on  trial  in  any  other 
office. 

That  the  different  unions  require  all  printers,  two  months  after  their  term  of 
apprenticeship  expires,  to  join  the  union  in  the  town,  county  or  neighborhood 
in  which  said  apprenticeship  has  been  served;  and  in  every  violation  of  such 
regulation  (except  in  case  of  change  of  business)  the  delinquent  shall  not  be 
admitted  into  the  said  union  until  he  shall  have  paid  all  moneys  which  may  have 
become  due  from  him  had  he  joined  at  the  above  specified  time;  together  with 
the  usual  initiation  fee  of  said  union. 

That  it  be  recommended  to  all  unions  in  the  country  to  notify  every  other 
union  of  the  rejection  of  any  applicant  for  membership  or  of  the  expulsion  of 
any  member. 

That  should  a  member  be  expelled  from  any  tmion  in  the  country  it  be  recom- 
mended to  the  others  not  to  admit  said  delinquent  until  he  has  paid  a  fine 
of  $10. 

That  it  be  the  duty  of  the  National  Executive  Committee  to  enter  into  corre- 
spondence as  soon  as  possible  with  the  printers,  whether  organized  or  unorgan- 
ized, of  every  city  and  town  in  the  country,  not  herein  represented,  communi- 
cating to  them  these  recommendations  and  urging  the  propriety  of  their  adopting 
them;  and  also  of  sending  delegates  to  the  next  national  convention. 

Myron  H.  Rooker,  of  Albany,  moved  that  the  majority  report  be 
adopted  and  that  the  committee  recommended  in  it  be  appointed 


576  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

at  once.  "  This  resolution  gave  rise  to  a  lengthy  and  highly  interest- 
ing discussion,"  according  to  the  proceedings,  "  some  of  the  delegates 
thinking  it  inexpedient  and  unwise  for  the  convention  at  this  time 
to  adopt  any  such  course  of  action  as  that  recommended  in  the  ma- 
jority report,  while  others  (a  large  majority)  thought  that  the  time 
had  now  come  for  the  step  to  be  taken;  that  to  delay  it  would  be  a 
waste  of  time  and  detrimental  to  the  ends  we  have  in  view."  When 
the  ayes  and  nays  were  taken  on  the  question  it  was  found  that  the 
majority  report  had  been  adopted  by  a  vote  of  eighteen  to  six.  Appoint- 
ment of  the  committee  followed,  Edgar  H.  Rogers,  of  New  York,  being  a 
member  of  it,  a  draft  of  the  constitution  was  reported,  and  it  was 
unanimously  accepted  on  September  i6th.  The  assembled  repre- 
sentatives of  the  typographical  associations  ordained  and  established 
in  the  initial  fundamental  law  that  their  general  body  should  be 
known  by  the  name  of  the  National  Typographical  Union,  and 
acknowledged,  respected  and  obeyed  as  such  by  each  subordinate 
union  in  the  country,  possessing  original  and  exclusive  jurisdiction 
in  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  fellowship  of  the  craft  in  the  United 
States.  One  of  its  stipulations  was  that  "  all  subordinate  unions  shall 
assemble  under  its  warrant,  and  derive  their  authority  from  it,  en- 
abling them  to  make  all  necessary  local  laws  for  their  own  govern- 
ment. It  shall  be  the  ultimate  tribimal  to  which  all  matters  of  gen- 
eral importance  to  the  welfare  of  the  members  of  the  different  unions 
shall  be  referred,  and  its  decision  thereon  shall  be  final  and  conclusive. 
To  it  shall  belong  the  power  to  regulate,  fix  and  determine  the 
customs  and  usages  in  regard  to  all  matters  appertaining  to  the  craft. 
It  shall  possess  inherent  power  to  establish  subordinate  unions,  which 
shall  always  act  by  virtue  of  a  warrant  granted  by  authority  of  this 
body."  Membership  consisted  "  of  its  elective  officers  and  the  rep- 
resentatives from  subordinate  unions  acting  under  legal,  unreclaimed 
warrants  granted  by  this  National  Union."  The  elective  officers 
were  a  president,  two  vice-presidents,  chosen  from  different  States, 
a  recording  secretary,  a  corresponding  secretary,  and  a  treasurer  — 
"  all  of  whom  shall  be  elected  annually  by  ballot  and  be  installed  and 
enter  upon  the  duties  of  their  offices  at  the  termination  of  the  session 
at  which  they  are  elected."  Each  subordinate  union  was  entitled  to 
three  representatives.  Conventions  were  required  to  be  held  annu- 
ally on  the  first  Monday  in  May,  "  at  such  place  as  shall  from  time 
to  time  be  determined  upon."  Revenues  were  derived  from  war- 
rants for  subordinate  unions  —  $5  for  each  —  and  5  per  cent  upon 
the  total  receipts  of  such  local  associations.  The  National  Union  was 
empowered  to  enact  and  enforce  general  laws  for  the  government 


GENERAL    ORGANIZATION    OF    PRINTERS.  57  7 

of  the  craft,  and  it  was  authorized  to  estabHsh  ceremonies  of  initia- 
tion into  the  ranks  of  subordinate  bodies. 

A  schedule  attached  to  the  basic  law  decreed  that  a  National  Execu- 
tive Committee  of  one  from  each  represented  typographical  society 
should  be  appointed  to  execute  the  resolutions  of  the  convention, 
collect  information  on  all  matters  in  relation  to  the  trade,  and  report 
the  same  to  the  next  yearly  session.  The  constitution  was  ordered 
to  be  signed  by  the  members  of  the  convention,  published  by  its 
authority,  and  forwarded  by  the  Executive  Committee  to  the  different 
typographical  unions  for  their  satisfaction;  and  it  was  directed  that 
"  as  soon  as  the  unions  of  five  different  States  shall  signify  to  the 
Executive  Committee  their  willingness  to  comply  with  the  principles 
and  requisitions  of  the  constitution,  and  accompany  the  same  with 
the  regular  fee  of  $5,  the  said  Executive  Committee  shall  issue  their 
circular  announcing  that  the  National  Typographical  Union  has  been 
formed,  and  request  all  subordinates  who  have  ratified  the  consti- 
tution to  elect  representatives  in  pursuance  of  its  provisions,  who 
shall  assemble  on  the  first  Monday  in  May,  1852,  in  the  city  of  Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio." 

The  convention  assembled  in  Cincinnati  on  May  3,  1852.    Twenty- 
eight  delegates  from  sixteen  unions  were  present  at  the  several  daily 
sessions.    Edgar  H.  Rogers,  W.  A.  Baker  (who  was 
elected  corresponding  secretary)  and  J.  Howell  were    National 
the  representatives  of  the  New  York  union.     Phnt-    Typographical 
ers'  organizations  in  the  necessary  five  States  had    U°io°  Founded. 
not  then  signed  the  constitution  and  paid  the  requisite 
charter  fee.    Discussion  arising  as  to  whether  the  assembled  body  was 
so  in  the  capacity  of  a  national  convention  or  a  union,  the  chairman,  T. 
G.  Forster,  of  St.  Louis,  ruled  that  the  assembly  could  not  be  considered 
as  an  organized  National  Union,  but  as  a  journeymen  printers'  con- 
vention, met  with  a  view  to  a  full  organization.    On  May  sth  the 
committee  that  had  been  selected  to  report  a  plan  of  organization 
submitted  a  resolution,  which  was  unanimously  adopted,  "  that  the 
stipulations  of  the  late  national  convention  having  been  complied 
with  the  National  Typographical  Union  is  hereby  declared  organ- 
ized."    That  title  was  retained  until   1869,   when  at  the  Albany 
(N.  Y.)  convention  it  was  changed  to  the  International  Typograph- 
ical Union  of  North  America. 

Two  important  general  conventions  of  printers  were  afterward 
held  in  New  York  City.  It  was  at  the  request  of  Union  No.  6  that 
the  National  Typographical  Union  voted  to  convene  in  the  Metro- 
polis in  May,  186 1,  but  owing  to  the  opening  of  hostilities  between 

19 


578  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

the  North  and  South  in  that  year  the  board  of  officers,  beUeving  that 

the  meeting  if  then  convened  would  distract  the  craft,  destroy  the 

union's  nationaHty  or  be  thinly  attended,  came  to 

General  the  conclusion  that  a  postponement  was  imperatively 

Conventions  of    necessary.      So    the    session    was    not   held    until 

1862  and  1885     ^         jg^       lasting   from   the   fifth   to   the   ninth 

in  the  City  of         r      'u   ^  ^u        o 

New  York  ^^     ^^^    month.      Seventeen  unions  were   repre- 

sented in  the  convention  by  33  delegates, 
including  P.  N.  Browne,  W.  G.  Cowles  and  D.  W.  Flynn,  of 
No.  6.  While  none  of  the  tmions  in  the  Southern  States  sent  repre- 
sentatives, George  McKay  Luken,  of  Memphis,  Tenn.,  who  was 
unable  to  be  present,  transmitted  papers  expressing  loyalty  of  himself 
and  the  typographical  union  of  his  city  to  the  National  society,  and 
his  name  was  inscribed  on  the  roll. 

As  there  was  an  inclination  to  criticise  the  officers  for  postponing 
the  convention  in  1861,  Secretary-Treasurer  Thomas  J.  Walsh  gave 
the  following  reasons  for  the  course  they  had  pursued:  "  The  intense 
excitement  prevailing  at  that  time  in  this  city  and  throughout  the 
country,  upon  the  unfortunate  issues  then  and  still  pending,  and 
threatening  immediate  and  further  conflict,  rendered  it  prudent,  if 
not  essential,  to  the  welfare  of  the  National  Typographical  Union 
that  its  convention  should  be  postponed.  Indeed,  it  seemed  strange 
that  any  member  of  this  body  failed  to  see  the  impropriety  of  calling 
together  delegates  from  all  parts  of  the  country  at  such  a  time,  when 
it  was  known,  too,  that  unions  which  desired  to  be  represented  could 
not  be,  My  position  as  secretary  and  treasurer  gave  me  an  advan- 
tage to  know  the  sentiment  of  the  typographical  unions  in  this  matter, 
and  I  did  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  postponement  at  that  time  was 
sanctioned  by  at  least  four-fifths  of  the  printers  of  the  United  States." 

That  the  bonds  of  fraternity  between  the  union  printers  of  the 
North  and  South  had  not  been  severed  by  the  irrepressible  conflict 
that  was  then  in  progress  was  indicated  by  this  resolve,  which  was 
unanimously  carried  on  the  fotirth  day  of  the  convention:  "  That 
the  president  be,  and  he  is  hereby,  instructed  to  prepare  for  circula- 
tion among  the  subordinate  unions  in  the  Southern  States,  so  soon 
as  the  facilities  for  communication  with  them  are  afforded,  a  circular 
letter  setting  forth  that  the  National  body  still  regards  them  as  being 
members  thereof,  and  insuring  them  of  our  continued  good  will  ar.d 
fellowship,  and  urge  upon  them  to  maintain  their  former  relations 
with  the  National  Typographical  Union." 

The  delegates  on  the  last  day  of  the  convention  manifested  in 
these  well-chosen  phrases  their  appreciation  of  the  cordial  reception 
that  had  been  accorded  to  them  by  the  local  association : 


GENERAL    ORGANIZATION    OF    PRINTERS.  579 

Wc  tender  our  thanks  to  the  officers  and  members  of  the  New  York  Typo- 
graphical Union  for  the  happy  reception  tendered  us  upon  our  arrival  in  this  city; 
for  the  delightful  excursion  to  Central  Park  and  Highbridgc  —  giving  us  an 
opportunity  to  witness  the  vast  improvements  and  growth  of  commercial  enter- 
prise —  both  pleasing  to  the  eye  and  soul  of  every  one  having  the  interests  of 
the  human  race  and  the  advancement  of  morality  and  religion  at  heart;  for  the 
interesting  attention  bestowed  in  entertaining  us  and  making  our  stay  a  con- 
tinued round  of  pleasure  and  of  profit. 

At  the  solicitation  of  Union  No.  6  the  annual  convention  of  the 
International  Typographical  Union  again  assembled  in  New  York 
City  in  1885,  the  local  organization  having  appropriated  $2,000  to 
give  suitable  welcome  to  the  visiting  craftsmen,  who  were  enter- 
tained by  a  Reception  Committee  of  50,  the  chairman  of  which  was 
Charles  E.  Gatter.  Seventy-seven  unions  were  represented  at  that 
meeting  by  103  delegates.  In  his  address  of  greeting  at  the  opening 
session  on  June  ist,  James  M.  Dimcan,  president  of  No.  6,  said: 

I  esteem  it  a  high  honor  to  be  the  official  representative  of  New  York  union 
in  representing  it  in  the  International  Union  at  the  forthcoming  session.  New 
York  union  has  not  had  the  pleasure  of  entertaining  the  International  con- 
vention since  the  year  1862.  I  take  it  that  the  progress  made  by  New  York 
union  since  that  time,  as  well  as  by  the  International  Union,  is  the  best  evidence 
of  what  can  be  accomplished  by  organized  labor.  There  is  probably  no  other 
organization  in  the  country  that  has  stood  under  stress  and  trial,  has  had  so 
much  to  contend  with  and  has  held  its  organization  so  well  and  so  firmly  together 
under  adverse  circumstances  as  the  Printers'  Union.  I  may  say  that  in  our 
efforts  to  improve  our  affairs  in  New  York  we  have  been  greatly  aided  by  other 
organizations.  We  have  had  support  that  has  been,  I  might  say,  absolutely 
essential  to  our  success  in  the  last  two  years.  We  have  every  reason  to  believe 
in  the  continuance  of  that  support. 

New  York  union  has  always  to  my  mind  been  one  of  the  foremost  in  main- 
taining and  upholding  the  principles  for  which  the  International  Union  was  estab- 
lished. I  take  it,  the  chief  purpose  of  the  International  Union  was  to  further  the 
organization  among  the  different  bodies  in  the  different  cities  to  facilitate  inter- 
course. To  that  end  the  traveling  card  system  was  established  and  I  may  say 
with  great  pride  for  the  New  York  union  that  it  has  always  met  that  system, 
sustained  it  and  upheld  it  in  the  spirit  and  the  letter.  Unhampered  by  sub-lists, 
the  traveling  card  has  met  and  been  received  always  at  its  face  value. 

Gentlemen,  it  is  the  hope  and  desire  of  New  York  union  that  the  legislation 
at  this  present  session  will  be  such  as  to  make  us  advance  in  all  our  efforts  in 
correspondence  with  the  advance  made  in  New  York  and  some  other  cities  withjn 
the  last  two  years. 

I  have  the  honor,  in  behalf  of  the  Pressmen's  Union,  to  welcome  you,  and  wel- 
come the  visiting  pressmen.  The  Pressmen's  Union,  since  its  organization,  has 
made  considerable  headway.  They  are  now  engaged  in  an  attempt  to  secure  a 
central  office,  which  I  have  no  doubt  will  be  successful.  So  far  as  our  endeavors 
to  entertain  you  socially  are  concerned,  we  will  do  it  to  the  best  of  our 
ability. 


580  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

International  President  M.  R.  H.  Witter  responded.  "  I  thank 
you  for  the  words  of  welcome  to  the  City  of  New  York,"  said  he. 
"  It  is  worthy  to  be  remembered  that  in  this  city  more  than  a  third 
of  a  century  ago  the  first  convention  of  joumejmaen  was  held  of 
which  this  is  the  outgrowth.  The  wisdom  of  that  small  number  of 
far-sighted  men  is  exemplified  in  the  presence  of  this  body  to-day. 
In  1862  the  National  Typographical  Union  assembled  in  New  York. 
After  a  lapse  of  more  than  20  years,  having  in  the  meantime 
extended  its  jurisdiction  over  the  Dominion  of  Canada  and  assumed 
the  title  of  '  International '  again  the  grand  body  is  assembled  in  the 
Empire  City.  If  the  foretaste  of  hospitality  which  we  have  wit- 
nessed is  an  indication  of  what  we  are  to  receive  we  certainly  shall 
have  no  occasion  to  say  that  we  have  been  neglected  by  our  brothers 
of  No.  6." 

William  Graydon,  Jr.  (who  was  elected  a  delegate  to  the  National 
Congress  of  Federated  Trade  and  Labor  Unions),  Thomas  F.  Scully, 
Harry  Mills  Cole  and  Sherman  Cummin  represented  No.  6  in  the 
convention. 

In  the  evening  of  June  4th  the  local  body  tendered  to  the  visitors 
a  large  banquet  in  Irving  Hall.  Hon.  William  R.  Grace,  Mayor  of 
New  York,  who  occupied  the  seat  of  honor  at  the  festive  board,  re- 
sponded to  the  toast  "  The  City  of  New  York  "  with  these  stirring 
thoughts  on  the  economic  question: 

Until  recently  combination  by  workingmen  was  regarded  as  conspiracy,  and 
as  such  a  crime  against  the  State.  Down  to  this  year  of  our  Lord,  1885,  em- 
ployers have  sought  to  pay  the  least  possible  wages  and  to  get  the  largest  possible 
service,  and  the  Government  and  the  laws,  representing  the  sentiment  of  the 
employing  classes,  have  been  directed  only  too  often  in  that  behalf.  But  this 
condition  of  things  is  changing  very  rapidly,  and  those  who  have  heretofore 
always  appealed  to  the  lawmakers  for  help  find  themselves  in  a  position  of  un- 
speakable discomfort,  because,  recognizing  the  right  of  the  law  to  interfere,  and 
appealing  to  the  precedent  established  by  the  employers,  the  workingmen  them- 
selves are  now  appealing  to  and  securing  some  degree  of  attention  at  the  hands 
of  the  lawmakers. 

The  main  object  of  our  American  trades  unions  is  to  establish  equality  —  that 
equality  of  opportunity  without  which  "  equality  before  the  law  "  is  a  delusion 
and  a  snare.  Their  main  object  is  to  raise  wages  and  shorten  the  hours  of 
labor  only  as  a  means  to  an  end.  That  end  is  to  make  the  workingman's  life 
less  precarious,  to  make  him  a  better  man,  a  better  husband  and  father,  and  a 
better  citizen.  Such  being  their  actual  purpose  not  only,  but  their  achieved 
result  as  shown  in  numberless  instances,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  their 
power  increases  with  experience,  and  that  their  influence  becomes  every  day 
more  potent. 

In  all  American  trades  unions,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  scrupulous  care  is  taken 
to  do  only  that  which  is  right  and  lawful.    Unjust  and  unlawful  acts  are  the  rare 


GENERAL    ORGANIZATION    OF    PRINTERS.  58 1 

exception,  and  so  marked  is  this  fact  as  to  make  the  manifold  combinations  of 
Capital,  which  exercise  corporate  rights  by  virtue  of  the  authority  of  laws  and 
in  the  name  of  public  interests  which  they  constantly  evade  and  violate,  stand 
in  shameful  contrast  with  the  trades  unions,  to  which  incorporation  is  denied, 
except  as  benevolent  societies. 

The  unions  are  not  always  wisely  managed.  No  human  concerns  are;  but 
they  have  done  and  are  doing  an  immense  amount  of  good,  have  vastly  improved 
the  condition  of  the  wage-worker,  and  consequently  the  condition  of  society 
as  a  whole.  They  are  democratically  governed  bodies.  Like  all  other  democra- 
cies, they  are  not  infallible,  but  they  are  better  than  any  less  democratic  form 
of  co-operative  organization  could  be.  They  are  schools  for  self-government 
and  mutual  self-help.  They  strive  for  justice  for  themselves  as  organized  bodies, 
and  as  individuals  among  themselves.  They  stand  by  the  industrious,  and  con- 
demn the  idle.  They  hate  dishonesty  and  intemperance,  and  put  their  seal  of 
condemnation  upon  whatever  is  injurious  to  their  handicrafts.  They  fight 
valiantly,  and  generally  wisely,  for  what  they  consider  their  rights,  and  in  this 
they  are  in  the  right. 

The  State  owes  the  workingmen  a  full  and  fair  hearing  and  owes  their  unions 
and  organizations  legal  recognition,  and  owes  it  to  them  that  when  it  enacts  a 
law  in  their  favor  it  accompanies  it  with  a  penalty  for  its  infringement,  as  it  has 
not  done  in  the  case  of  the  Eight  Hour  Law.  The  city  owes  them  a  full  voice 
in  its  covmcils,  a  just  and  fair  opportunity  for  employment  aside  from  all  par- 
tisan political  considerations,  clean  streets,  healthy  homes  and  well-enforced 
police,  fire  and  sanitary  laws.  They  in  their  turn  ov.'e  the  State  and  the  city 
a  faithful,  loyal  interest  in  all  questions  of  public  importance.  If  they  are  indif- 
ferent to  the  demand  upon  them  of  the  State  and  city,  if  they  vote  from  narrow 
personal  interest  and  prejudice,  or  worse  yet,  if  they  do  not  vote  at  all,  if  they 
follow  parties  or  "  organizations  "  blindly,  and  are  willing  to  be  represented  in 
the  Legislature  by  men  who,  as  is  too  frequently  the  case,  are  unfit  to  be  members 
of  their  unions,  they  have  only  themselves  to  blame,  for  they  are  the  majority. 

As  Mayor  of  the  City  of  New  York,  responding  to  the  toast  which  you  have 
allotted  to  me,  I  can  in  behalf  of  the  city,  which  I  believe  will  one  day  be  governed 
by  those  of  its  citizens  who  are  self-respecting  and  laborious  workingmen,  mer- 
chants and  manufacturers,  instead  of  professional  politicians,  say  that  I  shall 
always  do  all  that  lies  in  my  power  to  make  the  government  of  the  city  con- 
form to  the  ideas  of  the  self-supporting  citizen  instead  of  the  parasite  politician. 

Before  the  convention  adjourned  sine  die  on  June  5  th  its  Committee 
on  Thanks  reported  this  tribute  of  gratitude,  which  was  adopted 
unanimously  as  the  sentiment  of  the  assemblage : 

Your  committee  are  unable  to  find  suitable  words  by  which  they  can  fully 
express  their  thanks  to  the  officers  and  members  of  New  York  Union  No.  6  for 
the  princely  manner  in  which  the  members  of  this  body  have  been  entertained 
while  in  the  city,  and  shall  ever  look  back  upon  the  session  of  1885  as  a  period 
of  unalloyed  pleasure  and  a  season  of  much  enjoyment  and  general  good 
fellowship. 

The  general  association  of  printers  has  frequently  honored  Union 
No.  6  by  selecting  some  of  its  chief  officers  from  among  the  member- 


582  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

ship  of  the  New  York  organization,  having  chosen  the  following  for 
the  different  years  set  opposite  the  names  of  the  various  officials: 

Presidents — Charles  F.  Town,  1855;  Robert  McKechnie,  1868;  William  H. 
Bodwell,  1874;  Samuel  B.  Donnelly,  1899-1900. 

First  Vice-Presidents  —  Michael  R.  Walsh,  1871;  Joseph  F.  Rymer,  1886; 
James  McKenna,  1891. 

Second  Vice-Presidents  — F.  A.  Albaugh,  1853;  Charles  F.  Town,  1854;  Charles 
B.  Smith,  1864;  J.  E.  Davis,  Jr.,  1866. 

Secretaries  —  Franklin  J.  Ottarson,  1850;  H.  A.  Guild,  1851. 

Corresponding  Secretary  —  W.  A.  Baker,  1852. 

Recording  Secretaries  and  Treasurers  —  George  W.  Smith,  1858;  Thomas  J. 
Walsh,  1859-63;  Alexander  Troup,  1867;  William  White,  1878-9. 


CHAPTER    XXXVI. 
STATE  TYPOGRAPHICAL  UNION. 

A  STATE  Typographical  Union  was  formed  in  Syracuse  during 
the  first  week  in  October,  1891.  Union  No.  6  was  repre- 
sented by  three  delegates  in  that  body,  which  assailed  one  of 
the  Gubernatorial  candidates  in  that  year  for  the  adverse  stand  he 
had  taken  on  the  State  Printing  House  question.  The  New  York 
union  took  umbrage  at  that  political  action,  and  it  was  also  dis- 
pleased with  the  small  representation  that  the  State  body  had 
accorded  to  it.  These  two  reasons  prompted  it  to  pass  a  series  of 
resolves  on  October  10,  1891,  condemning  the  attitude  of  the  Syracuse 
convention  as  follows: 

At  the  convention  held  in  Syracuse  during  the  past  week  a  so-called  State 
branch  of  the  International  Typographical  Union  was  formed.  Such  organiza- 
tion is  in  no  way  provided  for  or  recognized  by  International  Typographical 
Union  laws. 

Such  organization  instituted  a  uniform  tax  or  assessment,  based  on  the  total 
membership  of  the  local  unions  connected  therewith,  but  refused  after  fair  warn- 
ing to  allot  to  New  York  Typographical  Union  No.  6  the  representation  which 
its  membership  called  for. 

Such  organization  plunged  into  politics  with  unseemly  haste. 

Therefore,  resolved, — 

That  New  York  Typographical  Union  No.  6  refuses  to  become  affiliated  with 
any  body  which  fails  to  allot  to  it  the  representation  to  which  it  is  entitled,  and 
therefore  formally  withdraws  from  such  branch  of  the  International  Typograph- 
ical Union. 

That  New  York  Typographical  Union  No.  6  has  not  delegated  to  any  person 
or  organization  the  right  to  speak  for  it  politically,  reserving  that  right  exclu- 
sively to  itself  and  its  individual  members. 

Each  year  thereafter  when  the  union  received  an  invitation  to 
rejoin  the  State  association  of  printers  it  refused  to  be  represented, 
on    May    6,    1894,    embodying    in   its   declination 
motion  this  brief  explanation  for  its  course:     "  We    state  Allied 
do  not  deem  it  judicious  to  send  delegates."     Kow-    Printing  Trades 
ever,  in  1897  a  condition  arose  that  brought  about    Council  Formed, 
a  change  in  its  viewpoint.     A  printing  plant  had 
been  established  in  Sing  Sing  Prison  to  do  some  of  the  State  work. 
This  fact  was  reported  to  Albany  Typographical  Union  No.  4,  which 

1 583] 


584  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

constituted  Thomas  D.  Fitzgerald,  Francis  Freckelton  and  Thomas 
F.  McHale  a  committee  to  devise  some  way  of  stopping  it.  After 
careful  deliberation  these  men  decided  to  call  a  conference  of  repre- 
sentatives of  the  printing  trades  of  the  State.  Union  No.  6  desig- 
nated Samuel  B.  Donnelly  and  Edward  F.  Farrell  to  represent  it 
at  the  meeting,  which  was  held  in  Albany  in  the  afternoon  of  Wednes- 
day, June  16,  1897,  38  delegates  from  various  branches  of  the  print- 
ing industry  in  all  sections  of  the  State  making  up  the  roll.  John 
E.  McLoughlin,  organizer  of  the  International  Typographical  Union, 
was  made  chairman  and  Thomas  D.  Fitzgerald  secretary.  The 
matter  of  penal  labor  was  referred  to  a  committee  of  seven,  who 
reported  the  next  day,  recommending  that  the  introduction  of  prison 
printing  be  fought  energetically  and  that  the  delegates  form  a  State 
Allied  Printing  Trades  Council  that  they  might  be  always  ready 
to  take  up  matters  affecting  the  trade.  Organization  was  then  per- 
fected by  the  adoption  of  a  constitution  and  the  election  of  the  fol- 
lowing officers:  President,  Thomas  D.  Fitzgerald,  printer,  Albany; 
first  vice-president,  James  J.  Ryan,  photo-engraver,  New  York; 
second  vice-president,  E.  E.  Russell,  bookbinder,  Buffalo;  third  vice- 
president,  Alfred  J.  Boulton,  stereotyper,  Brooklyn;  fourth  vice- 
president,  M.  Leibman,  pressman,  Syracuse;  secretary-treasurer, 
Thomas  H.  Wheaton,  printer,  Syracuse.  Its  objects,  as  stated  in 
the  constitution,  are  to  improve  and  strengthen  the  unions  of  all 
branches  of  the  craft  in  New  York  State,  to  form  organizations  in 
towns  where  none  exist,  to  demand  the  use  of  the  union  label  on  all 
the  printing  done  in  the  State,  particularly  on  school  text-books, 
to  protect  the  interests  of  the  printing  trades  in  the  Legislature, 
and  by  the  methodical  agitation  of  union  principles  further  the  in- 
terests of  organized  labor.  The  State  Typographical  Union  was 
therefore  superseded  by  this  alliance  of  trades,  in  the  conventions 
of  which  the  New  York  union  of  printers  has  been  represented 
annually  from  the  outset. 


CHAPTER    XXXVII. 

AFFILIATION  WITH  THE  GENERAL  LABOR  MOVEMENT. 

rPOGRAPHICAL  Union  No.  6  has  interested  itself  on  nu- 
merous occasions  in  the  general  labor  movement  —  in  the 
nation,  in  the  State  and  in  the  municipality.  The  first 
Congress  of  the  National  Labor  Union  was  organized  in  Baltimore, 
Md.,  on  August  20,  1866,  and  that  association  continued  to  assemble 
in  annual  conventions  until  1872,  in  which  year  it 
met  in  Columbus,  Ohio.  "  There  it  was  decided  National 
to  nominate  a  ticket  for  President  of  the  United  Labor 
States,"  observed  in  1905  a  writer  on  the  American  Union. 
labor  movement,  "and  David  Davis,  of  Illinois,  was 
chosen  as  the  standard  bearer.  This  drifting  into  political  action 
provoked  so  much  dissension  that  one  local  organization  after  an- 
other —  believing  that  the  National  Labor  Union  had  entered  a 
field  of  operations  for  which  it  was  not  intended  —  withdrew  its 
support,  and  interest  was  lost  in  the  central  body."  ^  Local  unions 
were  allowed  representation  in  that  council  of  workingmen,  which 
also  embraced  national  and  international  trade  associations,  as  well 
as  State  and  city  central  organizations  of  labor.  Union  No.  6  was 
not  represented  at  the  first  two  gatherings  of  the  National  Labor 
Union,  but  in  1868  it  sent  as  its  delegate  to  the  second  session  ^ 
(which  began  in  New  York  City  on  September  21st)  John  Vincent, 
who  was  elected  recording  secretary  by  the  convention.  Three  other 
members  of  "  Big  Six  "  sat  in  the  same  assembly.  They  were 
Robert  McKechnie  and  Alexander  Troup,  who  as  president  and 
secretary-treasurer,  respectively,  of  the  National  Typographical 
Union  were  assigned  by  that  association  to  take  part  in  the  proceed- 
ings, and  Nelson  W.  Young,  who  represented  the  New  York  Journey- 
men Printers'  Co-operative  Association.  Among  the  matters  dis- 
cussed and  inserted  in  the  convention's  platform  that  year  were 


'p.  J.  McGuire,  "History  and  Aims  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,"  page  38. 

^  The  first  session  of  the  National  Labor  Union  convened  in  May,  1868,  in  Pittsburgh,  Pa., 
where  the  principal  transaction  was  the  completion  of  an  alliance  with  the  Patrons  of  Husbandry 
and  the  Grangers. 

[5.^5] 


586  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

the  legalization  of  the  eight-hour  working  day,  abolition  of  contract 
labor  in  prisons  and  penitentiaries,  creation  of  a  Federal  Depart- 
ment of  Labor,  a  uniform  apprenticeship  law,  better  protection  for 
women  wage-earners,  prevention  of  accidents  to  workmen  on  build- 
ings, in  mines  and  in  the  mechanical  trades,  and  the  establishment 
of  mechanics'  institutes  and  reading-rooms.  In  1869  the  National 
Labor  Union  met  in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  and  in  that  conclave  Michael 
R.  Walsh  was  the  representative  of  the  New  York  union  of  com- 
positors. 

Chief  among  the  causes  that  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Working- 
men's  Assembly  of  the  State  of  New  York  was  an  attempt  in  1864 
to  make  the  Conspiracy  Law  more  drastic.  Up  to 
New  York  State  that  time  the  act  on  the  subject  provided  that  "  if 
Workingmen's  two  or  more  persons  shall  conspire  *  *  *  to 
Conventions.  commit  any  act  injurious  to  *  *  *  trade  or 
commerce  *  *  *  they  shall  be  deemed  gmlty 
of  a  misdemeanor."  In  the  New  York  Senate  on  March  7,  1864, 
Hon.  Frederick  H.  Hastings,  of  the  Twelfth  District,  comprising  the 
Counties  of  Rensselaer  and  Washington,  introduced  an  amendment 
to  the  conspiracy  provision  of  the  statute,  which  was  termed  "  Sec- 
tion 8,  Title  6,  Chapter  i  of  Part  4  of  the  Revised  Statutes,  in  relation 
to  conspiracies  and  misdemeanors."  This  amendatory  bill  made  it 
unlawful  for  any  person,  either  by  himself  or  in  combination  with 
others,  by  force,  menace  or  threat  of  personal  or  pecuniary  injury, 
to  prevent  or  deter  any  one  from  engaging  or  continuing  in  any  labor 
or  service  in  a  lawfiil  undertaking  or  employment  for  such  considera- 
tions and  upon  such  terms  as  said  person  may  be  willing  to  render 
such  labor  or  service;  an  offender,  upon  conviction,  to  be  deemed 
guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  punishable  by  imprisonment  in  a  county 
jail  not  exceeding  one  year  or  by  a  fine  of  not  more  than  $250,  or 
both.  The  bill  was  referred  to  the  Judiciary  Committee,  the  chair- 
man of  which  was  Hon.  Charles  J.  Folger,  of  the  Twenty-sixth 
Senatorial  district,  embracing  Ontario,  Yates  and  Seneca  Counties. 
Senator  Folger  on  March  24th,  from  a  majority  of  the  committee, 
reported  the  following  substitute  for  Senator  Hastings'  measure, 
changing  its  title  to  read,  "An  act  to  punish  unlawful  interference 
with  employers  and  employees,"  it  then  becoming  commonly  known 
as  "  Folger's  Anti-Trades  Union  Strike  Bill:" 

If  any  person  shall,  by  violence  to  the  person  or  property  of,  or  by  threats  or 
intimidation,  or  by  molesting,  or  in  any  way  obstructing  another,  force  or  en- 
deavor to  force  any  journeyman,  manufacturer,  workman,  or  other  person  hired 
or  employed  in  any  manufacture,  trade  or  business,  to  depart  from  his  hiring, 


AFFILIATION    WITH    THE    GENERAL    LABOR    MOVEMENT.  587 

employment,  or  work,  or  to  return  his  work  before  the  same  shall  be  finished, 
or  prevent  or  endeavor  to  prevent  any  journeyman  or  other  person  not  being 
hired  or  employed  from  hiring  himself  to  or  from  accepting  work  or  employment 
from  any  person  or  persons;  or  if  any  person  shall  use  violence  to  the  person  or 
property  of  another,  or  threats  of  intimidation,  or  shall  molest  or  in  any  way 
obstruct  another  for  the  purpose  of  forcing  or  inducing  such  person  to  belong 
to  any  club  or  association,  or  to  contribute  to  any  common  fund,  or  to  pay  any 
fine  or  penalty,  or  on  account  of  his  not  belonging  to  any  particular  club,  or  not 
having  contributed,  or  having  refused  to  contribute  to  any  common  fund,  or 
to  pay  any  fine  or  penalty,  or  on  account  of  his  not  having  complied  with  any 
rules,  order,  etc.,  made  to  obtain  an  advance,  or  to  reduce  the  rate  of  wages, 
or  to  lessen  or  alter  the  quantity  of  work,  or  to  regulate  the  mode  of  carrying 
on  any  manufacture,  trade  or  business,  or  the  management  thereof;  or  if  any 
person  shall  do  violence  to  the  person  or  property  of  another,  or  by  threats  or 
intimidation,  or  by  molesting,  or  in  any  way  obstructing  another,  force  or  endeavor 
to  force  any  manufacturer  or  person  carrying  on  any  trade  or  business  to  make 
any  alteration  in  his  mode  of  regulating  or  conducting  the  same,  or  to  limit  the 
number  of  his  journeymen,  workmen  or  servants,  he  shall  on  conviction  be  deemed 
guilty  of  a  misdemeanor,  and  punished  according  to  law. 

This  act  shall  not  extend  to  or  subject  any  persons  to  punishment  who  shall 
meet  together  for  the  sole  purpose  of  consulting  upon  and  determining  the  rate 
of  wages  or  prices  which  the  persons  present  at  such  meeting  or  any  of  them 
shall  demand  for  his  or  their  work,  or  the  hours  or  time  for  which  either  he  or 
they  shall  work;  or  who  shall  enter  into  any  agreement  among  themselves  for 
such  purpose.  And  persons  so  meeting  for  the  purpose  aforesaid,  or  entering 
into  such  agreement,  shall  not  be  liable  to  any  prosecution  or  penalty  for  so  doing, 
any  law  or  statute  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

This  act  shall  not  extend  to  or  subject  any  persons  to  punishment  who  shall 
meet  together  for  the  sole  purpose  of  consulting  and  determining  the  rate  of 
wages  or  prices  which  the  persons  present  at  such  meeting,  or  any  of  them,  shall 
pay  to  his  or  their  journeymen,  workmen  or  servants  for  their  work,  or  the  hours 
or  time  of  working;  or  who  shall  enter  into  any  agreement  among  themselves  for 
the  purpose  of  fixing  the  rate  of  wages  or  prices,  or  the  hours  or  time  of  working 
in  any  manufacture,  trade  or  business,  and  that  persons  so  meeting  for  the  pur- 
poses aforesaid,  or  entering  into  any  agreement  as  aforesaid,  shall  not  be  liable 
to  any  prosecution  or  penalty  for  so  doing,  any  law  or  statute  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding. 

This  substitute  measure  aroused  the  indignation  of  the  organized 
workers  in  the  State,  who  claimed  that  if  enacted  into  law  it  would 
deprive  them  of  the  right  to  combine  for  the  betterment  of  their 
economic  condition.  Typographical  Union  No.  6  was  the  first  of 
the  New  York  City  labor  organizations  to  pass  resolutions  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  bill,  and  protests  were  sent  to  the  Senate  by  working- 
men  from  different  parts  of  the  State. 

Sixty  trade  unions  organized  an  immense  gathering  in  Tompkins 
Square,  New  York  City,  in  the  afternoon  of  Thursday,  April  i, 
1864,  it  being  estimated  that  between  10,000  and  15,000  working- 


588  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

men  were  present,  and  this  assemblage  entered  an  earnest  and 
emphatic  protest  against  the  passage  of  the  bill.  William  Harding, 
of  the  Coach  Painters'  Association,  was  chairman  of  the  meeting, 
and  in  explaining  its  objects  he  declared:  "  It  is  said  that  we  com- 
bine as  against  Capital.  I  deny  it.  Labor  marches  side  by  side  with 
Capital.  We  support  Capital  and  Capital  should  support  us.  Will 
you  leave  this  country  to  those  who  come  after  us  a  model  republic 
or  a  despotism  ?  If  you  allow  such  a  bill  to  pass  as  the  one  in  question 
you  will  leave  nothing  but  a  despotism  to  future  generations.  I  say 
the  Legislature  has  no  right  to  make  the  workingmen  lose  the  time 
they  have  lost  to-day  to  protest  against  a  bill  of  this  description." 
Several  speakers  addressed  the  meeting,  diiring  the  progress  of  which 
a  large  number  of  signatures  were  obtained  to  a  remonstrance  to 
the  Senate  from  "  citizens  of  New  York,  workingmen  and  mechan- 
ics," who  respectfully  protested  "  against  the  passage  of  the  bill 
now  before  your  honorable  body  concerning  strikes,  and  petition 
that  the  said  bill  do  not  pass,  believing  it  to  be  an  infringement  upon 
our  rights  and  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  free  institutions."  Reasons 
for  this  attitude  of  the  organized  mechanics  were  embodied  in  a  set 
of  resolutions,  unanimously  adopted  by  the  meeting,  which  declared 
that  the  protest  was  made  on  these  grounds: 

1.  We  protest  against  the  enactment  of  the  law  because,  while  its  originators 
have  buried  its  sting  in  the  sweetness  of  the  material  in  which  they  have  dipped 
it,  yet  we  nevertheless  detect  in  the  redolence  of  its  surroundings  the  fumes  of  a 
lethargic  and  dangerous  poison. 

2.  We  protest  for  the  reason  that  the  institution  of  such  an  edict  is  calculated 
and  meant  to  produce  endless  litigation,  and  because  its  contrivance  is  so  arranged 
as  to  harass  and  involve  the  laboring  men  in  expenses  which  they  can  but  poorly 
afford. 

3.  We  object  to  the  passage  of  the  law  because  we  deny  that  any  portion  of 
the  people  have  delegated  to  their  representatives  the  right  to  meddle  with  the 
affairs  of  individuals  for  the  purposes  of  trade. 

4.  We  question  the  right  of  interposition  for  or  against  the  valuation  of  the 
product  or  labor  in  our  possession  —  and  we  further  contend  that  our  Govern- 
ment best  subserves  the  purposes  for  which  it  was  created  when  it  abstains  from 
interfering  for  or  against  the  interests  of  those  whom  by  its  conditions  it  recog- 
nizes as  equals. 

5.  We  protest  against  the  adoption  of  said  law  because  it  is  admitted  to  be 
copied  from  a  code  of  English  enactments.  We  object  to  it,  as  the  aim  of  said 
enactment  provides  for  the  regulation  of  servants  in  the  employ  of  their  masters. 
We  further  demand  that  it  shall  not  become  one  of  our  laws,  for  the  simple  and 
paramount  reason  that  it  is  not  suited  to  the  range  of  our  republican  atmosphere. 
We  contend  that  as  in  its  construction  it  was  intended  to  represent  the  operation 
of  a  government  which  is  founded  upon  the  privilege  of  classes  let  it  remain  with 
a  people  whose  three  functions  of  government  —  namely,  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, House  of  Lords  and  royalty  —  act  as  three  separate  manifestations  of 
one  power,  that  of  aristocracy. 


AFFILIATION    WITH   THE    GENERAL    LABOR    MOVEMENT.  589 

Some  of  those  who  addressed  the  assemblage  severely  criticized 
Senator  Hastings  and  were  particularly  bitter  in  their  denunication 
of  Senator  Folger  for  reporting  the  stringent  substitute  for  the 
former's  bill.  One  speaker  averred  that  it  was  the  intention  of 
the  Republican  party  to  make  Mr.  Folger  its  candidate  for  Governor, 
and  he  called  upon  the  men  present  to  further  register  their  dis- 
approval by  voting  against  him  at  the  Gubernatorial  election  of 
1864  in  the  event  of  his  nomination.^  It  was  declared  by  those 
who  knew  Senator  Folger  that  the  attack  upon  him  was  unjust,  that 
the  substitute  for  Senator  Hastings'  measure  was  reported  by  him 
as  chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Committee,  according  to  usage,  in 
pursuance  of  the  decision  of  that  committee,  without  his  being  in 
any  way  committed  to  support  it  when  it  came  up  in  the  Senate. 
The  opposition  to  the  measure  was  so  vigorous  and  wide-reaching 
that  Senator  Hastings  on  April  nth,  by  unanimous  consent,  moved 
that  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  be  discharged  from  the  further 
consideration  of  the  bill  and  that  it  be  recommitted  to  the  Judiciary 
Committee  for  another  hearing.  That  motion  prevailed,  but  the 
draft  of  the  proposed  legislation  was  not  again  reported  to  the  Senate. 

It  was  at  the  Tompkins  Square  mass  meeting  that  Robert  Crowe, 
of  the  Journeymen  Tailors'  Protective  and  Benevolent  Union, 
advocated  the  formation  of  a  General  Trades  Union  to  protect  the 
interests  of  workingmen.  Then  ensued  a  systematic  effort  to  or- 
ganize a  State  central  body,  which  began  its  existence  on  February 
26,  1865,  in  Albany,  as  the  Workingmen's  Assembly  of  the  State 
of  New  York.  The  first  president  of  that  central  association  was 
Henry  Rockerfeller,  a  member  of  Troy  Typographical  Union  No. 
52,  and  its  recording  secretary  was  James  Conway,  of  Albany  Coach 
Makers'  Union  No.  4.  "  The  workingmen  of  the  State  of  New  York 
have  long  been  convinced  of  the  necessity  of  harmonious  and  co- 
operative action  to  secure  their  mutual  interests  —  just  compensa- 
tion for  toil  and  limiting  the  hours  of  labor  to  afford  opportunity 
for  mental  culture  and  healthful  recreation,"  read  the  preamble 
to  the  original  constitution,*  "  and,  believing  that  the  causes  which 

'  Charles  J.  Folger,  however,  was  not  the  nominee  of  the  Republican  party  for  Governor  in  1864, 
Reuben  E.  Fenton  being  the  choice  of  the  convention  that  year,  and  he  was  elected.  Mr.  Folger 
served  in  the  State  Senate  from  1861  to  1869,  and  diuing  that  whole  period  he  was  chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  the  Judiciary.  On  May  17,  1870,  he  was  chosen  Associate  Judge  of  the  Court 
of  Appeals,  of  which  tribunal  he  was  elected  Chief  Judge  on  November  2,  1880.  He  resigned  in 
1 88 1  to  accept  the  Treasury  portfolio  under  President  Chester  A.  Arthur.  The  New  York  State 
Republican  convention  in  September,  1882,  nominated  him  for  Governor,  but  through  a  defection 
in  his  party  he  was  defeated  by  Grover  Cleveland,  whose  plurality  was  192,854. 

*  Before  the  adjournment  of  its  second  session  on  September  27,  1865,  the  convention  appointed 
a  committee  to  draft  a  constitution  and  by-laws,  the  report  on  which  was  made  at  the  second  annual 
convention  in  Albany  on  February  6,  1866,  and  adopted. 


590  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

have  operated  so  injuriously  to  their  welfare  may  invariably  be  traced 
to  the  absence  of  proper  organization  in  the  different  branches  of 
industry,  therefore,  to  combine  their  energies  for  the  purpose  of 
self-protection  —  a  right  inherent  in  all  classes  where  concentration 
of  action  or  power  may  be  necessary  —  we,  the  representatives  of 
the  workingmen  of  the  State  of  New  York,  in  convention  assembled, 
do  hereby  enact  and  adopt  the  following,"  etc.  The  objects  of  the 
association  were  "  to  agitate  such  questions  as  may  be  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  working  classes  in  order  that  we  may  obtain  the  enactment 
of  such  measures  by  the  State  Legislature  as  will  be  beneficial  to  us, 
and  the  repeal  of  all  oppressive  laws  which  now  exist;  to  use  all 
means  consistent  with  honor  and  integrity  to  so  correct  the  abuses 
under  which  the  working  classes  are  laboring  as  to  insure  to  them 
their  just  rights  and  privileges;  to  use  our  utmost  endeavors  to  im- 
press upon  the  various  divisions  of  workingmen  the  necessity  of  a 
close  and  thorough  organization,  and  of  forming  themselves  into 
local  unions  wherever  practicable." 

Another  session  of  the  Assembly  was  held  on  September  26  and 
27,  1865.  The  Eight-Hour- Day  Committee  made  a  lengthy  report, 
consisting  of  six  "  whereases  "  and  seven  "  resolves."  It  pointed 
out  that  the  shorter  working  day  was  no  longer  an  experiment,  but 
had  been  proven  to  be  successful;  that  it  was  necessary  in  order 
to  give  workingmen  the  benefit  of  institutes,  parks  and  places  of 
amusement,  and  that  there  was  no  reason  why  workingmen  should 
labor  more  than  six  or  seven  hours  per  day  when  merchants  and 
bankers  did  not.  The  resolutions  contended  that  the  interests  of 
Labor  and  Capital  were  identical;  that  "  Labor  is  the  peer,  if  not 
the  superior  of  Capital,  in  creating  wealth;  that  it  is  the  undeniable 
right  of  the  workers  to  declare  and  fix  how  many  hours  they  shall 
labor  and  upon  what  terms,"  and  that  the  question  should  be  agitated 
in  all  possible  ways,  by  newspapers,  by  mass  meetings,  "  and  when 
we  consider  it  fully  understood  we  will  demand  the  seal  of  a  legis- 
lative enactment  making  eight  hours  a  legal  day's  work." 

An  amendment  to  the  Conspiracy  Law  was  urged  at  each  yearly 
session  thereafter,  and  on  February  17,  1870,  the  statute  was  changed 
by  the  law-making  powers  so  as  to  provide  that  it  "  shall  not  be  con- 
strued in  any  court  of  this  State  to  restrict  or  prohibit  the  orderly 
and  peaceable  assembling  or  co-operation  of  persons  employed  in 
any  profession,  trade  or  handicraft,  for  the  purpose  of  securing  an 
advance  in  the  rate  of  wages  or  compensation,  or  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  such  rate."  Other  legislation  that  was  sought  in  those 
early  years  of  the  Workingmen's  Assembly  was  aimed  against  the 


AFFILIATION    WITH   THE    GENERAL    LABOR   MOVEMENT.  59 1 

employment  in  factories  of  children  under  14  years  of  age, 
abolition  of  contract  work  in  prisons,  for  the  protection  of  life  and 
limb,  for  a  thorough  examination  of  steam  engineers,  for  the  regu- 
lation of  apprentices,  and  for  the  establishment  of  a  Bureau  of  Labor 
Statistics.  The  first  mention  of  the  latter  measure  was  made  by 
President  William  J.  Jessup,  who  in  his  annual  address  on  January 
24,  187 1,  recommended: 

By  resolution  of  the  Massachusetts  Legislature  a  State  Bureau  of  Labor 
Statistics  has  been  created.  I  have  been  favored  with  a  copy  of  the  bureau's 
report  from  August  2,  1869,  to  March  i,  1870,  making  a  volume  of  423  pages, 
every  one  of  which  is  filled  with  matter  of  interest,  and  will  do  much  to  awake 
public  attention  to  the  necessities  of  the  working  classes,  and  create  a  favorable 
opinion  of  the  reforms  advocated.  I  would  recommend  you  to  move  in  the  matter 
of  having  the  New  York  Legislature  establish  a  like  bureau  under  State  patronage, 
while  at  the  same  time  this  Assembly  could  gather  statistics  relating  to  trades 
unions,  and  thus  could  we  arrive  at  the  true  conditions  of  the  working  classes 
of  our  State. 

Nelson  W.  Young,  who  was  a  member  of  Typographical  Union  No. 
6,^  but  represented  the  Journeymen  Printers'  Co-operative  Associa- 
tion of  New  York  in  the  convention  of  that  year,  was  chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  President's  Address,  and  on  behalf  of  the  latter 
submitted  this  report,  which  was  adopted  unanimously: 

The  president  recommends  that  we  call  upon  the  Legislature  of  this  State 
to  establish  a  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  similar  to  that  now  in  operation  in  Massa- 
chusetts, and  furthermore  that  the  resolution  of  the  last  session  be  continued  in 
force,  instructing  the  president  to  collect  statistics  from  our  labor  unions,  pro- 
vided sufficient  means  can  be  obtained  for  that  purpose.  We  recommend  that 
the  suggestion  of  the  president  be  concurred  in.* 

Through  its  representatives  Union  No.  6  continued  to  take  part 
in  the  annual  deliberations  of  the  Workingmen's  Assembly,  and  when 
the  New  York  State  Branch  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor 
was  formed  it  also  sent  delegates  to  that  body,  for  several  years  being 
represented  at  the  conventions  of  both  associations.  On  January 
2,  1898,  No.  6  received  a  communication  signed  by  Daniel  Harris, 
president  of  the  State  Federation,  and  William  J.  O'Brien,  president 
of  the  Workingmen's  Assembly,  calling  attention  to  the  fact  that  in 
accordance  with  resolutions  adopted  by  both  bodies  in  Albany  in 
January,  1897,  it  was  decided  to  call  a  joint  convention  to  meet  in 


5  Michael  R.  Walsh  was  the  accredited  representative  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  in  the  1871 
convention  of  the  State  Workingmen's  Assembly. 

5  For  twelve  years  thereafter  the  organized  workers  in  the  State  persistently  petitioned  the 
Legislature  to  create  a  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  and  on  May  4,  1883.  the  law  that  established 
the  present  bureau  was  enacted  by  unanimous  voice. 


592  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

the  Capital  City  on  January  ii,  1898,  "  in  order  that  Labor  should 
act  conjointly  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  welfare  of  its  organi- 
zations, and  in  order  to  present  a  solid  phalanx  of  Labor  to  secure 
legislation  favorable  to  its  interests."  The  printers'  association  was 
asked  to  send  delegates  to  that  meeting,  which  request  was  granted, 
and  the  outcome  of  the  convention  was  the  amalgamation  of  the 
two  bodies  imder  the  title  of  the  Workingmen's  Federation  of  the 
State  of  New  York.  Its  name  was  subsequently  changed  to  the 
New  York  State  Federation  of  Labor. 

The  initial  municipal  central  association  in  which  the  New  York 

Printers'  Union  was  represented  was  the  Industrial  Congress,  the 

original  delegates  of  the  organization  of  journeymen 

City  Central        typographers  being  Horace  Greeley  and  Henry  J. 

Labor  Crate,  and  the  latter  was  the  first  recording  and 

Organizations,  financial  secretary  of  that  general  combination  of 
New  York  City  workingmen.  It  was  instituted  on 
Wednesday,  June  5,  1850,  by  83  delegates  from  50  organizations, 
and  K.  Arthur  Bailey,  of  a  society  of  workers  called  the  "  Church 
of  Humanity,"  was  elected  president.  The  preamble  to  the  consti- 
tution set  forth  its  aims  and  objects  in  these  words:  "  The  delegates 
appointed  by  the  several  organizations  of  mechanics  and  laborers 
of  the  City  of  New  York  for  the  purpose  of  forming  a  central  industrial 
council,  being  deeply  sensible  of  the  privations  and  sufferings  im- 
posed on  the  laboring  classes  by  the  hostility  of  the  relations  which 
now  exist  between  Capital  and  Labor,  and  of  the  constant  tendency 
of  these  relations  to  increase  the  evils  complained  of,  do  hereby  form 
ourselves  into  a  permanent  organization  for  the  purpose  of  devising 
means  to  reconcile  the  interests  of  Capital  and  Labor  —  to  secure 
to  the  laborer  the  full  product  of  his  toil  —  to  promote  union,  harmony 
and  brotherly  feeling  among  all  the  workmen,  of  whatever  occu- 
pation —  and  to  use  all  available  means  to  promote  their  moral,  intel- 
lectual and  social  elevation."  Many  reforms  were  advocated  by 
the  Congress,  but  the  enthusiasm  that  prevailed  in  the  early  days 
of  its  existence  gradually  waned  and  in  a  few  years  its  energies 
lapsed. 

At  times  there  were  dual  central  labor  bodies  in  the  Metropolis, 
but  in  recent  years  the  tendency  has  been  toward  centralization 
into  a  single  combine.  In  1864  the  association  was  known  as  the 
Workingmen's  Union,  which  continued  its  activities  until  some  time 
in  the  seventies,  and  No.  6  was  usually  represented  in  it  by  three  of 
its  members;  but  on  September  3, 1872,  a  new  constitution  that  was 
adopted  by  the  central  organization  gave  offense  to  the  printers  and 


AFFILIATION   WITH   THE   GENERAL   LABOR   MOVEMENT.  593 

they  withdrew  their  delegation.  The  provisions  of  the  fundamental 
law  to  which  there  was  most  objection  were  embodied  in  Sections 
3  and  4,  which  were  as  follows: 

Section  3.  All  trades  represented  in  the  Workingmen's  Union  when  desirous 
of  making  a  demand  for  either  an  advance  in  wages  or  the  abridgment  of  the 
hours  of  labor,  shall,  through  their  delegates,  report  the  same  to  this  body  and 
prior  to  the  demand  made,  when,  if  concurred  in  by  three-fourths  of  the  trades 
present,  and  a  strike  ensue  in  consequence  of  such  demand,  an  assessment  or  tax  of 
25  cents  per  man  shall  be  levied  upon  all  societies  represented  in  this  body  and 
upon  all  delegates;  said  assessment  to  be  collected  and  paid  into  the  hands  of  the 
trustees  of  this  union,  to  be  by  them  paid  into  the  hands  of  those  duly  instructed 
to  receive  it,  and  to  be  used  for  the  aid  of  the  trade  on  strike. 

Section  4.  No  money  shall  be  paid  to  any  trade  on  strike  until  such  trade 
shall  have  been  on  strike  two  weeks.  The  collection  and  payment  of  all  assess- 
ments for  strike  purposes  shall  be  discontinued  by  a  majority  vote  of  this  body 
when  they  deem  the  object  accomplished  which  called  it  forth;  or  when  it  is 
deemed  injurious  to  continue  the  same. 

But  on  April  i,  1873,  No.  6  ordered  the  return  of  its  delegates  to 
the  Workingmen's  Union,  upon  the  soHcitation  of  a  committee  from 
that  body,  the  condition,  however,  being  "  that  the  delegates  give 
notice  on  presenting  their  credentials  that  if  any  attempt  is  made 
to  impose  a  tax  on  the  members  of  this  union  the  delegates  will 
immediately  withdraw."  That  central  association  appears  to  have 
succumbed  to  the  panic  of  the  seventies,  and  on  June  5,  1877, 
a  committee  headed  by  Adolph  Strasser,  of  the  Cigar  Makers'  Union, 
invited  No.  6  to  send  two  delegates  to  the  newly-organized  Central 
Labor  Union.  The  printers  waited  until  September  4th  in  the  same 
year  before  they  acted  upon  the  proposition,  then  resolving  "  that 
a  committee  of  five  be  appointed  to  confer  with  the  officers  of  all 
other  labor  unions  in  New  York  and  Kings  Counties  to  devise  means 
to  amalgamate  them  all  into  one  body  for  the  purpose  of  getting  fair 
compensation  for  labor  and  stopping  the  pauperization  of  the  skilled 
mechanics  of  the  United  States."  Then  on  March  5,  1878,  a  delega- 
tion from  the  Amalgamated  Trades  and  Labor  Union,  a  new  venture, 
addressed  the  compositors'  organization,  "  urging  it  to  send  dele- 
gates to  the  Labor  Union  next  Friday  evening."  Three  representa- 
tives, who  had  been  instructed  to  go  to  the  meetings  of  that  body, 
presented  a  report  on  May  7th  without  recommendation,  accom- 
panied by  a  copy  of  the  constitution  and  a  list  of  the  unions  com- 
prising the  central  association.  The  union  thereupon  voted  to 
become  affiliated  with  the  Amalgamated  and  ordered  the  president 
to  appoint  five  members  to  attend  its  sessions.  The  delegation  was 
withdrawn  on  January  2,  1881,  but  on  June  4,  1882,  it  was  decided 


594  NliW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

to  be  represented  in  both  the  Central  Labor  Union  and  the  Amalga- 
mated Trades  and  Labor  Union.  Subsequently  the  latter  surren- 
dered the  field  to  the  Central  Labor  Union,  which  in  the  nineties 
again  had  a  rival  in  the  Central  Labor  Federation.  In  March,  1899, 
however,  those  two  bodies  consolidated  under  the  title  of  the  Central 
Federated  Union,  and  since  then  Typographical  Union  No.  6  has 
been  constant  in  its  affiliation  with  that  Manhattan  Borough  general 
organization  of  trade  unions.  The  conipositors'  association  is  also 
represented  in  the  Brooklyn  Borough  Central  Labor  Union  and  the 
Richmond  Borough  Central  Federated  Union. 


CHAPTER  XXXVni. 

PUBLIC  PRINTING. 

ALBEIT  Edgar  H.  Rogers,  one  of  the  representatives  of  Union 
No.  6  at  the  1850  convention  of  journeymen  printers,  opposed 
a  resolution  favoring  the  abolition  of  the  contract  system 
as  appHed  to  public  printing,  the  New  York  organization  3  5  years 
later  set  itself  against  that  method  and  advocated 

the  establishment  of  a  State  Printing  Office.     The    ^  .  J^, 

'^  Deprecated  by 

resolution  objected  to  by  Mr.  Rogers,  but  passed    jggo  convention, 
by  the  convention,  read  thus: 

The  system  so  universally  adopted  by  the  Legislatures  of  the  several  States, 
and  by  the  Congress  of  the  nation,  of  giving  out  the  printing  for  their  several 
bodies  by  contract  to  the  lowest  bidder,  is  repugnant  to  the  spirit  of  republican 
institutions,  inasmuch  as  its  effect  is  to  degrade  labor  below  the  standard  of 
its  merit,  by  throwing  it  into  market  for  the  competition  of  men  not  practical 
printers,  who  have  neither  the  character  nor  the  interests  of  the  trade  at  heart  — 
as  the  style  of  the  public  printing  generally  evinces  —  being  in  its  mechanical 
execution  disgraceful  not  alone  to  the  trade,  but  to  the  nation;  and  it  is  our  duty 
not  only  as  printers,  but  as  workingmen,  to  respectfully  protest  against  such  a 
system.  That  this  convention  recommend  to  the  trade  at  large  to  respectfully 
protest,  in  a  formal  manner,  against  the  contract  system  in  every  branch  of  public 
work;  and  that  the  Executive  Committee  to  be  appointed  by  this  convention  be 
requested  to  urge  upon  the  various  unions  some  general  action  upon  this  subject. 

Mr.  Rogers  declared  that  "  under  the  contract  system  the  people 
have  been  robbed,  but  they  have  been  robbed  also  under  the  other 
system."     He  stated  that  he  favored  the  contract 
system,  "  which  is  as  favorable  to  practical  printers    Opposition  to  a 
as  to  anybody  else.     Let  them  get  up  a  joint  stock    Public  Printery 
company  and  make  their  bids,  and  they  will  be    "^  "Washington, 
more  favored  than  any  other  bidders."     As  pre- 
viously noted  in  these  pages  the  convention  ordered  that  the  sub- 
ject of  the  formation  of  a  copartnership  of  union  printers  to  do  the 
printing  of  the  United  States  Government  be  submitted  to  the  dif- 
ferent unions  to  ascertain  whether  sufficient  funds  could  be  raised 
to  amply  finance  such  project.     The  convention  also  declared  against 
Government  ownership  of  a  plant  to  do  the  public  printing  in  Wash- 

I595] 


596  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

ington.'  In  185 1  the  matter  again  received  attention  at  the  Balti- 
more convention.  Mr.  Rogers  presented  a  paper  on  the  subject, 
soliciting  a  contract  from  Congress  for  two  years  on  these  terms: 

First  —  We  will  do  the  work  for  the  regular  wages,  by  piecework,  of  journey- 
men printers  in  the  City  of  Washington,  with  the  addition  of  25  per  cent  for 
supervision,  proofreading,  wear  of  materials,  etc. 

Second  —  We  will  purchase  the  paper,  ink  and  other  stock  which  may  be  neces- 
sary for  the  execution  of  the  work,  at  the  lowest  cash  prices,  sending  the  bills 
directly  to  the  proper  officers  of  Congress  for  audit  and  payment,  charging  5 
per  cent  on  the  amount  thereof  for  the  labor  of  examining  samples,  selecting 
and  buying. 

Third  —  We  will  employ  on  the  public  work  none  but  fair  and  regular  journey- 
men and  will  at  all  times  pay  them  the  full  and  regular  prices  of  the  trade  for 
their  labor. 

Fourth  —  We  will  send  in  our  bills  at  the  close  of  each  week  for  the  work  com- 
pleted and  delivered  during  that  week,  said  bills  to  be  audited  by  a  committee 
consisting  of  all  the  practical  printers  elected  to  Congress;  and  on  their  approval 
to  be  paid  out  of  the  contingent  funds  of  the  two  Houses  respectively. 

Fifth  —  We  agree  to  pay  every  man  employed  on  said  work  the  full  and  fair 
rates  of  journeymen's  and  foremen's  wages,  as  the  case  may  be,  and  no  more; 
and  if  any  surplus  should  remain  out  of  the  proceeds  of  the  said  printing  it  shall 
be  the  property  of  the  journeymen  printers  of  the  United  States,  and  securely 
preserved  as  a  fund,  to  be  invested  and  employed  in  rendering  said  journeymen 
printers,  as  a  body,  their  own  employers  and  overseers. 

Sixth  —  The  said  public  printing  shall  be  undertaken  and  executed  under  the 
direction  and  management  of  three  journeymen  printers,  to  be  chosen  by  the 
journeymen  printers  respectively  —  one  residing  north  of  the  Potomac,  one  south 
of  that  river  and  one  west  of  the  AUeghanies.  Each  of  said  directors  shall  receive 
$25  per  week  for  his  services  while  thus  employed  and  shall  faithfully  devote 
to  the  work  at  least  ten  hours  per  day. 

George  H.  Randell,  of  Massachusetts, offered  a  proposition  "that 
a  memorial  be  drafted  by  the  convention  to  the  members  of  the  two 
Houses  of  Congress  at  its  next  session,  to  the  effect  that  in  all  cases 
where  printing  is  given  out  in  future  it  shall  be  given  to  practical 
printers  only  —  provided ,  however,  that  such  printing  in  no  case 
shall  be  given  out  by  contract."  Both  proposals  were  referred  to  a 
special  committee,  which  reported  on  September  15th,  unanimously 
recommending  that  the  following  memorial  be  sent  to  Congress: 

We,  the  delegates  representing  the  typographical  associations  of  a  large  number 
of  the  United  States  of  America,  among  which  are  New  York,  Pennsylvania, 
Ohio,  Kentucky,  Virginia,  Maryland,  Massachusetts  and  New  Jersey,  and,  as 


■  Within  another  decade  the  Government  Printing  Office  in  Washington,  which  continues  to  be 
conducted  successfully,  became  an  assured  fact.  The  United  States  Congress  in  i860  decided  to 
purchase  the  establishment  of  Cornelius  Wendell,  then  a  Federal  printing  contractor,  and  have 
the  work  executed  by  its  own  workmen,  the  purchase  price  of  the  plant  being  $135,000. 


PUBLIC    PRINTING.  597 

we  believe,  a  majority  of  the  remaining  States  of  this  Confederacy,  would  most 
respectfully  ask  the  attention  of  your  honorable  bodies  to  consider:  — 

First  —  That  in  view  of  past  difficulties  and  legislation  by  Congress,  growing 
out  of  the  election  of  the  Public  Printer  in  the  two  Houses,  by  the  selection  of 
inexperienced  or  party  men,  and  on  that  account  only,  as  a  reward  for  partisan 
services,  for  the  performance  of  the  public  work;  and  for  the  purpose  of  doing 
away  to  a  great  degree  with  the  annoyances  complained  of  by  the  people's  repre- 
sentatives during  several  of  the  last  successive  sessions,  that  in  future  election 
of  the  Public  Printers  you  will  in  all  cases  where  competent,  practical  printers  and 
those  who  have  not  served  a  regular  apprenticeship  at  that  business  are  appli- 
cants, give  your  decisions  in  favor  of  the  former,  by  the  enactment  of  a  permanent 
law  by  Congress  to  that  effect  —  thus  settling  this  long- vexed  question,  so  far  as 
the  future  legislation  upon  the  subject  of  the  public  printing  is  concerned. 

Second  —  That  the  subject  of  the  public  printing  has  been  one  which  has 
engaged  to  no  limited  extent  the  attention  of  all  classes  in  the  various  sections 
of  the  country,  and  more  particularly  the  interests  we  represent;  that  the  evil 
of  which  we  complain  is  one  that  should  be  settled  at  once  in  favor  of  those  who 
labor,  by  every  reason  of  justice,  so  that  labor  in  that  department  shall  be  placed 
in  the  position  to  which  it  is  entitled,  in  order  that  it  may  be  in  accordance  with 
the  spirit  of  our  free,  liberal  and  republican  institutions. 

Third  —  That  it  must  be  apparent  to  the  honorable  the  representatives  of 
the  people  of  this  Union  that  where  the  said  work  is  apportioned  to  individuals 
not  practically  qualified  to  perform  it,  that  in  giving  the  work  to  the  former  it 
is  gross  injustice  to  those  who  are  practically  qualified  for  the  performance  of 
that  duty  —  is  subversive  of  the  rights  of  Labor,  and  repugnant  to  the  character 
of  our  republican  institutions. 

Fourth  —  That  we  are  opposed  for  the  most  manifest  reasons  to  the  giving 
to  the  lowest  bidder  the  public  printing  of  the  National  Government,  whereby 
a  system  of  auctioneering  has  been  carried  on,  of  serious  injury  to  the  men  who 
labor  in  printing,  and  of  delay  in  the  prosecution  of  the  public  business  by  Con- 
gress; and  we  beg  to  urge,  most  respectfully,  upon  your  honorable  bodies,  the 
propriety,  in  the  selection  of  the  Public  Printer,  that  Congress,  in  giving  its 
decisions  in  favor  of  that  officer,  shall  so  decide  as,  that  a  committee  of  three 
practical  printers,  to  be  appointed  on  behalf  of  that  fraternity,  in  conjunction 
with  a  committee  to  be  appointed  in  behalf  of  Congress,  shall  fix  the  rates  at 
which  the  said  printing  shall  hereafter  be  done. 

Mr.  Rogers,  who  was  a  member  of  the  committee,  remarked  that 
the  latter  had  not  properly  considered  his  paper  and  asked  leave  to 
withdraw  it,  which  request  was  granted.  The  memorial  was  then 
adopted.  Myron  H.  Rooker,  of  Albany,  moved  that  the  convention 
"  recommend  all  unions  in  capital  cities  where  public  or  legislative 
printing  is  done  to  use  their  utmost  endeavors,  by  petition  to  their 
respective  legislative  bodies,  for  the  abolition  of  the  contract  or 
auctioneering  system,  so  far  as  applied  to  the  public  business." 
Mr.  Rogers  objected  to  that  proposition,  saying  that  he  would  not 
for  a  moment  hesitate  to  make  a  contract  for  the  public  printing, 
nor  did  he  think  any  member  of  the  convention  would.  The 
resolution  passed. 


598  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Amos  J.  Cummings  and  John  R.  O'Donnell  were  on  March  i, 
1885,  commissioned  by  Typographical  Union  No.  6  to  appear  before 
the  Assembly  Committee  on  Printing  in  Albany  and 
Union  No.  6  ^j-ge  the  establishment  of  a  State  Printing  Office. 

f^t^t  ^^*  *°°  '^■'^^  ten-hour  rule  was  then  in  vogue  and  the  wage 
Printing  House,  scale  of  Albany  printers  who  were  employed  by 
the  printing  contractors  was  $15  per  week,  which 
was  lower  than  the  rate  paid  in  other  cities  of  a  similar  size. 
Albany  Typographical  Union  No.  4  at  that  time  was  at  war  with 
a  large  company  that  for  years  had  been  a  successful  bidder  for 
State  printing  contracts.  These  facts  prompted  the  agitation  for 
State  ownership.  The  committee  was  unsuccessful  in  its  mission, 
and  for  several  years  thereafter  the  union  sent  representatives  to 
the  Capital  City  to  urge  the  enactment  of  the  measure.  In  resolu- 
tions the  New  York  organization  of  printers  often  expressed  itself 
against  the  continuance  of  the  contract  system,  on  the  ground 
that  in  "  giving  to  the  lowest  competitive  bidder  the  vast  amount 
of  printing  required  by  the  State  of  New  York"  it  "has  had 
the  effect  of  reducing  the  wages  of  printers  in  the  city  of  Albany 
to  the  lowest  point  of  any  city  of  equal  commercial  importance 
in  the  State,  and  has  had  a  corresponding  effect  in  other  cities. 
Under  the  contract  system  a  large  amount  of  money  has  been  ex- 
pended by  the  State  for  so-called  '  extra '  printing,  which  is  usually 
done  to  enable  the  contractors  to  make  the  profits  their  ostensibly 
low  bids  fail  to  allow  for,  and  which  inevitably  leaves  the  door  open 
for  jobs.  Much  of  the  printing  done  for  the  State  under  the  contract 
system  is  of  such  poor  quality  and  is  so  long  delayed  as  to  cause 
frequent  and  just  complaint  from  members  of  the  Legislature  and 
the  various  State  departments." 

In  1 89 1  the  Democratic  candidate  for  Governor  of  New  York 
State  was  Hon.  Roswell  P.  Flower,  while  his  Republican  opponent 
was  Hon.  J.  Sloat  Fassett.     At  the  State  convention 
Governor  Vetoes  of  typographical  unions  on  October  6th,  that  year. 
State  Printing       the  latter  was  denounced  because  of  his  opposition 
Office  Bill.  jj^  ^^Q  Senate  to  the  Printing  Office  Bill,  and  a  reso- 

lution was  passed  calling  upon  union  printers  to 
cast  their  votes  against  him  at  the  succeeding  November  election. 
Democratic  orators  used  that  resolve  to  good  advantage  in  the  Guber- 
natorial campaign.  The  printers  claimed  that  the  managers  of 
Mr.  Flower's  canvass  had  promised  that  if  the  nominee  of  the  Demo- 
crats were  elected  the  State  Printing  House  would  be  established. 
As  Mr.  Flower  did  not  repudiate  that  pledge,  it  was  contended  by 


PUBLIC    PRINTING.  599 

the  typographers,  he  gave  tacit  acquiescence  to  their  measure.  Mr. 
Fassett  was  unsuccessful  at  the  polls,  and  union  printers  maintained 
that  his  defeat  was  caused  by  the  action  taken  in  Syracuse.  Both 
Houses  of  the  Legislature  of  1892  passed  the  Printing  Office  Bill,  but 
it  was  vetoed  by  Governor  Flower  on  April  i8th.  "  In  accepting 
a  nomination  to  the  high  office  which  I  have  the  honor  to  hold,"  said 
the  Executive  in  that  paper,  "  I  promised  if  elected  to  give  the  State 
a  plain  business  administration.  I  would  be  false  to  that  pledge 
and  untrue  to  my  own  conviction  if  I  were  to  approve  in  my  official 
capacity  a  measure  which  involves  what  I  believe  to  be  an  unsound 
business  proposition  and  a  menace  to  honest  and  economical  admin- 
istration." He  said  he  could  not  avoid  the  conclusions  that  the 
assumption  of  such  an  undertaking  by  the  State  would  mean  the 
imposition  of  greater  burdens  year  by  year  upon  the  taxpayers 
without  any  corresponding  benefit.  "  The  State  printing  is  now  let 
by  contract  to  the  lowest  bidder,"  continued  the  Governor.  "  The 
competition  among  bidders  is  brisk  and  resiilts  in  comparatively 
low  prices  for  the  work  done,"  further  declaring  that  "  the  system 
has  worked  satisfactorily,  and  in  recent  years,  at  least,  has  suffered 
no  abuse.  Clearly,  the  only  advantage,  as  regards  expense,  in  the 
State's  establishing  and  maintaining  a  public  printing  office  would  be 
to  save  the  margin  of  profit  which  now  goes  to  the  individual  con- 
tractor. That  profit  is  not  large  and  in  my  opinion  would  be  more 
than  wiped  out  by  the  increased  cost  of  maintaining  a  State  estab- 
lishment. There  are  several  considerations  which  support  this  view. 
In  the  first  place  the  capital  necessary  to  be  invested  would  be  large. 
The  hundred  thousand  dollars  appropriated  by  this  bill  is  not,  in 
my  judgnent,  sufficient,  and  annual  appropriations  would  be  neces- 
sary for  improvements,  repairs  and  new  machinery.  The  element 
of  competition  being  removed,  moreover,  the  stimulus  to  economy 
would  not  exist.  The  Legislature  would  regulate  the  hours  of 
labor  and  perhaps  the  rate  of  wages,  while  political  influences 
would  affect  the  employment  and  discharge  of  workmen.  Again 
the  demand  for  printing  is  comparatively  small  except  when 
the  Legislature  is  in  session,  and  while  a  large  printing  plant 
would  be  essential  during  five  or  six  months  in  the  year  a  small 
one  would  answer  all  present  purposes  during  the  remainder  of 
the  year.  This  would  practically  impose  upon  the  State  the  un- 
necessary expense  of  maintaining  a  large  plant  all  the  year  round. 
But  beyond  all  this  the  establishment  of  a  State  Printing  Office 
would  encourage  extravagance  in  printing."  The  veto  message 
concluded : 


6oO  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

The  provisions  of  the  bill  Vjcforc  me,  if  my  predictions  as  to  their  effect  are  well 
founded,  are  certainly  inconsistent  with  that  expression  of  what  should  constitute 
public  policy.  I  have  always  believed  firmly  in  the  principle  that  the  State 
should  do  nothing  that  individual  enterprise  could  accomplish  as  well.  Indi- 
vidual enterprise  in  my  opinion  can  do  the  State's  printing  more  economically 
and  as  satisfactorily  as  the  State  could  do  it  and  for  this  reason  I  am  unable 
to  approve  this  measure. 

I  am  aware  that  in  some  quarters  the  bill  is  urged  not  so  much  from  a  con- 
viction that  it  would  be  in  the  public  interest,  as  from  a  belief  that  it  would 
improve  the  condition  of  one  class  of  workers,  namely,  those  employed  in  the  art 
of  printing.  To  their  credit  be  it  said  that  no  such  reason  has  been  presented 
to  me  by  any  typographical  union  in  the  State  for  the  enactment  of  this  bill. 
As  a  member  of  one  of  the  first  labor  organizations  in  the  State  and  as  an  earnest 
friend  of  honest  labor  I  have  had  too  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  men  of 
those  organizations  and  I  have  too  much  respect  for  their  intelligence  to  believe 
that  they  desire  the  State  to  establish  any  bureau  of  government  for  their  exclusive 
benefit. 

Clearly,  any  measure  whose  enactment  is  urged  upon  the  ground  that  it  will 
help  one  class  of  workers  at  the  expense  of  other  classes  is  un-American  and  un- 
democratic. It  is  an  injury  to  every  laborer  not  of  that  favored  class  and  to 
that  extent  promotes  industrial  discontent.  If  the  State  is  to  legislate  in  the 
particular  interest  of  typesetters,  it  cannot  consistently  refuse  to  legislate  in 
the  interest  of  other  men  who  are  engaged  in  industries  which  furnish  labor  or 
supplies  to  the  State,  and  the  logical  sequence  of  a  bureau  of  printing  would  be 
a  bureau  of  building  supplies,  or  a  bureau  of  school  furnishings.  By  such  under- 
takings the  State  invades  the  domain  of  private  industry  and  instead  of  conferring 
benefits  creates  that  industrial  disturbance  which  always  follows  artificial  inter- 
ference with  the  natural  law  of  business.  A  State  printing  establishment  would 
create  no  new  employment  except  in  so  far  as  it  undertook  extravagant  and 
unnecessary  work;  it  could  create  no  higher  wages  without  the  increase  coming 
out  of  the  pockets  of  the  people.  Whatever  benefits  it  might  confer  upon  the 
few  people  to  whom  it  gave  employment  would  be  burdens  imposed  upon  the 
large  majority  of  taxpayers. 

Denunciatory  resolutions  were  adopted  by  typographical  unions 
all  over  the  State,  and  Union  No.  6  on  May  ist  expressed  itself  to 
the  effect  that  it  had  "  learned  with  surprise  and  indignation  that 
Governor  Flower  has  vetoed  the  State  Printing  Office  Bill ;"  proceeding 
in  these  terms  with  its  excoriation  of  the  Executive's  course : 

We  believe  that  if  said  bill  had  become  a  law  its  provisions  would  have  resulted 
in  a  great  saving  in  the  cost  of  the  State's  printing,  thereby  conferring  sub- 
stantial benefits  upon  the  taxpayers;  in  the  production  of  better  work,  with  all 
requisite  promptness,  to  the  satisfaction  of  State  department  officials  and  to  the 
greater  expedition  of  their  duties;  and  last,  but  not  least,  a  State  Printing  Office 
would  have  been  of  incalculable  benefit  to  our  craft,  inasmuch  as  the  State  would 
be  enabled  to  pay  in  increased  wages  a  portion  of  the  large  profits  now  received 
by  printing  contractors,  and  would  have  protected  the  trade  from  the  degrading 
competition  of  "  rat "  labor,  which  now  is  employed  upon  a  considerable  amount 
of  the  State  work. 


PUBLIC    PRINTING.  6oi 

The  attitude  of  Governor  Flower  in  the  political  campaign  preceding  his  elec- 
tion to  the  Governorship  caused  many  union  printers  to  vote  for  him,  believing 
that  if  elected  he  would  approve  of  a  State  Printing  Office  Bill,  inasmuch  as  his 
campaign  managers  made  an  issue  of  it  to  the  detriment  of  his  opponent,  who 
was  opposed  to  the  bill. 

That  Governor  Flower,  in  vetoing  the  State  Printing  Bill,  has  shown  himself 
to  be  ignorant  of  the  true  facts  connected  with  the  State  printing  and  disregardful 
of  the  interests  of  taxpayers  and  the  requirements  of  State  officials  and  legis- 
lators, and  he  has  placed  himself  on  record  as  being  favorable  to  low  wages  and 
the  friend  of  "  rat  "  printers. 

Resolved,  In  view  of  the  foregoing,  that  the  members  of  Typographical  Union 
No.  6  condemn  Governor  Flower  as  their  enemy,  and  as  citizens  will  hold  him 
accountable  for  his  enmity  and  duplicity  should  he  ever  again  appeal  for  their 
suffrage. 

That  practically  ended  the  crusade  for  State  ownership  of  a  print- 
ing plant.  Thereafter  bills  were  occasionally  introduced  in  the 
Legislature  to  create  the  office  of  Public  Printer,  but  the  efforts  in 
behalf  of  such  measures  have  lacked  force  and  energy,  the  question 
never  again  coming  to  a  vote  in  either  House.  Afterward  the  eight- 
hour  working  day  was  gained  by  Albany  printers,  whose  weekly 
wages  on  State  work  have  advanced  to  $19  for  hand  compositors, 
and  for  .machine  operators  $20  and  $23,  respectively,  for  day  and 
night  work  —  rates  that  are  equal  to  those  paid  elsewhere  in  cities 
of  like  population.  Besides,  in  the  meanwhile  the  non-union  com- 
pany in  Albany  that  the  local  typographical  organization  had  been 
contending  against  capitulated  to  the  union.  The^e  successful 
results  have  consequently  removed  the  chief  motive  of  the  orga- 
nized printers  for  advocating  the  proposition  that  the  State  perform 
its  own  work. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 
PRINTING    EXPOSITION. 

ITS  membership  having  on  July  2,  1899,  decided  "  that  the 
fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  founding  of  our  union  should  be 
commemorated  in  a  manner  befitting  the  great  and  unprece- 
dented success  attained  by  our  organization  during  the  last  half 
century,  and  it  is  admitted  universally  that  it  could  be  brought  about 
in  no  more  practical  and  beneficial  manner  than  in  the  holding  of 
an  exposition  which  would  carry  in  its  scope  a  display  of  all  the 
wonderful  inventions  which  have  raised  the  standard  of  the  trade 
to  what  it  is  to-day,"  Typographical  Union  No.  6  from  May  2  to 
June  2,  1900,  celebrated  its  semi-centennial  by  instituting  and  con- 
ducting the  first  printing  exposition  that  was  ever  held  in  New  York 
City,  the  exhibition  taking  place  at  Grand  Central  Palace,  a  com- 
modious structure  at  Lexington  avenue  and  East  Forty- third  street, 
where  40,000  square  feet  of  floor  space  were  devoted  to  the  display 
of  the  various  paraphernalia  pertaining  to  newspapers,  typesetting, 
electrotyping,  photo-engraving,  manufacture  of  printing  inks,  com- 
mercial book  and  job  printing,  typefounders'  products,  printers' 
supplies,  bookbinding,  paper  making,  and  the  materials  and  ma- 
chinery used  in  the  production  of  printed  matter,  besides  other 
exhibits  of  interest  to  the  public.  That  event  not  only  marked  the 
semi-centennial  of  the  union,  but  it  also  was  commemorative  of  the 
five  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  John  Gutenberg,  inventor 
of  printing  from  movable  type,  whose  native  city  of  Mayence-on- 
the-Rhine,  in  Germany,  honored  its  famous  townsman  and  his  great 
discovery  by  holding  a  jubilee  in  1900. 

In  its  souvenir  descriptive  of  the  exposition  Union  No.  6  observed 
that  "  in  presenting  to  the  public  for  the  first  time  a  series  of  ex- 
hibitions devoted  exclusively  to  printing  and  allied  avocations  it 
has  been  the  aim  of  those  connected  with  the  undertaking  to  present 
in  an  interesting  and  instructive  light  the  various  devices  and  ma- 
chines connected  with  the  art  of  printing  and  bookmaking.  The 
array  of  exhibits  secured  embraces  every  branch  of  the  art  preserv- 
ative of  all  arts  and  exemplifies  the  genius  that  has  developed  step 

[602I 


PRINTING    EXPOSITION.  603 

by  step  the  primitive  printing  press  of  our  forefathers  to  the  wonder- 
ful device  of  to-day.  While  successive  improvements  in  this  branch 
are  but  typical  of  the  progressive  era  in  which  we  live,  it  is  not 
exaggerating  when  we  say  that  had  it  not  been  for  the  increasing 
facilities  that  each  advance  in  these  appliances  afforded  for  spreading 
broadcast  throughout  the  land,  effectually  and  speedily,  the  bene- 
ficial ideas  of  those  in  distant  parts  of  the  globe,  it  would  not  have 
been  possible  for  other  appliances  to  have  profited  and  improved 
to  the  extent  that  now  exists,  so  that  the  progress  of  the  last  two 
decades  is  mainly  indebted  for  the  lofty  position  it  now  graces  to 
the  increased  facilities  in  the  art  of  printing  and  bookmaking."  The 
effect  derived  from  such  progress  was  noted  among  the  various 
exhibits  of  printing  processes,  and  was  especially  visible  in  the 
historical  and  loan  exhibit,  which  had  been  gathered  together  by 
courtesy  of  the  owners  and  shown  for  the  first  time  as  a  collection, 
comprising  old  books,  documents,  primitive  presses  and  rare  typo- 
graphical works  of  art.  Having  charge  of  that  important  feature 
was  a  special  committee  composed  largely  of  public  men  and  em- 
ploying printers  —  Hon.  Theodore  Roosevelt,  then  Governor  of 
New  York,  Hon.  Seth  Low,  Hon.  Amos  J.  Cummings,  Hon.  John  W. 
Keller,  Hon.  Joseph  J.  Little,  John  E.  Milholland,  Theodore  L.  De 
Vinne,  Angus  F.  Mackay,  Owen  J.  Kindelon  and  Thomas  Maitland 
Cleland  —  through  the  efforts  of  whom  a  Government  exhibit  was 
obtained  by  concurrent  resolution  of  the  United  States  Senate  and 
House  of  Representatives.  It  consisted  of  objects  of  priceless  value, 
relics  of  the  past,  patents  and  other  curios  of  rare  worth  from  the 
Smithsonian  Institution  and  the  National  Museimi,  in  Washington, 
D.  C. 

President  John  H.  Delaney  had  general  supervision  of  the  project, 
the  excellence  and  success  of  which  were  attained  by  the  undeviating 
attention  devoted  to  it  from  its  inception  by  him  and  his  colleagues 
on  the  Exposition  and  Fair  Committee  —  Nathan  Newman,  James  P. 
Farrell,  Claude  Stoddard  and  Charles  E.  Gehring  —  while  to  the 
skillful  direction  of  Marcus  Nathan,  general  manager,  the  union  was 
indebted  for  the  final  result  of  the  affair. 


CHAPTER  XL. 
MATTERS  OF  GENERAL  IMPORT. 

LOVE  of  country  has  been  a   crowning   characteristic  of   the 
membership  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  during  its  entire 
6 1  years'  activity.     Those  affiliating  with  it  first  gave  com- 
bined expression  to  their  feelings  of  patriotism  on  July  20,  1850,  when 
they  passed  resolutions  honoring  the  memory  of  Gen.  Zachary  Taylor, 
President  of  the  United  States,  who  passed  away  on 
Patriotic  J^ly  9^^  of  that  year.     "Our  country  has  sustained 

Sentiment  the  loss  of  a  gallant  soldier,  a  capable,  humane  and 
Expressed.  victorious  commander,  a  devoted  patriot,  and  a  truly 
honest  man,"  resolved  the  union.  "  So  great  a 
national  affliction  tends  more  strikingly  to  exhibit  the  solidity, 
excellence  and  permanence  of  republican  institutions  by  which  the 
greatest  calamities  are  soon  overcome  and  the  nation  moves  on 
in  peace  and  security,  under  the  broad  egis  of  its  constitution 
and  laws."  The  union  was  also  well  represented  in  the  funeral 
pageant,  in  which  several  thousand  members  of  the  trade  and  labor 
societies  of  the  city  participated  on  July  23d. 

Within  two  weeks  after  the  firing  upon  Fort  Sumter,  on  April  12, 
1 86 1,  thirteen  members  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  responded  to 
the  call  to  arms  —  in  fact,  in  the  first  year  of  hostilities  83  went  to 
the  front,  while  during  the  whole  period  of  the  Civil  War,  which 
closed  with  the  surrender  of  the  Confederate  forces  under  Gen. 
Kirby  Smith,  on  May  26,  1865,  exactly  170  printers  connected  with 
the  New  York  association  of  compositors  enlisted  in  the  Northern 
army,  many  of  them  more  than  once.  As  the  average  number  of 
men  affiliating  with  the  organization  in  those  four  years  of  inter- 
necine strife  was  but  507,  inclusive  of  those  who  engaged  in  the  war, 
it  will  be  readily  observed  that  the  quota  of  soldiers  it  furnished  to 
the  United  States  military  service  in  that  dark  period  of  the  country's 
history  amounted  to  the  large  proportion  of  33I  per  cent  of  its  mem- 
bership —  thus  demonstrating  a  practical  spirit  of  patriotism  that 
was  unequalled  by  any  other  civic  body  in  the  great  city. 

About  sixteen  years  ago  criticism  was  launched  against  the 
National  Guard  in  some  sections  of  the  State,  owing  to  the  part 

f6o4i 


MATTERS    OF    GENERAL    IMPORT.  605 

taken  by  these  militiamen  in  quelling  disturbances  during  industrial 
disputes.  There  were  some  in  the  community  who  endeavored  to 
disco virage  the  entry  of  trade  union  men  into  the  militia,  but  such 
attempts  were  generally  disregarded.  Union  No.  6  was  an  especial 
opponent  of  the  plan,  and  on  June  23,  1895,  it  almost  unanimously 
rejected  this  proposed  constitutional  amendment  that  had  a  bearing 
on  the  subject :  "  No  member  of  the  National  Guard  shall  be  eligible 
to  membership  in  the  union,  and  any  member  joining  the  National 
Guard  after  admission  to  this  union  shall  forfeit  such  membership; 
provided,  that  this  shall  not  apply  to  members  of  the  National 
Guard  who  are  now  members  of  the  union  finishing  their  present 
term  of  enlistment." 

Independence  Day  in  1897  occurred  on  Sunday,  on  which  occasion 
the  regular  meeting  of  the  Union  was  held,  and  in  honor  of  that 
auspicious  event  it  was  unanimously  resolved  "  that  before  adjourn- 
ing on  this  anniversary  of  American  Independence  it  is  appropriate 
that  Typographical  Union  No.  6  reaffirm  the  glorious  Declaration 
of  Independence,  and  put  on  record  our  hearty  thanks  to  the  memory 
of  the  dead,  and  to  those  still  living  (many  members  of  our  union 
among  the  number)  who  risked  their  lives  and  all,  to  make  and  pre- 
serve us  a  nation  —  a  nation  which,  we  pray,  may  continue  to  grow 
greater  and  greater,  and  may  realize  its  manifest  destiny,  and  become 
the  greatest  of  the  nations  of  the  earth  —  the  land  of  the  brave 
and  the  home  of  the  free!  " 

Congress  was  petitioned  by  Union  No.  6  on  October  20,  1895,  to 
grant  belligerent  rights  to  Cuba,  and  on  January  3,  1897,  it  again 
appealed  to  the  National  Legislature  in  language  following: 

The  citizens  of  Cuba  are  engaged  in  a  struggle  similar  to  that  by  which  our 
forefathers  gained  our  liberties  —  shook  off  the  monarchical  yoke  and  established 
the  greatest  Republic  of  the  earth  —  the  United  States  of  America. 

We  hereby  extend  to  the  Cubans  our  sympathy  in  their  notable  fight,  and  we 
favor  immediate  legislation  by  Congress  recognizing  the  independence  of  the 
new  Republic  of  Cuba. 

The  Spanish- American  War  commenced  on  April  13,  1898.  Pre- 
viously (on  April  3d)  the  union  had  resolved  that  its  "  members 
await  and  will  respond  to  their  country's  call;  that  in  case  war 
should  occur  between  the  United  States  and  Spain,  or  any  other 
country,  all  members  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  taking  action 
on  behalf  of  the  United  States  shall  be  carried  on  the  books  of  the 
union  in  good  standing  until  the  expiration  of  the  time  they  are  so 
engaged.  The  possible  approach  of  war  with  Spain  should  not  make 
us  forget  that  in  the  destruction  of  the  Maine,  266  of  our  sailors 


6o6  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

and  marines  were  killed.  We  hereby  indorse  the  movement  for  the 
erection  of  a  monument  to  the  martyred  crew  of  the  Maine  who 
died  at  their  post  of  duty  in  hostile  waters,  and  who  were  as  much 
martyrs  to  duty  as  if  they  had  been  engaged  in  battle  at  the  time 
of  their  death."  A  donation  of  $25  was  then  made  in  the  name  of 
the  union  to  the  Maine  Monument  Fund.  Actual  hostilities  ceased 
on  August  13,  1898,  and  on  October  2d,  that  year,  the  best  thanks 
of  the  association  were  accorded  to  the  members  who  had  enlisted 
"  for  their  meritorious  services  in  the  late  war." 

The  idea  of  utilizing  electricity  for  telegraphing  was  the  outcome 
of  the  discovery,  in  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  that  a 

shock  could  be  transmitted  long  distances  with 
Celebrating  the  great  velocity  through  conducting  media,  and  to 
Completion  of  the  Benjamin  Franklin,  printer-genius,  belongs  the 
Atlantic  Cable.        credit  of  installing  the  original  submarine  electric 

cable,  he  having  in  1748  ignited  alcohol  by  an  elec- 
tric charge  sent  through  wires  under  water  across  the  Schuylkill 
River  in  Pennsylvania.  The  electro-magnetic  telegraph  was  first 
put  into  practical  operation  by  Prof.  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse  between 
Washington  and  Baltimore  on  May  27,  1844.  A  further  triumph 
of  this  system  of  transferring  intelligence  came  in  1858  with  the  com- 
pletion of  the  Atlantic  cable,  which  united  America  and  Europe. 
That  event  was  enthusiastically  celebrated  in  New  York  City,  the 
jubilee  taking  place  on  September  ist  and  2d,  opening  with  a  pro- 
cession, in  which  the  printing  craft  participated,  that  marched  from 
the  Battery  to  Forty-second  street,  being  witnessed  by  500,000 
people,  and  closing  with  a  municipal  dinner  to  Cyrus  W.  Field,  to 
whose  "  exertions,  energy,  courage  and  perseverance,"  ran  the  toast 
to  him,  "  are  we  indebted  for  the  ocean  cable;  we  claim,  but  immor- 
tality owns  him."  Typographical  Union  No.  6  figured  largely  in 
these  universal  rejoicings  over  the  great  scientific  success,  promul- 
gating on  September  ist  the  following  congratulatory  expressions 
that  it  had  adopted  as  the  sense  of  the  journeymen  printers  of  Man- 
hattan Island: 

The  New  York  Typographical  Union  desire  to  commingle  their  congratulations 
with  those  of  the  entire  community  for  this  great  triumph  of  science  and  skill. 

We  welcome  the  Atlantic  telegraph  for  the  respect  we  owe  the  memory  of 
Franklin,  the  printer-sage,  who  "  grasped  the  lightning's  pinions  "  and  placed 
electricity  at  the  service  of  science.  We  hail  it  as  second  only  in  importance  for 
the  propagation  of  knowledge  to  the  invention  of  the  "  lightning  press."  We 
welcome  it  as  a  valuable  auxiliary  of  the  press,  as  giving  it  a  new  power  to  combat 
error  and  advance  truth.  By  its  agency  the  area  of  thought  and  intelligence 
will  be  expanded,  and  terrestrial  space  contracted  to  a  unit. 


MATTERS    OF    GENERAL    IMPORT.  607 

Through  the  now  complete  and  active  co-operation  —  the  quadruple  alliance, 
as  it  were,  of  typography,  steam,  electricity,  and  the  daguerreotype  —  no  fire- 
side is  so  obscure,  no  hamlet  so  remote,  to  which  they  will  not  bring,  not  alone 
the  intelligence  of  the  day  and  hour,  but  also  the  practical  results  and  actual 
possession  of  science  and  art. 

Electricity,  by  overland  wires,  has  long  been  tributary  to  the  requirements 
of  trade  and  commerce,  and  we  are  already  accustomed  to  use  it  in  our  domestic 
intercourse,  but  the  transatlantic  telegraph  offers  new  and  astonishing  facilities 
for  our  international  intercourse,  and  it  will  doubtless  do  much  to  make  all  man- 
kind feel  they  are  akin. 

We  welcome  it  also  for  bringing  us  into  more  immediate  contact  with  the  more 
advanced  civilization  of  older  States;  and  with  all  due  respects  to  our  "  cousins  " 
at  the  other  end,  we  hope  the  Atlantic  telegraph  will  inoculate  them  with  some 
of  the  vigorous  virtues  of  our  young  Republic,  and  instil  into  them  the  true 
principles  of  "  Liberty,  Equality  and  Fraternity." 

The  Typographical  Union  regard  the  diflficult  character  and  success  of  this 
great  enterprise  as  reflecting  honor  upon  all  who  have  been  instrumental  in  its 
accomplishment. 

In  1897  a  bill  was  introduced  in  the  New  York  Senate  to  prohibit 

the  printing  in  any  newspaper,  periodical,  magazine,  pamphlet  or 

book,  of  a  portrait  or  alleged  portrait  of  any  person 

living  in  the  State  without  having  first  obtained    Non-interference 

such  individual's  written  consent.     This  proposed    ^      .        , 

'■      ^  Freedom  of 

legislation  was  considered  by  Union  No.  6  to  be  a    ^^^  Press, 
thrust  at  the  liberty  of  the  press,  and  on  March  7, 
1897,  it  embodied  its  views  on  the  subject  in  emphatic  resolutions, 
as  follows: 

The  bill  is  a  serious  menace  to  newspapers,  and  as  newspapers  are  menaced 
the  men  who  make  them  editorially  and  mechanically  are  in  a  measure  affected. 
It  penalizes  newspapers  that  print  in  portrait  or  caricature  the  picture  of  any 
individual  who  does  not  give  his  written  consent,  and  is  in  effect  a  blow  at  the 
liberty  of  the  press.  The  cartoon  —  a  more  powerful  weapon  than  written  words 
can  be  —  must  disappear  if  this  measure  becomes  law.  The  curtailing  of  the 
liberty  of  the  press  is  the  ring  politician's  first  move  toward  repressing  the  liberties 
of  the  people  and  a  menace  of  popular  rights  that  cannot  be  too  seriously  regarded 
or  too  rigorously  opposed. 

Typographical  Union  No.  6  condemns  the  enactment  of  any  such  legislation, 
on  the  grounds  that  it  is  the  entering  wedge  toward  a  curtailment  of  that  freedom 
of  the  press  guaranteed  by  the  constitution;  that  it  would  abolish  one  of  the  most 
potent  means  of  maintaining  that  standard  among  public  servants  that  is  neces- 
sary to  the  public  welfare,  and  that  laws  now  on  the  statute  books  furnish 
adequate  redress  for  persons  who  may  be  wronged  by  the  printing  of  their 
portraits  or  alleged  portraits. 

The  measure  failed  of  passage  in  the  Legislature. 
A  proposal  to  introduce  steam  presses  into  the  Federal  Bureau 
of  Engraving  and  Printing  in  Washington  for  producing  Govern- 


6o8  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

ment  money,  bonds  and  certificates  brought  forth  stern  resistance 

on  April  3,  1898,  on  the  part  of  Union  No.  6,  whose  objection  to 

the  use  of  power  devices  in  Heu  of  machines  ope- 

Objection  to  Use   j-^ted  by  hand  was  based  on  "  the  fact  that  the 

°     _f^™.  ^®^^®^   evidence  collected  by  the  committees  of  the  Fiftieth 

for  Printing  ,     .     , 

Currency.  Congress  so  conclusively  proved  that  the  work  done 

on  steam  presses  was  greatly  inferior  to  hand  work 
that  Congress  ordered  that  the  steam  presses  then  in  use  be  thrown 
out;  that  the  inferior  work  of  the  steam  presses  makes  counter- 
feiting comparatively  easy,  and  while  injuring  the  public  service, 
the  use  of  such  presses  would  deprive  many  workmen  of  employ- 
ment." So  it  petitioned  the  United  States  Senate  to  amend  the 
Sundry  Civil  Bill,  then  being  considered  by  the  Committee  on 
Appropriations,  by  adding  this  sentence  to  one  of  the  sections: 
"  That  no  portion  of  the  sum  authorized  to  be  used  for  plate  printing 
shall  be  used  for  any  printing  of  notes,  bonds,  checks  or  internal 
revenue  stamps  other  than  for  printing  from  hand-roller  presses." 
Steam  presses  were  not  introduced. 

In  his  pastoral  letter  of  May  15,  1886,  the  Right  Reverend  Henry 

C.  Potter,  Episcopal  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  New  York,  addressed 

his  clergymen  in  no  uncertain  terms  upon  the  ques- 

Union  No.  6        ^i^n  of  Labor.     "A  grave  emergency  has  arisen,  in 

Co-operates        which  while  it  seems  to  concern  us  first  as  citizens, 

with  c.  A.  I.  L.  it  is  of  supreme  importance  that  we  should  see  and 

own  our  duty  as  disciples  of  Him  whose  ministers 

we  are  and  whose  religion  we  are  pledged  to  teach  and  illustrate," 

wrote  the  prelate,  whose  further  illuminating  sentences  on  the  theme 

were,  in  part,  as  follows: 

Already  in  more  than  one  conspicuous  struggle,  widely  heralded  as  designed 
to  be  a  test  case  as  to  the  power  of  workingmen  to  manage  not  only  their  own 
affairs,  but  those  of  their  employers,  the  issue  has  been  in  favor  of  the  employer 
and  not  of  the  workingman.  And  where,  as  in  other  instances,  the  decision  halts 
or  is  postponed  for  a  little,  it  needs  no  prophet  to  predict  it.  Organized  capital, 
backed  by  the  orderly  and  peace-loving  instincts  of  those  large  and  powerful 
elements  in  the  community  which  are  not  wage-earning  elements,  will  be  likely 
still  further  to  triumph,  and  the  wrongs,  real  or  imaginary,  of  the  working  classes 
will  not,  at  any  rate  to-day  or  to-morrow,  be  righted  by  the  means  that  they 
have  thus  far  employed.  At  such  a  moment  I  cannot  but  think  that  the  Church 
whose  ministers  we  are  has  a  rare  opportunity.  It  is  the  moment  of  all  others 
when  they  who  have  proved  their  strength  to  resist  what  they  believe  to  be  un- 
reasonable demands,  accompanied  by  unwarrantable  acts  and  combinations,  may 
wisely  be  urged  to  illustrate  that  just  and  generous  magnanimity  which  should 
forever  chasten  the  exercise  of  superior  powers  and  ennoble  the  possession  of 
exceptional  gifts  or  gains.  *  *  *  What  the  laborer  wants  from  his  employer 
is  fair  and  fraternal  dealing,  not  alms-giving,  and  a  recognition  of  his  manhood 


MATTERS    OF    GENERAL    IMPORT.  609 

rather  than  a  condescension  to  his  inferiority.  And  it  is  at  this  point  that  the 
outlook  is  most  discouraging.  The  growth  of  wealth  among  us  has  issued  not 
in  binding  men  together,  but  in  driving  them  apart.  The  rich  are  now  further 
than  ever  before  from  the  poor,  the  employer  from  his  workmen,  Capital  from 
Labor.  Too  many  know  less  and  less  how  the  poor  live,  and  give  little  time,  or 
none  at  all  to  efforts  to  know.  The  wage  of  the  laborer  may  be,  doubtless  in 
most  cases  it  is,  larger  than  it  was  30  years  ago;  but  his  wants  have  grown  more 
rapidly  than  his  wages,  and  his  opportunities  for  gratifying  them  are  not  more 
numerous,  but  less.  He  knows  more  about  decent  living,  but  his  home  is  not 
often  more  decent,  and  daily  grows  more  costly.  His  mental  horizon  has  been 
widened,  but  fit  food  for  it  is  no  more  accessible.  Instincts  and  aspirations  have 
been  awakened  in  him  which  are  certainly  as  honorable  in  him  as  in  those  more 
favorably  situated,  but  wealth  does  little  either  to  direct  or  to  satisfy  them. 
*  *  *  If  we  are  reaping  to-day  the  fruits  of  these  mutual  hatreds  between 
more  and  less  favored  classes,  we  may  well  own  that  the  fault  is  not  all  on  one 
side,  and  that  it  is  time  that  we  awaken  to  the  need  of  sacrifices  which  alone  can 
banish  them. 

These  sacrifices  are  not  so  much  of  money  as  of  ease,  of  self-indulgent  ignorance, 
of  contemptuous  indifference,  of  conceited  and  shallow  views  of  the  relations  of 
men  to  one  another.  A  nation  whose  wealth  and  social  leadership  are  in  the 
hands  of  people  who  fancy  that  day  after  day,  like  those  of  old,  they  can  "  sit 
down  to  eat  and  drink  and  rise  up  to  play,"  careless  of  those  who  earn  the  divi- 
dends that  they  spend  and  pay  the  rents  of  the  tenement-houses  that  they  own, 
but  too  often  never  visit  or  inspect,  has  but  one  doom  before  it,  and  that  the  worst. 
We  may  cover  the  pages  of  our  statute  books  with  laws  regulating  strikes  and 
inflicting  severest  penalties  on  those  who  organize  resistance  to  the  individual 
liberty,  whether  of  employer  or  workman;  we  may  drill  regiments  and  perfect 
our  police;  the  safety  and  welfare  of  a  State  are  not  in  these  things,  they  are  in  the 
contentment  and  loyalty  of  its  people.  And  they  come  by  a  different  road. 
When  capitalists  and  employers  of  labor  have  forever  dismissed  the  fallacy, 
which  may  be  true  enough  in  the  domain  of  political  economy,  but  is  essentially 
false  in  the  domain  of  religion,  that  labor  and  the  laborer  are  alike  a  commodity, 
to  be  bought  and  sold,  employed  or  dismissed,  paid  or  underpaid,  as  the  market 
shall  decree;  when  the  interest  of  workman  and  master  shall  have  been  owned 
by  both  as  one,  and  the  share  of  the  laboring  man  shall  be  more  than  a  mere 
wage;  when  the  principle  of  a  joint  interest  in  what  is  produced  of  all  the  brains 
and  hands  that  go  to  produce  it  is  wisely  and  generously  recognized;  when  the 
well-being  of  our  fellow-men,  their  homes  and  food,  their  pleasures  and  their 
higher  moral  and  spiritual  necessities  shall  be  seen  to  be  matters  concerning  which 
we  may  not  dare  to  say,  "Am  I  my  brother's  keeper?  "  then,  but  not  till  then 
may  we  hope  to  heal  those  grave  social  divisions  concerning  which  there  need 
to  be  among  us  all,  as  with  Israel  of  old,  "  great  searchings  of  heart." 

I  beg  you,  reverend  brethern,  to  set  these  things  before  your  people  with  great 
plainness  of  speech.  In  New  York  centres  the  capital  that  controls  the  traffic, 
and  largely  the  manufactures,  of  this  New  World .  In  your  congregations  are 
many  of  those  who  control  that  capital.  In  all  our  parishes  are  people  who  employ 
labor,  or  reap  the  benefits  of  it.  To  these  it  is  time  to  say  that  no  Christian 
man  can  innocently  be  indifferent  to  the  interests  of  working  men  and  women; 
that  wealth  brings  with  it  a  definite  responsibility,  first  to  know  how  best  to  use 
it  to  serve  others  as  well  as  ourselves,  and  then  resolutely  to  set  about  doing  it. 

20 


6lO  NEW   YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Inspired  by  these  burning  words  of  Bishop  Potter,  a  number  of 
Episcopal  ministers  met  at  the  clergy  house  of  the  Order  of  the 
Holy  Cross,  New  York  City,  on  Tuesday  morning  May  i8,  1887, 
in  response  to  an  invitation  given  by  the  Rev.  James  O.  S.  Himt- 
ington,  O.  H.  C,  "  with  the  intention  of  petitioning  Almighty  God 
that  the  clergy  of  this  branch  of  the  Church  may  be  moved  to  per- 
form their  duty  to  the  workingmen  of  our  land."  The  meeting  was 
called  to  order  by  Father  Huntington,  who  addressed  the  gathering 
on  the  labor  question  and  the  interest  that  both  the  ministry  and  the 
laity  should  take  in  it,  declaring  that  the  time  had  come  when  the 
clergy  should  act  through  definite  organization  and  place  themselves 
in  active  sympathy  with  the  working  people.  The  Rev.  Benjamin 
F.  De  Costa  was  elected  chairman  and  the  Rev.  Edward  Kenney 
secretary.  A  plan  of  organization  was  submitted  by  the  Rev.  W. 
D.  P.  Bliss,  and  it  was  decided  to  institute  a  guild  within  the  Church. 
At  a  subsequent  meeting  the  new  organization  was  named  the  Church 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  the  Interests  of  Labor,  which 
is  better  known  by  the  shorter  title  of  C.  A.  I.  L.^  At  a  public 
meeting  on  June  2  2d  as  a  basis  of  work  for  the  society  it  was  enacted 
"  that  the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  Church  should  become  personally 
interested  in  the  social  questions  now  being  agitated,  should  inform 
themselves  of  the  nature  of  the  issues  presented,  and  should  be  pre- 
pared to  act  as  the  necessities  of  the  day  may  demand;"  while  its 
methods  were  declared  to  be:  "  (i)  Sermons  setting  forth  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Gospel  as  the  guide  to  the  solution  of  every  question 
involved  in  the  interests  of  Labor.  (2)  The  proper  use  of  the  press 
and  the  circulation  of  tracts  as  occasion  may  require.  (3)  Lectiires 
and  addresses  on  occasions  when  the  interests  of  Labor  may  be  ad- 
vanced. (4)  The  encouragement  by  precept  and  example  of  a  con- 
scientious use  of  the  ballot."  It  was  made  the  duty  of  each  member 
to  take,  or  read  at  least  one  journal  published  in  the  interest  of 
Labor,  and  to  devote  a  certain  portion  of  his  time  to  the  social  ques- 
tions of  the  day.  Bishop  Potter,  who  favored  the  formation  of  the 
society,  and  was  for  several  years  its  president,  wrote  shortly  after 
it  was  foimded  that  he  was  "  sincerely  glad  to  know  that  the  grave 
and  urgent  questions  under  discussion  are  receiving  the  serious  con- 
sideration of  the  clergy."  From  the  beginning  C.  A.  I.  L.  has  recog- 
nized organized  labor,  and  Typographical  Union  No.  6  has  co-oper- 
ated with  it  on  numerous  occasions  in  its  uplift  work  among  the  masses 
of  the  people.     When  in  1 893  the  society  created  its  Council  of  Media- 


'Harriette  A.  Keyset,  "  Bishop  Potter,  the  People's  Friend,"  pages  18-20. 


MATTERS    OF    GENERAL    IMPORT.  6ll 

tion  and  Arbitration  it  selected  John  Newton  Bogart,  a  member  of 
"  Big  Six,"  as  the  Labor  attache  of  the  board,  the  other  two  mem- 
bers being  Bishop  Potter  and  Hon.  Seth  Low.  In  1894  when  the 
committee  was  enlarged  to  fifteen  members  so  as  to  include  repre- 
sentatives of  the  public,  Capital  and  the  labor  unions,  Mr.  Bogart 
was  chosen  secretary,  in  which  capacity  he  served  for  several  years. 
The  title  was  afterward  changed  to  the  New  York  Council  of  Media- 
tion and  Conciliation,  whose  constitution  forbade  it  to  "  constitute 
itself  a  body  of  arbitrators  excepting  at  the  express  request  of  both 
parties  to  a  controversy,  to  be  signified  in  writing." 

Union  No.  6  on  May  i,  1898,  accepted  an  invitation  from 
C.  A.  L  L.  to  be  represented  at  its  Labor  Mission  in  Trinity  Church 
on  Sunday,  May  8th.  In  its  communication  inviting  the  union  to 
select  a  delegation  from  among  its  membership  to  attend  the  services 
the  association  expressed  the  hope  "  that  this  occasion  will  strengthen 
the  fraternal  relations  between  the  Church  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  the  Interests  of  Labor  and  organized  labor,  and 
also  stimulate  consideration  of  the  great  problems  of  industrialism." 

At  the  C.  A.  I.  L.  convention  of  1906  the  question  of  limiting  the 
working  time  of  children  by  legislation  was  discussed  and  this  action 
taken:  "  Knowing  that  the  present-time  children  are  permitted 
to  work  nine  hours  per  day,  therefore,  be  it  resolved,  that  C.  A.  I.  L, 
urges  legislation  for  an  eight-hour  day,  between  8  in  the  morning 
and  5  in  the  afternoon,  for  children."  A  bill  was  prepared  and  Sen- 
ator Alfred  R.  Page  was  requested  to  introduce  it.  "I  will  not 
only  introduce  the  bill,"  responded  the  Senator,  "  but  will  do  all 
in  my  power  to  secure  its  passage."  It  provided  that  "  no  child 
under  the  age  of  16  years  shall  be  employed  or  permitted  to  work 
in  or  in  connection  with  any  factory  in  this  State  before  8  o'clock  in 
the  morning  or  after  5  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  any  day,  or  for  more 
than  eight  hours  in  any  one  day,  or  more  than  six  days  in  any  one 
week."  Senator  Page  introduced  it  on  the  first  day  of  the  1907 
session  of  the  Legislature.  C.  A.  I.  L.  sought  the  assistance  of  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  6  in  its  crusade  in  behalf  of  the  measure,  and  on 
February  3,  1907,  Miss  Lily  F.  Foster  and  Miss  Harriette  A.  Keyser, 
chairman  and  secretary,  respectively,  of  the  Legislative  Committee,  of 
the  Church  Association,  addressed  a  largely  attended  meeting  of  the 
union  on  the  subject.  The  printers  unanimously  endorsed  the  bill 
and  instructed  its  oflficers  to  convey  its  wishes  to  the  legislators, 
who  favorably  considered  the  matter,  the  Senate  passing  the  measure 
without  a  dissenting  vote,  and  it  was  promptly  carried  in  the  As- 
sembly.    Governor  Hughes  approved  it  on  June  15,  1907. 


6l2  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

A  request  from  the  Women's  Trade  Union  League  of  New  York 

that  Union  No.  6  send  two  delegates  to  the  league  was  complied  with 

on  January  5,  1908.     Mrs.  Julia  A.  Ailing  and  Miss 

"Women's  Elizabeth  Spence  were  chosen  as  the  first  repre- 

Trade  Union      sentatives  of  the  printers,  while  at  present  the  union 

League.  is  represented  in  this  labor  association  of  women 

by  Miss  Elizabeth  Cardwell  and  Miss  Mamie  Hamer. 
The  New  York  City  branch  of  the  National  Women's  Trade  Union 
League  was  organized  in  May,  1904,  any  person  being  "  admitted 
to  membership  who  will  declare  himself  or  herself  in  favor  of  the 
organization  of  women  into  the  unions  of  the  American  Federation 
of  Labor,"  according  to  the  first  by-laws  of  the  league,  "  and  is 
willing  and  able  to  give  a  certain  amount  of  time  to  the  movement. 
*  *  *  Any  person  may  become  a  contributor  upon  the  annual 
payment  of  $5  or  more,  and  shall  be  notified  and  invited  to  attend 
the  annual  meeting  given  by  the  league.  Local  unions  in  whose 
trade  there  are  women  eligible  to  union  membership  may  be  admitted 
upon  the  payment  of  $2  yearly  dues,  and  shall  be  admitted  to  all 
regular  meetings." 

The  league's  threefold  motto  is:  "  The  eight-hour  day;  A  living 
wage;  To  guard  the  home."  Considerable  work  has  been  performed 
by  the  New  York  branch  in  organizing  local  unions  among  women. 
"  The  strength  of  the  league  lies  in  its  capacity  to  train  wage-earning 
women  for  the  work  of  organization,"  says  the  report  for  the  year 
ended  March  31,  1908,  "  so  that  they  may  bear  their  fair  share  with 
the  men  in  the  effort  to  raise  the  standard  of  living  for  wage-earners. 
At  the  end  of  the  fourth  year  the  league  has  become  a  fairly  well- 
established  training  school  for  women  unionists.  Aside  from  the 
work  of  organizing  women  the  league  stands  ever  ready  to  do  auxil- 
iary work  of  different  kinds  in  the  local  trade-union  movement." 
Among  the  leaders  of  the  league  are  many  women  of  prominence, 
who  have  made  a  close  study  of  industrial  conditions  and  possess 
a  clear  knowledge  of  the  labor  movement,  their  sympathies  with 
which  have  gained  for  them  the  confidence  of  the  working  women 
whom  they  are  endeavoring  to  benefit. 

At  the  close  of  March,  this  year,  the  individual  membership  of 
the  New  York  branch  was  558,  while  its  membership  through  union 
affiliation  was  55,184,  of  which  20,029  were  women.  Miss  Mary  E. 
Dreir  is  president  and  Miss  Helen  Marot  secretary.  Its  head- 
quarters are  at  No.  43  East  2  2d  street,  Borough  of  Manhattan. 

A  letter  from  the  People's  Institute  relative  to  a  mass  meeting  at 
Cooper  Union  on  April  16,  1907,  in  connection  with  the  National 


MATTERS   OF   GENERAL    IMPORT.  613 

Arbitration  and  Peace  Congress  was  received  by  Typographical 
Union  No.  6  on  February  24,  1907,  requesting  that  its  president, 
James  J.  Murphy,  act  as  one  of  the  vice-presidents  at 
that  gathering,  and  the  latter  was  thereupon  author-  Espouses 
ized  by  the  union  to  represent  it  there.  Joseph  R.  Peace  Among 
Buchanan,  a  union  printer  and  journalist  of  national  Nations. 
repute,  presided  at  the  peace  meeting,  in  opening 
which  he  stated  that  it  had  been  arranged  by  a  local  committee  of 
labor  men  in  connection  with  the  People's  Institute.  "  It  is  intended 
as  a  labor  session  of  the  National  Arbitration  and  Peace  Congress  now 
holding  sessions  in  this  city,"  said  the  chairman.  "  In  considering 
the  substitution  of  arbitration  for  war  as  a  means  of  settlement  of 
disputes  between  nations,  it  appears  to  us  peculiarly  appropriate 
that  the  voice  of  Labor  should  be  heard.  Upon  the  workers  fall  the 
heaviest  cost  and  the  greatest  burdens  which  wait  upon  and  follow 
war.  From  their  ranks  come  those  whose  bodies  stop  the  bullets 
from  either  side  in  battle,  and  upon  their  backs  are  cast  the  burdens 
which  war  leaves  behind.  Therefore,  I  say,  we  consider  it  peculiarly 
appropriate  in  the  discussion  of  this  question  that  Labor  should  give 
expression  to  its  views.  When  the  time  comes  —  and  God  hasten 
the  day  —  that  the  workers  of  the  world  shall  be  united  in  a  universal 
brotherhood,  and  that  brotherhood  shall  declare  that  no  more  will 
the  workers  of  one  land  take  up  arms  at  the  command  of  some  mer- 
cenary or  revengeful  ruler  against  the  workers  of  some  other  land, 
then,  my  friends,  war  will  cease,  for  while  they  may  declare  war, 
there  will  be  none  left  to  fight  its  battles." 

Resolutions  adopted  by  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  in 
Jime,  1906,  were  then  reaffirmed.  These  gave  utterance  to  the 
belief  "  that  action  which  makes  for  the  peace  of  nations  is  intimately 
bound  up  with  the  welfare  of  the  workers  of  all  nations,  and  that 
Labor  should  make  an  organized  effort  to  aid  the  movement  for  arbi- 
tration on  international  disputes;"  the  president  being  directed  to 
urge  all  labor  organizations  to  request  Congress  and  the  President 
of  the  United  States  "  to  give  the  support  of  our  Government  to 
the  Interparliamentary  Union,  regarding  the  subjects  to  be  discussed 
at  the  second  Hague  Conference,  to  the  end  that  there  shall  be  estab- 
lished: (i)  A  general  arbitration  treaty;  (2)  a  periodic  world 
assembly;  (3)  impartial  investigation  of  all  difficulties  before 
hostilities  are  engaged  in  between  nations;  (4)  iinmunity  of 
private  property  at  sea  in  time  of  war." 

Among  the  speakers  were  William  T.  Stead,  editor  of  the  London 
Review  of  Reviews,  Hon.  John  S.  Whalen,  New  York's  Secretary  of 


6l4  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

State,  the  Rev.  Algernon  S.  Crapsey,  D.  D.,  of  Rochester,  Miss 
Leonora  O'Reilly,  of  the  Women's  Trade  Union  League,  President 
Samuel  Gompers  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  Hon.  Terence 
V.  Powderly,  of  the  United  States  Immigration  Service,  and  President 
Murphy  of  Union  No.  6,  the  latter's  address  on  "  Organized  Labor, 
the  Advocate  of  Peace,"  being  in  part  as  follows: 

The  voice  of  Labor  is  on  the  side  of  peace.  Especially  is  this  true  of  union 
labor;  for  in  the  proportion  that  Labor  is  organized  and  has  progressed  along  the 
natural  lines  of  organization,  it  is  intelligent. 

As  education  advances  man  toward  a  higher  and  better  civilization,  he  leaves 
farther  and  farther  behind  him  the  crudities  and  cruelties  of  barbarism  and  comes 
to  a  more  perfect  understanding  of  the  rights  of  others. 

The  intelligent  workingman  of  this  country  is  a  conservator  of  that  grand 
principle  written  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence:  The  right  to  life,  liberty 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  He  sees  in  wars  between  nations  a  violation  of 
that  principle  —  the  destruction  of  life,  invasion  of  liberty  and  obstruction  of  the 
pursuit  of  happiness.  And  he  sees,  looking  at  the  case  from  a  personal  stand- 
point, that  it  is  his  life  which  is  taken,  his  liberty  which  is  invaded,  and  his  happi- 
ness which  is  obstructed. 

Statesmen,  financiers  and  captains  of  industry  may  and  do  make  wars,  but 
the  workers  fight  the  battles.  Those  who  were  the  wives  of  workingmen  before 
the  war  are  their  widows  after  it.  The  children  who  are  left  fatherless  at  the 
battle's  end  are  the  sons  and  daughters  of  workingmen. 

It  is  also  true  that  the  burdens  which  wars  place  upon  nations  that  engage  in 
them  bear  more  heavily  upon  the  workers  than  upon  any  other  class  of  citizens. 
It  is  a  pretty  well-recognized  axiom  of  poUtical  economy  that  the  consumer  pays 
the  tax.  All  that  the  workingman  earns  he  consumes  —  this  I  state  as  a  general 
proposition  —  he  is,  therefore,  unable  to  transfer  any  part  of  his  burden  to  the 
account  of  another  through  the  channels  of  trade,  or  by  any  other  method. 
The  workingman's  pound  of  tea,  his  plug  of  tobacco,  his  coat,  his  hat,  his  shoes, 
and  the  coats,  hats,  shoes,  and  everything  else  that  his  family  uses  may  be  taxed, 
and  he  has  to  pay  or  go  without.  When  any  part  of  this  tax  is  levied  upon  him 
for  the  purpose  of  discharging  the  costs  of  war  he  receives  nothing  in  return. 
The  thousands  of  millions  wrung  by  wars  from  the  brawn  and  brain  of  Labor 
would  construct  a  counterpart  of  this  building  out  of  the  purest  gold  and  garland 
yon  columns  with  precious  gems. 

There  have  been  wars  that  were  fought  to  escape  the  yoke  of  tyranny,  and 
when  successful  were  of  immeasurable  benefit  to  the  liberated,  although  the  cost 
in  life  and  treasure  was  sometimes  enormous;  but  these  were  revolutions  —  peoples 
warring  against  the  injustice  or  cruelty  of  their  own  governments  or  rulers. 

We  are  here  considering  wars  between  nations.  Such  wars  are  often  due  to 
the  jingoism  of  rulers,  the  casus  belli  often  being  nothing  more  than  a  personal 
slight  or  affront,  which  is  trivial  when  compared  with  the  terrible  cost  of  retalia- 
tion. 

There  are  other  wars  which  are  for  the  purpose  of  extending  markets  —  to 
secure  advantages  in  what  is  called  "  doing  business  "  with  the  people  of  a  foreign 
country.  And  generally  there  is  included  among  the  objects  of  wars  of  the  latter 
class  the  desire  to  exploit  the  natural  resources  of  the  contested  country  and  to 


MATTERS    OF    GENERAL   IMPORT.  61$ 

lay  its  people  under  tribute  to  improved  methods  of  industrial  and  financial 
exploitation. 

Whether  the  object  of  a  proposed  war  is  revenge  or  business,  those  who,  as  I 
have  said,  do  the  fighting  and  pay  the  costs  are  not  consulted. 

Those  who  imagine  that  their  dignity  or  the  dignity  of  some  satellite  has 
been  slighted,  and  those  who  expect  to  personally  benefit  by  the  results  of  the 
war,  decide  the  issue  and  then  call  upon  those  whose  counsel  has  not  been  sought 
and  whose  desires  have  not  been  considered  to  do  the  fighting  and  bear  the 
burdens. 

The  intelligent  workers  of  all  lands  are  beginning  to  understand  these  truths, 
and,  as  they  have  come  to  see  that  their  class  has  been  used  to  satisfy  the  jingoism 
of  political  leaders  and  the  cupidity  of  mercenary  business  interests,  they  have 
also  learned  the  truth  of  the  brotherhood  of  man. 

While  not  lacking  by  one  heart  beat  the  full  measure  of  that  love  of  country 
which  we  call  "  patriotism;"  while  bowing  the  head  to  his  country's  flag  with  a 
reverence  not  one  whit  less  than  was  felt  by  those  who  came  and  went  before  him, 
the  workingman  of  to-day  has  reached  a  plane  from  which  he  can  see  and  appre- 
ciate the  love  of  country  and  flag  felt  by  his  brother  across  the  border  or  on  the 
ocean's  other  side,  and  he  protests  against  murdering  or  being  murdered  by  that 
brother. 

Applause  or  laudation  may  bring  the  flush  of  foolish  pride  to  the  unthinking 
or  forgetful  "  man  behind  the  gun,"  but  the  enlightened  progressive  man  of 
labor  carries  a  heart  full  of  sympathy  and  compassion  for  the  man  in  front  of 
the  gun. 

In  conclusion  I  repeat  that  Labor  —  organized  labor  —  is  on  the  side  of  peace  — 
because  of  the  inherent  selfishness  of  mankind  —  which  has  not  yet  learned  wis- 
dom, and  because  of  our  industrial  system  and  the  conditions  contingent  thereto, 
trade  unionism  is  still  a  militant  movement;  but  it  is  constantly  striving  to  bring 
about  the  substitution  of  the  court  of  reason  for  the  murderous  contest  of  force 
in  the  settlement  of  differences  between  opposing  interests. 

That  arrogant  defiance  of  peace,  that  virulent  microbe  of  strife,  "  Nothing  to 
arbitrate,"  had  not  its  birth  in  the  trade  union,  and  rarely  does  it  find  a  friend 
there.  We  advocate  arbitration  as  a  substitute  for  open  conflict  between  our- 
selves and  our  employers  and,  adapting  a  thought  expressed  by  Andrew  Carnegie, 
we  believe  that  what  is  good  for  use  at  home  is  good  for  use  abroad. 

Therefore,  I  confidently  say  that  the  trade  unions  of  the  United  States  —  and, 
I  believe,  the  trade  unions  of  all  countries  —  are  pledged  to  the  accomplishment 
of  the  principles  enunciated  by  The  Hague  Conference,  and  will  do  everything 
within  their  power  to  assist  in  that  good  work.  No  one  more  than  the  trade 
unionist  hopes  for  the  early  fulfillment  of  this  prophecy  of  that  great  son  of 
France,  Victor  Hugo,  who  said:  "In  the  twentieth  century  wars  will  cease, 
and  men  the  world  over  will  be  brothers." 


CHAPTER  XLI. 
UNION  PRINTERS  WHO  ATTAINED  DISTINCTION. 

I. 

First  President  of  "  Big  Six." 

HORACE  GREELEY'S  imperishable  name  will  be  interminably 
linked  with  the  history  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  through 
all  eons.     He  was  chief  among  the  small  phalanx  of  enthu- 
siastic yet  conservative  men  who  suggested  its  formation,  brought  it 
finally  into  being,  and  helped  to  sustain  it  during  its  early  struggles. 
Called  to  the  chair  as  the  first  president  of  the  New 
Horace  Greeley    York  Printers'  Union,   Mr.   Greeley  was  constant 

_.     .,  ,       in  serving  the  membership  in  that  capacity  for  a 

Presidency  of  *=  f  .  .\,  .  . 

Printers'  Union.    ^^^^  annual  term,  and  contmued  to  wield  his  potent 

influence  in  behalf  of  his  craft  for  many  years  after 

he  had  yielded  the  gavel  to  his  successor.^     Before  he  assumed  the 

presidency  of  the  union  he  had  attained  the  distinction  of  being  the 

foremost  journalist  of  his  time.     The  New  York  Tribune,  founded 

by  him  in  1841  and  of  which  he  and  Thomas  McElrath  owned  a 

majority  of  the  stock  when  afterward  it  became  an  incorporated 

association,  was  at  the  beginning  of  1850  a  profitable  newspaper, 

netting  its  proprietors  an  income  of  more  than  $30,000  yearly.     But 

notwithstanding  these  comparatively   large   earnings,  his  arduous 

duties  as  editor-in-chief,  and  the  multiplicity  of  business  cares  and 

responsibilities  that  devolved  upon  him,  so  imbued  was  he  with  the 

doctrines  pertaining  to  the  workers'  cause  that  he  cheerfully  devoted 


1  Horace  Greeley  was  president  of  the  New  York  Printers'  Union  from  January  19,  1850,  to 
January  4,  1851.  On  the  latter  date  he  issued  to  the  membership  his  final  official  call  for  a  regular 
meeting  of  the  organization,  as  follows: 

New  York,  January  4.  1851. 
New  York  Printers'  Union: — A  regular  meeting  of  the  union  takes  place  this  evening  at 
their  rooms,  Fountain  Hall,   149  Bowery.      Punctual   attendance   is    requested,    as   business  of 
importance  connected  with  the  welfare  of  the  union  will  be  brought  before  the  meeting. 

N  B.  —  The  first  annual  ball  of  the  union  comes  off  at  Tripler  Hall,  Tuesday  evening,  January 
7.  1851. 

HoRACB  Greeley, 
James  R.  Ward,  President. 

Secretary  Pro  Tern. 

[616] 


HORACE  GREELEY, 

As  He  Appeared  When  He  Became  President  of  New  York 
Printers'  Union  in  1850. 


UNION    PRINTERS    WHO    ATTAINED    DISTINCTION.  617 

his  spare  hours  and  energy  to  successfully  promote  the  interests  of 
the  new  organization  of  practical  printers.  To  him  trade  unionism 
was  not  a  lately  discovered  idea.  He  had  long  understood  its  funda- 
mental principles  and  practiced  them  in  his  business  life.  Even 
during  the  trying  years  that  he  published  and  edited  the  New  Yorker, 
a  venture  that  showed  scanty  financial  gains,  he  gave  recognition  to 
the  New  York  Typographical  Association,  which  publicly  announced 
the  fact  in  1836;  and  again  in  1844  he  not  only  employed  members 
of  the  Franklin  Typographical  Association,  but  urged  every  journey- 
man in  the  city  to  enter  its  ranks. 

Horace  Greeley's  birthplace  was  Amherst,  N.  H.,  where  he  first 
saw  the  light  on  February  3,  181 1.     He  was  the  son  of  Zaccheus 
Greeley,  an  impecunious  farmer.     The  child  was 
precocious,  never  caring  for  sports,  but  was  quite    Early  Career 
fond  of  books.     He  was  first  sent  to  school  when  3    of  the 
years  old,  spelling  being  his  forte.     At  4  he  could    Printer-Editor, 
read  fluently.     His  last  simimer  schooling  was  at 
the  age  of  7.     Afterward  he  went  to  school  only  in  winter,  laboring 
at  other  times  in  the  fields.     At  the  tender  age  of  6  years  he  avowed 
his  purpose  to  become  a  printer,  and  when  he  reached  1 1  he  sought 
work  as  a  learner  in  the  village  printing  office,  but  was  rejected  owing 
to  his  youth.     In  the  spring  of  1826  he  was  apprenticed  for  five  years 
to  the  proprietor  of  the  East  Poultney  (Vt.)  Northern  Spectator,  to 
be  boarded  and  lodged,  and  after  six  months  to  be  paid  $40  per 
annum.     There  he  speedily  acquired  the  art  of  printing,  at  the  same 
time  diligently  availing  himself  of  the  rare  faciHties  for  intellectual 
improvement  that  such  an  institution  ever  affords.     The  paper  sus- 
pended in  June,  1830,  and  he  was  released  from  his  apprenticeship. 
Then  he  became  an  itinerant  typo,  working  at  his 
trade  in  Jamestown  and  Lodi,   N.  Y.,  but  being    Experiences 
employed  for  the  longest  period  in  Erie,  Pa.     In    as  a 
1831  he  started  for  New  York  City.     His  arrival    Tramp  Printer, 
there  is  thus  described  by  himself:     "  It  was,  if  I 
recollect  aright,  the  seventeenth  of  August,  183 1.     I  was  20  years 
old  the  preceding  February;  tall,  slender,  pale  and  plain,  with  $10 
in  my  pocket,  summer  clothing  worth  as  much  more,  nearly  all  on 
my  back,  and  a  decent  knowledge  of  so  much  of  the  art  of  printing 
as  a  boy  will  usually  learn  in  the  office  of  a  country  newspaper.     But 
I  knew  no  human  being  within  200  miles,  and  my  unmistakably 
rustic  manner  and  address  did  not  favor  that  immediate  command  of 
remunerating  employment,  which  was  my  most  urgent  need.     How- 
ever, the  world  was  all  before  me;  my  personal  estate,  tied  up  in 


6l8  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

a  pocket  handkerchief,  did  not  at  all  encumber  me."  -  After  two 
days'  futile  quest  for  employment,  the  season  being  midsummer,  when 
the  printing  business  was  dull,  and  having  visited  at  least  two- thirds 
of  the  offices  on  Manhattan  Island,  he  returned  to  his  lodgings  on 
Saturday  evening,  to  quote  his  exact  words,  "  thoroughly  weary, 
disheartened,  disgusted  with  New  York,  and  resolved  to  shake  its 
dust  from  my  feet  next  Monday  morning,  while  I  could  still  leave 
with  money  in  my  pocket,  and  before  its  almshouse  could  foreclose 
upon  me."  This,  however,  was  not  to  be,  for  he  soon  obtained 
work,  not  very  remunerative  at  first,  for  the  wages  he  received 
amounted  to  $5.50  a  week,  and  he  had  to  put  in  fourteen  hours  a 
day,  but  eventually  he  obtained  a  more  lucrative  situation.  For 
fourteen  months  he  worked  in  New  York  as  a  journeyman,  some- 
times in  job  offices,  also  on  the  Evening  Post,  Commercial  Advertiser, 
and  longer  on  the  Spirit  of  the  Times. 

Horace  Greeley  in  young  manhood  evinced  a  desire  to  own  a 
newspaper.     In    his    2  2d    year  he    formed    a    copartnership   with 
Francis  V.  Story,  a  fellow-compositor,  for  the  pub- 
Initial  lication  of  a  one-cent  daily  newspaper.     About  $150 
Venture  as      —  all  the  cash  that  they  jointly  possessed  —  was 
Employer.       expended  by  the  firm  in  fitting  up  an  office,  and  the 
partners  sought  credit  for   the  requisite  printing 
material.     Greeley  at  once  visited  a  prominent  typefounder,  but  the 
latter  declined  to  sell  the  concern  $40  worth  of  type  on  trust  for  six 
months.     "  I  went  directly  thence  to  Mr.  George  Bruce,  the  older 
and  wealthier  founder,  in  Chambers  street,"  said  the  great  editor 
in  afterward  recounting  the  circumstance,  "  made  the  same  exhibit, 
and  was  allowed  by  him  the  credit  I  asked;  and  that  purchase  has 
since  secured  to  his  concern  the  sale  of  not  less  than  $50,000  worth 
of  type."     The  printery  was  started,  and  the  firm  did  the  typesetting 
for  the  Morning  Post,  the  initial  number  of  which  was  issued  on 
January  i,  1833.     It  failed  in  three  weeks,  but  Greeley  &  Story  lost 
only  a  third  of  their  capital  and  still  had  their  type,  the  partners  then 
becoming  master   job   printers   for   awhile.     Greeley  never  again 
performed  any  work  as  a  journeyman.     "  Thus  the  first  cheap-for- 
cash  daily  in  New  York  —  perhaps  in  the  world  —  died  when  scarcely 
yet  a  month  old,"  wrote  he;  "  and  we  printers  were  hard  aground 
on  a  lee  shore,  with  little  prospect  of  getting  up."     But  the  paper 
was  saved  from  bankruptcy  by  a  person  who  had  a  taste  for  editorial 
life,  and  who  was  induced  to  buy  the  wreck.     "  He  soon  tired  of 


2  Horace  Greeley's  "  Recollections  of  a  Busy  Life,"  page  84. 


UNION    PRINTERS    WHO    ATTAINED    DISTINCTION.  619 

his  thriftless,  profitless  speculation,"  said  Greeley,  "and  threw  it  up; 
but  we  had  meantime  surmoimted  our  embarrassments  by  the  help 
of  the  little  money  he  paid  for  a  portion  of  our  materials  and  for  my 
partner's  services." 

On  March  22,  1834,  Greeley  started  the  New  Yorker,  "  which  held 
its  own  pretty  fairly  thenceforth  till  the  commercial  revulsion  of 
1837  swept  over  the  land,  whelming  it  and  me  in  the  general  ruin," 
quoth  he.  He  ceased  pubHshing  the  paper  on  September  20,  1841, 
"  and  shut  up  its  books,  whereon  were  inscribed  some  $10,000  owed 
me,  in  sums  of  $1  to  $10  each,  by  men  to  whose  service  I  had  faithfully 
devoted  the  best  years  of  my  life. ' '  In  the  morning  of  April  10,  1 84 1 , 
he  sent  forth  the  initial  number  of  the  Tribune,  and  his  success  only 
began  when  he  took  into  partnership  Thomas  McElrath,  who  was  a 
lawyer  in  good  standing  and  practice.  "  I  was  not  made  for  a  pub- 
lisher," Greeley  declared  in  after  years;  "indeed  no  man  was  ever 
qualified  at  once  to  edit  and  to  pubUsh  a  daily  paper  such  as  it 
must  be  to  live  in  these  times." 

Greeley  was  a  persistent  as  well  as  a  consistent  exponent  of  in- 
dustrial co-operation,  both  productive  and  distributive.     "  I  believe 
in  association,  or  co-operation,  or  whatever  name 
may  be  given  to  the  combination  of  many  heads      Consistent 
and  hands  to  achieve  a  beneficent  result,  which  is     Exponent  of 
beyond  the  means  of  one  or  a  few  of  them,"  he      Co-operation, 
wrote  in  1850  in  "  Hints  Toward  Reforms."     His 
views  on  this  subject  were  immutable,  and  eighteen  years  later  he 
continued  to  expound  them  in  most  expressive  terms.     "  Co-opera- 
tion —  the  combination  of  some  hundreds  of  producers  to  dispose 
of  their  labor  or  its  fruits,  or  of  consumers  in  like  manner  to  supply 
their  common  wants  of  food,  etc.,  more  economically  and  satis- 
factorily than  by  individual  purchases  from  markets,  stalls  or  stores  — 
is  one-sided,  fragmentary  association,"  he  observed  in  1868,  con- 
cluding thus:     "  Its  advantages  are   signal,   obvious,    immediate; 
its  chief  peril  is  the  rascality  of  the  agent,  treasurer  or  manager, 
whom  it  is  obliged  to  trust.     As  it  involves  no  decided,  radical  change 
of  habits  and  usages,  it  is  destined  to  achieve  an  early  success  and 
thus  to  pioneer  further  and  more  beneficent  reforms.     It  has  already 
won  signal  triumphs  in  sober,  practical  England;  it  is  winning  the 
intellectual  assent  of  earnest,  meditative  Germany.     I  shall  be  sorely 
disappointed  if  this  nineteenth  century  does  not  witness  its  very 
general  adoption  as  a  means  of  reducing  the  cost  and  increasing  the 
comfort  of  the  poor  man's  living.     It  ought  to  add  25  per  cent  to 
the  average  income  of  the  thriftier  half  of  the  laboring  class;  while  its 


620  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

advantages  are  free  to  all  with  whom  economy  is  an  object.  And 
even  above  its  direct  advantages  I  prize  the  habits  of  calculation,  of 
foresight,  of  saving  which  it  is  calculated  to  foster  and  promote 
among  those  who  accept  its  principles  and  enjoy  its  more  material 
blessings."  ^  The  Tribune  in  1848,  1849  and  1850  on  numerous 
occasions  instructed  workmen  how  to  become  their  own  employers 
and  thus  reap  the  entire  profits  of  their  labor,  and  Greeley  demon- 
strated the  consistency  of  his  ideas  by  reducing  his  preachment  to 
practice.  He  and  Mr.  McElrath,  his  partner,  resolved  in  1849  to 
try  the  experiment  on  the  Tribune,  and  in  1850  that  paper  was  made 
a  stock  concern  on  a  valuation  of  $100,000,  which  was  represented 
by  100  shares  of  $1,000  each,  20  being  sold  to  editors,  foremen  and 
other  employees,  while  the  remaining  four-fifths  were  retained  by 
the  original  owners.  James  Parton  in  his  biography  of  the  distin- 
guished printer-editor,  states  that  Greeley  &  McElrath  "  were  both 
at  the  time  in  the  enjoyment  of  incomes  superfluously  large,  and  the 
contemplated  change  in  their  business  was  therefore  not  induced  by 
any  business  exigency.  It  was  the  result  of  a  pure,  disinterested 
attachment  to  principle;  a  desire  to  add  practice  to  preaching." 
Subsequently  more  shares  were  sold,  until  the  original  proprietors 
controlled  not  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  property. 

The  general  labor  movement  received  no  small  degree  of  atten- 
tion from  No.  6's  first  president.     His  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the 
workers  in  all  occupations  was  most  pronounced, 
Interest  in  the    and  at  every  opportunity  —  in  the  columns  of  the 
General  Labor     Tribune,  on  the  reform  rostrum  and  at  trade  union 
Movement.         meetings  —  he  effectively  espoused  their  cause  and 
assisted  materially  in  improving  their  standard  of 
living.     "  It  is  now  eighteen  years  since  I  came  to  this  city  a  journey- 
man printer,  during  which  time  I  have  been  intimately  connected 
with  our  craft  in  one  capacity  or  another,"  spoke  he  in  1850,  "  and 
yet  I  have  never  heard  of  a  meeting  of  printers  to  consider  and  discuss 
the  rights  generally  of  Labor,  the  causes  of  its  depression,  the  means 
of  its  advancement.     *     *     *     Individuals  have  risen  out  of  the 
laboring  class,  becoming  buyers  of  labor  and  sellers  of  its  products, 
and  grown  rich  thereby;  but  the  condition  of  the  laboring  class,  as 
such,  has  not  improved,  and  I  think  is  less  favorable  than  it  was 
20  years  ago.     Why  should  it  not  investigate,  determine  and  develop 
the  causes  of  this?     Why  not  consider  the  practicability  of  securing 
work  and  houses  to  all  willing  to  work  for  them?     *     *     *    Our 


'"  Recollections  of  a  Busy  Life,"  page  157. 


UNION    PRINTERS    WHO    ATTAINED    DISTINCTION.  62 1 

trade  and  the  laboring  class  of  our  city  have  been  glaringly  unfaithful 
in  this  respect  to  yourselves,  your  posterity,  and  your  race,  and  the 
workers  of  Paris,  for  example,  are  in  advance  of  their  brethren  here 
in  knowledge  of  and  devotion  to  the  interests  and  rights  of  Labor. 
And  I  am  not  here  to  find  fault  merely,  but  to  exhort  you  to  awake 
from  your  apathy  and  heed  the  summons  of  duty.  I  stand  here, 
friends,  to  urge  that  a  new  leaf  be  now  turned  over  —  that  the  labor- 
ing class,  instead  of  idly  and  blindly  waiting  for  better  circumstances 
and  better  times,  shall  begin  at  once  to  consider  and  discuss  the 
means  of  controlling  circimistances  and  commanding  times,  by  study, 
calculation,  foresight,  union.  *  *  *  What  I  would  suggest  would 
be  the  union  and  organization  of  all  workers  for  their  mutual  improve- 
ment and  benefit  leading  to  the  erection  of  a  spacious  edifice  at  some 
central  point  in  our  city  to  form  a  Laborers'  Exchange,  just  as  Com- 
merce now  has  its  exchange,  very  properly.  Let  the  new  exchange 
be  erected  and  owned  as  a  joint-stock  property,  pay  a  fair  dividend 
to  those  whose  money  erected  it,  let  it  contain  the  best  spacious  hall 
for  general  meetings  to  be  found  in  our  city,  with  smaller  lecture 
rooms  for  the  meetings  of  particular  sections  or  callings  —  all  to  be 
leased  or  rented  at  fair  prices  to  all  who  may  choose  to  hire  them, 
when  not  needed  for  the  primary  purpose  of  discussing  and  advancing 
the  interests  of  Labor.  Let  us  have  here  books  opened  wherein  any 
one  wanting  work  may  inscribe  his  name,  residence,  capacities  and 
terms,  while  any  one  wishing  to  hire  may  do  likewise,  as  well  as  meet 
personally  those  seeking  employment.  These  are  but  hints  toward  a 
few  of  the  uses  which  such  a  Labor  Exchange  might  subserve,  while 
its  reading-room  and  library,  easily  formed  and  replenished,  should 
be  opened  freely  and  gladly  to  all.  Such  an  edifice,  rightly  planned 
and  constructed,  might  become,  and  I  confidently  hope  would  become, 
a  most  important  instnmientality  in  advancing  the  laboring  class  in 
comfort,  intelligence  and  independence.  I  trust  we  need  not  long 
await  its  erection."  * 

Touching  the  general  movement  of  Labor  looking  to  an  advance 
and  regulation  of  wages,  Greeley  wrote  as  follows  in  the  Tribune  of 
April  13,  1853: 

1 .  We  believe  that  the  wages  of  Labor  should  be  liberal  —  that  the  true  interest 
of  all  classes  requires  this  —  and  that  they  have  generally  been  lower  than  they 
should  be. 

2.  We  believe  that  unregulated,  unrestricted  competition  —  the  free  trade 
principle  of  "  every  man  for  himself  "  and  "  buy  where  you  can  the  cheapest  " — 


*  From  address  by  Horace  Greeley  at  the  banquet  of  the  New  York  Typographical  Society, 
January  17,  1850. 


622  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

tends  everywhere  and  necessarily  to  the  depression  of  wages  and  the  concen- 
tration of  wealth.  Capital  can  wait  —  Labor  cannot  —  but  must  earn  or  famish. 
Without  organization,  concert  and  mutual  support,  among  those  who  live  by 
selling  their  labor,  its  price  will  get  lower  and  lower  as  naturally  as  water  runs 
down  hill.  Consequently,  we  are  in  favor  of  trades  unions  or  regular  associa- 
tions of  workers  in  the  several  callings  for  the  establishment  and  maintenance 
of  fair  and  just  rates  of  wages  in  each. 

3.  We  believe  employers  have  rights  as  well  as  journeymen  —  that  they  too 
should  hold  meetings  and  form  societies  or  appoint  delegates  to  confer  with  like 
delegates  on  the  part  of  the  journeymen;  and  that  by  the  joint  action  of 
these  conferrers,  fair  rates  of  wages  in  each  calling  should  be  established  and 
maintained. 

4.  We  believe  that  the  rates  thus  established  are  and  should  be  morally  bind- 
ing upon  all  who  see  fit  to  engage  in  these  callings  respectively  —  that  he  who 
cannot  afford  them  has  no  right  to  be  an  employer,  and  he  who  will  not  ought 
to  be  shunned  alike  by  journeymen  and  customers  —  and  that  whenever  em- 
ployers or  journeymen  believe  that  the  circumstances  of  their  trade  require  an 
increase  or  reduction  of  wages  they  ought  to  assemble  their  own  class  and  pro- 
cure its  sanction  to  a  new  conference  of  delegates  as  aforesaid  and  that  its  decision 
should  be  conclusive. 

5.  We  believe  that  strikes,  or  refusals  of  journeymen  to  work  at  such  wages 
as  they  can  command,  are  seldom  necessary  —  that  proper  representations  and 
conciliatory  action  on  the  part  of  journeymen  would  secure  all  requisite  modi- 
fications of  wages  without  striking  —  and  that  the  aggregate  of  wasted  time, 
misdirected  energy,  embittered  feeling  and  social  anarchy  which  a  strike 
creates  is  seldom  compensated  by  any  permanent  enhancement  of  wages  thus 
obtained. 

6.  We  believe  that  the  primary  and  most  culpable  authors  of  strikes  and 
the  mischiefs  thence  arising  are  those  employers  who  refuse  to  unite  in  any  efforts 
for  the  systematic  adjustment  of  wages,  but  insist  on  fixing  and  paying  such 
rates  of  wages  as  they  choose,  without  reference  to  the  established  regulations 
or  current  usages  of  the  vocation.  If  these  would  but  desist  from  their  evil 
practices,  the  claims  of  journeymen  alone  to  regulate  wages  without  asking  the 
concurrence  of  employers  would  be  easily  proved  untenable  and  speedily  aban- 
doned. While  the  journeymen's  scales  of  prices  are  the  only  ones,  they  ought, 
for  want  of  better,  to  be  respected  and  adhered  to.  But  to  secure  a  conference 
and  a  mutual  agreement  as  to  wages,  the  employers  in  any  trade  have  but  to 
ask  it.  In  short  —  we  believe  the  present  fermentation  among  the  trades  of 
our  city  a  salutary  and  hopeful  one  —  that  it  is  based  on  a  just  idea  of  the  exist- 
ing regulations  of  Labor  to  Capital,  and  rightly  affirms  the  wages  should  increase 
as  currency  is  expanded  and  living  becomes  nominally  dearer;  and  we  hold  that, 
should  it  result  in  disastrous  collisions  between  employers  and  employed,  paralyz- 
ing whole  departments  of  industry,  the  fault  will  mainly  lie  at  the  door  of  those 
employers  who  refuse  to  co-operate  in  establishing  and  upholding  just  rates  of 
wages  in  their  several  vocations.  If  journeymen  alone  regulate  the  prices  of 
labor,  they  will  be  likely  to  fix  them  too  high;  if  employers  alone  fix  them  (as 
they  virtually  do  under  the  free-trade  system)  they  will  as  naturally  fix  them  too 
low;  but  let  journeymen  and  employers  in  each  trade  unite  in  framing,  upholding 
and  from  time  to  time  modifying  their  scale,  and  it  will  usually  be  just  about 
right. 


UNION    PRINTERS    WHO    ATTAINED    DISTINCTION.  623 

It  was  almost  wholly  due  to  Greeley's  efforts  that  the  wages  of 
New  York  printers  were  raised  and  made  uniform  in  185 1,  and  to 
him  belongs  a  large  measure  of  credit  for  securing 
subsequent  advances  in  their  rates,  besides  better  Ever  Alert 
trade  conditions.    He  came  to  the  rescue  of  his  union  to  Improve 
brethren  on  frequent  occasions,  the  following  from  ^^^^^  Conditions, 
the   Tribune  of  November  4,   1850,  serving  as  an 
illustrative  example  of  the  course  he  pursued  to  benefit  his  craft: 
"An  advertisement  for  50  journeymen  printers  to  work  in  Phila- 
delphia appears  in  a  New  York  paper,  with  a  statement  that  advanced 
rates  of  wages  will  be  paid  them.    A  card  from  the  joumejrmen  of 
Philadelphia  states  that  the  only  demand  for  such  workmen  is  caused 
by  a  strike  consequent  on  the  refusal  of  certain  employers  to  pay  the 
scale  of  prices  drawn  up  by  the  journeymen.    We  trust  no  printers 
in  this  city  or  elsewhere  will  rush  to  Philadelphia  to  obtain  situations 
under  such  circimistances." 

Peace  between  No.  6  and  the  Tribune  after  the  rupture  of  1864  had 
been  fully  restored  long  before  the  union  held  its  fifth  annual  picnic 
and  summemight's  festival  at  Jones'  Wood,  then  an 
amusement  park  covered  with  trees  on  the  bank  of  ^"^1*^  Reception 
the  East  River  between  Sixty-eighth  and  Seventieth  Q^ggj^^b  *° 
streets.  New  York  City,  on  Saturday,  August  24,  «« gjg  gi^ .» 
1872.  That  event  gave  the  3,000  printers  and  their 
friends  who  were  present  an  opportunity  to  pubHcly  greet  Horace 
Greeley,  who  was  received  by  Robert  O.  Harmon,  secretary  of  the 
tmion,  and  Thomas  Burke  at  the  Grand  Central  Station,  upon 
his  arrival  early  in  the  evening  from  Chappaqua,  and  escorted 
in  a  coach  to  the  scene  of  festivities.  At  the  grotmds  the  veteran 
editor  was  ushered  into  the  reception  room,  where  Robert 
McKechnie,  president  of  the  union,  and  the  Committee  of 
Arrangements  welcomed  him.  "  Mr.  Greeley,  we  are  glad  to 
have  you  with  us,"  said  President  McKechnie.  "  You  have  done 
us  a  great  honor."  "  Thank  you,"  was  the  reply;  "  I  am  very 
much  pleased  to  be  with  my  fellow-craftsmen.  But,"  continued 
the  printer-journalist,  as  a  broad  smile  overspread  his  countenance, 
"  what  will  the  morning  newspapers  do?  They  must  have  composi- 
tors." Some  one  proposed  "  three  cheers  for  Greeley,  the  printers' 
friend."  A  chronicler  of  that  auspicious  occurrence  reported  that 
"  instantly  a  cheer  went  up  that  fairly  shook  the  building,  and  Mr. 
Greeley  said  he  thought  he  would  go  out  to  see  'the  boys.'  Mr. 
Greeley  stepped  upon  the  orchestra  platform  and  the  band  played 
'Hail  to  the  Chief!'  and  'Should  Old  Acquaintance  be  Forgot?' 


624  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

When  the  enthusiasm,  which  was  almost  indescribable,  had  subsided, 
Mr.  McKechnie  began  to  address  the  assemblage,  which  covered 
every  nook  and  comer  of  the  immense  platform.  It  was  some  mo- 
ments before  he  could  make  himself  heard.  '  Ladies  and  gentlemen,' 
said  he,  '  you  are  all  probably  aware  that  our  distinguished  guest  was 
the  first  president  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6.  If  he  was  not  the 
best  printer  he  was  certainly  the  best  we  knew.  If  he  sets  type  as 
badly  as  he  makes  copy  he  is  now  a  very  bad  printer.^  Allow  me  to 
introduce  him  to  you."  * 

Greeley  made  a  brief  response,  speaking  of  the  printers'  profession 
as  a  leading  and  honorable  one,  and  compared  it  with  what  it  was 
in  olden  times.  After  alluding  in  complimentary  terms  to  the  Typo- 
graphical Union  and  the  honor  conferred  upon  him  by  its  invitation 
to  attend  the  fete,  he  proceeded  thus:  "  We  are  not  the  oldest  craft 
in  the  world  —  ten  or  twelve  others  went  before;  but  we  have  a 
higher  honor  than  that  of  antiquity,  under  an  intellectual  body.  A 
printer,  from  the  very  nature  of  his  calling,  should  be  able  to  explain 
and  intelligently  elucidate  the  great  questions  and  problems  of  the 
day,  in  which  the  labor  question  stands  conspicuous.  The  matter  of 
wages  is  receiving  considerable  attention,  and  it  should  be  gradually, 
calmly  and  coolly  brought  to  a  satisfactory  close,  receiving  the  atten- 
tion which  experience,  study  and  observation  alone  can  give.      The 


^  Horace  Greeley's  chirography  closely  resembled  "  lame  goose  tracks,"  and  but  few  printers 
could  decipher  it.  The  following  from  the  Printers'  Circular  of  February,  1880,  at  page  274,  in 
recording  the  death  of  John  C.  Robinson,  one  of  the  most  celebrated  proofreaders  in  the  United 
States  and  a  prominent  member  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  will  give  the  reader  some  idea  as 
to  the  quality  of  the  distinguished  editor's  handwriting:  "  In  1854  he  [RobinsonI  first  entered  the 
proofroom  of  the  New  York  Tribune,  and  in  the  first  six  months  of  his  stay  showed  himself  to  be 
a  marvel  in  deciphering  illegible  manuscript.  To  the  surprise  of  his  new  colleagues  he  read  Richard 
Hildreth's,  Horace  Greeley's,  Count  Gurowski's,  Gerrit  Smith's,  and  other  notoriously  crabbed 
manuscripts  at  a  glance.  Time  and  again,  when  Horace  Greeley  acknowledged  himself  unable 
to  read  his  own  handwriting,  he  referred  it  to  Robinson,  who  would  examine  it  steadily  for  a  minute, 
and  then  read  it  o5  like  print.  One  night  in  October,  1866,  Horace  Greeley  sent  a  letter  from  an 
up-town  hotel  in  New  York  to  the  then  night  editor  of  the  Tribune.  The  letter  enclosed  an  editorial 
in  the  well-known  wretched  handwriting  of  Greeley.  It  was  the  night  before  election  day,  and  the 
editorial  in  question  warmly  endorsed  a  Republican  candidate  running  on  an  independent  ticket. 
The  article  was  put  in  type.  In  arranging  the  copy  before  reading  the  proof,  the  manuscript  sent 
in  the  letter  from  the  hotel  fell  under  the  wonderfully  well-trained  eyes  of  Robinson.  He  examined 
it  a  couple  of  minutes  and  said  decisively :  '  That  is  not  the  old  man's  handwriting;  it's  a  forgery.' 
He  imparted  this  astounding  information  to  the  night  editor,  who,  well-acquainted  with  Robinson's 
marvelous  faculty,  suppressed  the  article  without  hesitation.  On  the  following  day  Mr.  Greeley 
said  that  he  never  wrote  the  article,  but  that  he  would  have  accepted  the  handwriting  of  it  as  his 
own.  John  C.  Robinson's  unparalleled  rapidity  as  a  reader  gained  for  him  the  appellation  of  the 
'  lightning  proofreader,"  Timed  by  the  most  delicately-adjusted  chronometer,  on  several  occasions 
he  pronounced  696  words  in  a  minute.  This  rate  of  speed,  which  he  was  never  known  to  vary, 
gives  41,760  words  an  hour.  He  read  in  a  distinct  monotone,  without  accent.  Long  before  Horace 
Greeley's  death  he  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  Tribune  proofroom.  He  left  that  journal  in  187S 
to  take  a  similar  position  on  the  Sun,  and  was  filling  it  at  the  tims  of  his  death"  [on  February  11, 
1880]. 

•  New  York  Sun,  August  26',  1872. 


UNION    PRINTERS    WHO    ATTAINED    DISTINCTION.  625 

abolition  of  slavery  was  only  the  beginning  of  the  solution  of  this 
great  problem,  and  much  yet  remains  to  be  done.  *  *  *  There 
are  other  great  questions  of  the  time  on  which  you  will  be  called  upon 
to  pronounce,  and  I  have  no  doubt  your  intelligent  judgment  will 
be  productive  of  some  good."  ^  The  band  played  national  airs  as 
the  speaker  descended  the  platform,  and  as  he  left  the  grounds  the 
woods  rang  with  cheers.  Thus  did  the  union  printers  of  New  York 
demonstrate  their  high  esteem  and  affectionate  regards  for  the  first 
president  of  "  Big  Six,"  but  it  proved  to  be  the  final  public  reception 
tendered  by  them  to  the  Sage  of  Chappaqua. 

Horace  Greeley  passed  from  earthly  scenes  on  November  29,  1872. 
His  remains  were,  in  accordance  with  a  generally  expressed  wish, 
conveyed  to  the  New  York  City  Hall,  where  they 
were  viewed  by  40,000  people.     Speaking  of  this        Death  of 
melancholy  occasion  the  Tribune  said:  "  How  many        Horace 
his  friends  were  and  who  they  were  may  be  seen       Greeley, 
from  the  descriptions  which  we  publish  this  morning 
of  this  extraordinary  scene.    A  whole  city  mourns  for  him.    The  poor 
shed  tears  over  him;  the  laboring  man  stops  work  that  he  may  pay 
a  last  tribute  to  him  who  spent  40  years  in  working  hard  for  the 
benefit  of  the  workers.    A  more  spontaneous  manifestation  of  sorrow 
has  not  been  seen  by  this  generation." 

A  meeting  of  Tribune  employees  was  held  in  the  composing  room 
of  that  newspaper  on  December  2d.  Men  were  present  from  the 
composing  room,  pressroom  and  mailing  department.  Resolutions 
of  respect  were  adopted,  and  Wesley  W.  Pasko  paid  this  tribute  to 
the  memory  of  the  departed:  "  He  opposed  human  slavery  as  he 
did  the  oppression  of  the  classes  who  labor  by  their  hands ;  he  knew 
no  difference  between  white  and  black,  rich  and  poor.  All  men  were 
of  value  to  him.  Not  only  did  he  theoretically  adhere  to  this  rule, 
but  he  gave  proof  of  his  belief  in  it  by  his  practice.  The  present  con- 
dition of  printers  in  New  York,  their  freedom  from  slavish  customs, 
is  largely  owing  to  the  man  whose  death  we  have  met  to  deplore. 
Almost  the  last  act  of  his  life,  in  relation  to  the  art  preservative, 
was  to  secure  to  the  men  in  his  establishment  pay  for  standing 
time.  We  have  had  our  differences  with  him,  but  I  think  I 
express  the  feelings  of  those  who  were  then  most  active  against 
him,  when  I  say  that  we  feel  now  that  the  blame  was  not  entirely  on 
one  side." 


'  From  the  account  printed  in  the  New  York  Herald  of  August  25,  1872. 


626  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

On  December  3d  a  committee,  consisting  of   President   Robert 
McKechnie,  Secretary  R.  O.  Harmon,  Hugh  Dalton,  William  White, 
Michael    R.    Walsh,    Charles    S.    Taylor,    George 
Union  No.  6  Shearman  and  John  C.   Robinson,  was  appointed 

Feelingly  Deplores  by  Typographical  Union  No.  6  to  attend  the  public 
His  Demise.  funeral  of   Horace  Greeley  on  the  succeeding  day 

and  to  draft  suitable  resolutions  expressive  of  the 
sentiments  of  the  meeting.  The  following  preamble  and  resolutions 
prepared  by  the  committee  and  presented  by  Mr.  Dalton  were 
unanimously  adopted: 

Whereas,  Almighty  God,  in  his  Supreme  Wisdom,  having  removed  from  among 
us  the  benefactor  and  philanthropist,  Horace  Greeley,  we,  the  members  of  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  6,  in  convocation  assembled,  have  hereby 

Resolved,  That  while  we  most  feelingly  and  sorrowfully  deplore  the  death  of 
one  of  America's  noblest  sons,  our  poignant  grief  is  tempered  with  the  sweet 
belief  that  He  "  who  doeth  all  things  well  "  hath  but  taken  him  to  a  higher  and 
better  sphere  for  some  wise  and  benevolent  purpose. 

Resolved,  That  we  tender  our  sincere  and  most  heartfelt  condolence  to  the 
daughters  of  the  deceased  in  this  their  sore  affliction ;  at  the  same  time  we  cannot 
but  feel  that  their  great  sorrow  is  assuaged  by  the  knowledge  that  He  who  holdeth 
the  world  in  the  hollow  of  His  hand  hath  but  called  him  to  a  blessed  immortality, 
and  that  though  dead  he  still  lives,  where  neither  moth  nor  rust  doth  corrupt, 
nor  thieves  break  in  and  steal. 

Resolved,  That  a  copy  of  this  preamble  and  resolutions  be  presented  to  the 
family  of  the  deceased,  and  that  the  members  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6 
attend  the  funeral  of  Horace  Greeley,  the  first  president  of  their  society,  in  a 
body. 

Resolved,  That  inasmuch  as  Horace  Greeley  was  a  fellow-craftsman,  the  rooms 
of  this  society  be  draped  in  mourning  for  a  period  of  30  days  in  honor  of  his 
memory. 

Immediately  after  the  demise  of  Horace  Greeley  union  printers 

began  to  plan  the  rearing  of  a  monument  to  perpetu- 

Rearing  a  ate  his  memory.     No.  6  held  a  special  meeting  on 

Monument  to     Tuesday,  January  14,  1873,  to  consider  a  proposi- 

His  Memory,      ^[q^  ]^y  ^j^g  Tribune  chapel  to  erect  a  memorial  at 

his   final   resting   place   in   Greenwood   Cemetery, 

Brooklyn,  and  this  action  was  taken  by  the  tmion : 

It  has  been  proposed  that  the  printing  offices  in  the  United  States  give  one  or 
more  pounds  of  old  type  for  the  purpose  of  making  a  statue  of  Horace  Greeley, 
to  be  erected  in  the  lot  in  Greenwood  where  his  remains  are  interred. 

Type-metal  is  specially  adapted  to  reproduce  sharp  and  definite  outlines,  and 
peculiarly  fitted  to  speak  in  the  mute  form  of  an  image  to  those  who,  in  after 
years,  visit  his  resting  place,  as  it  did  beneath  the  training  of  his  hand,  the  grandeur 
of  his  brain,  and  the  largeness  of  his  heart. 

We  approve  the  idea  of  erecting  a  statue  of  Horace  Greeley  in  Greenwood, 


UNION    PRINTERS    WHO    ATTAINED    DISTINCTION.  627 

made  of  type-metal  which  has  been  cast  into  type  and  worn  out  in  the  service 
of  teaching  the  people. 

We  ask  of  our  fellow-craftsmen  (many  of  whom,  now  scattered  over  the 
country,  have,  like  ourselves,  either  worked  with  or  for  him  during  the  40  years 
gone  by)  to  set  up,  on  Monday,  February  3,  1873,  the  sixty-second  anniversary 
of  Mr.  Greeley's  birth,  1,000  ems,  and  give  the  receipts  for  the  same  to  be  expended 
in  making  and  erecting  the  statue;  the  money  to  be  forwarded  to  the  president 
of  New  York  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  of  which  union  Mr.  Greeley  was  the 
first  president. 

A  committee,  composed  of  William  Baker,  of  the  Tribune,  A.  Walsh, 
of  Leslie's  Weekly,  Robert  McKechnie,  of  the  World,  J.  Meyerhoff ,  of 
Nesbitt's,  James  Marsden,  of  the  Herald,  John  Mahoney,  of  the  Times, 
R.  Murray,  of  the  Sun,  J.  Stephenson,  of  the  Commercial  Advertiser, 
P.  Crean,  of  the  Mercury,  President  Hugh  Dalton  and  Secretary  M.  R. 
Walsh,  was  chosen  to  carry  out  the  objects  of  the  above  resolutions, 
which  were  ordered  to  be  furnished  to  the  Associated  Press  for  pub- 
lication. On  May  13  th  following  the  tmion  instructed  its  delegates 
to  the  International  Typographical  Union  to  solicit  the  co-operation 
of  that  body  in  raising  sufficient  funds  to  erect  the  monument.  To 
receive  contributions  for  the  furtherance  of  the  project  the  Inter- 
national selected  a  committee  of  thirteen,  among  whom  were  these 
New  York  people:  Messrs.  Thomas  Burke  (chairman),  Hugh  Dalton, 
William  H.  Bodwell  and  William  McGrath,  of  No.  6,  and  Mrs.  Mary 
A.  Danielson,  of  Women's  Typographical  Union  No.  i.  The  com- 
mittee, which  made  its  report  to  the  International  in  1876,  had 
learned  from  men  of  experience  that  type-metal  would  not  stand 
exposure  from  the  weather  for  any  length  of  time,  a  stifficiency  of  old 
type  to  make  a  life-size  statue  of  Greeley  having  been  obtained,  and 
it  was  eventually  decided  to  have  a  bronze  bust  sculptured.  Hard 
times  had  affected  contributions  somewhat  from  journeymen  print- 
ers, and  to  prevent  the  movement  from  becoming  a  failure  Chairman 
Burke  sent  invitations  to  about  a  dozen  employing  printers  and  type- 
founders in  New  York  to  meet  on  November  30,  1874.  At  that  meet- 
ing "  The  Trustees  of  the  Greeley  Memorial  "  was  formed,  with 
Thurlow  Weed  as  president,  Peter  S.  Hoe  as  treasurer  and  Wesley 
W.  Pasko  as  secretary,  the  other  members  of  the  board  being  Lewis 
Francis,  Theodore  L.  De  Vinne,  Daniel  Goodwin,  C.  C.  Savage, 
George  P.  Rowell,  Douglas  Taylor  and  Sinclair  Tousey,  employing 
printers,  Andrew  Little,  of  Farmer,  Little  &  Co.,  typefounders, 
Thomas  N.  Rooker,  foreman  of  the  Tribune  composing  room,  Thomas 
Burke,  chairman  of  the  International  Typographical  Union  commit- 
tee, William  H.  Bodwell,  president  of  the  International  Union,  and 
Hugh  Dalton,  president  of  No.  6.    By  December  4,  1876,  when  the 


628  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER   SIX. 

monument  was  unveiled  at  the  Greeley  family  plot  in  Greenwood,  the 
fund  amounted  to  $5,346.52. 

A  brief  description  of  the  monument  is  pertinent  at  this  point. 
The  bronze  bust,  which  is  four  feet  high,  full  heroic  size,  represents 
the  printer-editor  as  he  appeared  in  his  prime.  It  rests  on  a  light- 
colored  Maine  granite  pedestal,  which  surmounts  a  base  of  Quincy 
granite,  the  monument  being  altogether  twelve  feet  high.  On  the 
western  face  of  the  supporting  shaft  is  a  bronze  tablet  with  the  in- 
scription: "  Horace  Greeley,  bom  February  3,  181 1;  died  November 
29,  1872;  founder  of  the  New  York  Tribune."  The  opposite  side 
contains  a  bas-relief  in  bronze  representing  the  youthful  Greeley, 
composing-stick  in  hand,  at  his  case.  In  the  panel  on  the  north  side 
is  a  rude  plough,  while  on  the  remaining  part  of  the  pedestal  are  a 
pen  and  scroll,  these  emblems  being  carved  in  relief  from  the  granite. 
The  monument  is  surroimded  with  a  Quincy  granite  coping  27  feet 
in  diameter. 

C.  C.  Savage  was  master  of  ceremonies  at  the  unveiling  exercises, 

at  which  500  persons  were  present,  and  in  calling  the  assembly  to 

order  he  said:  "  The  day  and  the  hour  to  begin  the 

Unveiling  memorial  services  to  our  honored  craftsman,  Horace 

Exercises  at  Greeley,  have  now  arrived.  Otir  worthy  president. 
Greenwood.  Hon.  Thurlow  Weed,  who  expected  to  preside  to- 
day, is  with  us,  but  informs  me  that  his  health 
makes  it  inadvisable  for  him  to  do  so.  He  therefore  requests  another 
of  our  trustees,  Lewis  Francis,  to  act  in  his  stead." 

Mr.  Francis,  in  accepting,  thanked  the  assemblage  for  the  honor 
conferred  upon  him.  "  I  do  not  think  I  will  detain  you  with  any 
remarks,"  said  he,  "  for  our  programme  is  long  enough  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  these  exercises  are  in  the  open  air.  The  Reverend  Doctor 
Chapin,  who  was  to  have  offered  prayer,  sends  his  regrets  that  the 
state  of  his  health  will  not  permit  him  to  be  present  with  us,  and  we 
therefore,  rather  than  detain  you,  begin  the  exercises.  I  will  ask 
Mr.  Bodwell  to  deliver  the  presentation  address." 

William  H.  Bodwell  then  spoke  in  part  as  follows: 

It  has  been  thought  advisable  that  a  representative  of  the  united  practical 
printers  of  the  country  —  with  whom  the  project  to  erect  this  memorial  originated 
—  should  be  selected  to  present  it  to  the  public.  When  it  is  remembered  that 
Mr.  Greeley  was  among  the  very  first  in  this  country  to  move  in  the  matter  of 
organizing  printers'  unions,  and  was  the  first  president  of  New  York  Typographical 
Union,  it  is  well  that  it  should  be  so.  When  the  death  of  Mr.  Greeley  fell  like 
a  pall  upon  the  nation  the  working  printers,  looking  upon  him  as  the  grandest 
and  most  eminent  representative  of  their  craft  that  this  country  has  yet  pro- 
duced, immediately  initiated  steps  looking  to  the  erection  of  some  suitable  me- 


UNION    PRINTERS    WHO    ATTAINED    DISTINCTION.  629 

morial  to  testify  their  admiration  and  respect  for  the  great  printer.  At  first  it 
was  proposed  to  erect  a  statue  to  be  composed  of  type-metal,  but  that  material 
was  soon  found  to  be  of  too  perishable  a  nature,  and  the  plan  was  changed.  This 
necessitated  the  raising  of  a  larger  amount  of  money,  and  for  a  time  it  seemed  as 
though  the  project  was  in  danger  of  failing.  But  at  this  juncture  the  printers 
remembered  that  while  they  justly  looked  upon  Mr.  Greeley  as  the  leading 
representative  of  their  craft,  yet  his  life-work  had  been  given  for  the  benefit  of 
all  classes  and  conditions  of  people,  many  of  whom  would  be  glad  of  an  oppor- 
tunity to  join  with  them  in  erecting  this  memorial.  The  subject  was  mentioned 
to  a  few  employing  printers  and  other  friends  of  Mr.  Greeley,  and  the  response 
was  quick  and  liberal;  abundant  assistance  was  given,  and  the  result  is  before 
you  to-day.  Therefore,  Mr.  Chairman,  in  behalf  of  the  working  and  employing 
printers  and  those  other  gentlemen  who  have  contributed  to  the  erection  of  this 
memorial,  I  present  this  bust  of  Horace  Greeley  to  that  public  for  whose  welfare 
he  labored  so  long,  so  conscientiously,  and  so  successfully,  believing,  as  I  do,  that 
centuries  after  this  granite  shall  have  crumbled  away,  and  the  bronze  shall  have 
been  beaten  into  a  shapeless  mass  by  the  elements,  the  name  of  Horace  Greeley 
will  be  cherished  and  reverenced  wherever  freedom  has  a  home  and  the  English 
language  is  spoken. 

The  bust,  which  had  been  draped  with  an  American  flag,  was  un- 
veiled by  the  sculptor,  Charles  Calverley,  and  then  a  poem  was  read 
by  Edmund  C.  Stedman,  the  poet.  It  consisted  of  eighteen  stanzas, 
among  them  these  three : 

The  faithful  East  that  cradled  him 

Still,  while  she  deems  her  nursling  sleeps, 
Sits  by  his  couch  with  vision  dim; 

The  plenteous  West  his  feast-day  keeps; 
The  wistful  South  recalls  the  ways 

Of  one  who  in  his  love  enwound  her, 
And  stayed  her  in  the  evil  days. 

With  arms  of  comfort  thrown  around  her. 

He  lives  wherever  men  to  men 

In  perilous  hours  his  words  repeat, 
Where  clangs  the  forge,  where  glides  the  pen, 

Where  toil  and  traffic  crowd  the  street; 
And  in  whatever  time  or  place 

Earth's  purest  souls  their  purpose  strengthen, 
Down  the  broad  pathway  of  our  race 

The  shadow  of  his  name  shall  lengthen. 

"  Still  with  us!  "  all  the  liegemen  cry 

Who  read  his  heart  and  held  him  dear. 
The  hills  declare,  "  He  shall  not  die!  " 

The  prairies  answer,  "  He  is  here!  " 
Immortal  thus,  no  dread  of  fate 

Be  ours,  no  vain  memento  mori: 
Life,  Life,  not  Death,  we  consecrate, 

A  lasting  presence  touched  with  glory. 


630  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Bayard  Taylor,  printer,  poet,  traveler,  diplomat,  was  the  orator 
of  the  day,  and  his  brilliant  address,  listened  to  with  rapt  attention, 
was  as  follows: 

Mr.  Bodwell  and  Gentlemen: —  As  one  who  studied  for  two  years  in  the 
only  university  at  which  Horace  Greeley  graduated  —  the  composing  room  of  a 
printing  office  —  and  as  his  friend  and  associate  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  I 
have  been  called  upon  by  the  committee  of  journalists  and  printers  to  accept, 
on  behalf  of  the  people,  this  monumental  bust.  It  is  a  fitting  symbol  of  life.  It 
comes  from  the  craft  to  which  he  belonged,  and  is  received  by  the  people  for 
whom  he  thought,  labored  and  endured.  It  restores  to  us  who  knew  and  loved 
him,  and  preserves  for  coming  generations  the  expression  of  his  goodness  and 
gentleness  no  less  than  that  of  his  intellectual  power.  His  best  ambition  could 
have  desired  no  more  honorable  memorial,  erected  by  printers  to  a  printer,  by 
workmen  to  a  worker,  by  Americans  to  a  representative  of  American  honesty, 
independence  and  originality,  this  bronze  could  express  no  more  though  it  were 
as  huge  as  the  Rhodian  Apollo. 

It  is  well  that  the  completion  of  a  monument  to  Horace  Greeley  should  have 
been  delayed  until  now.  When  he  was  laid  to  rest  here,  four  years  ago  to-day, 
a  sharper  blast  than  that  of  the  opening  winter  blew  over  his  grave;  but  the  mis- 
conceptions of  his  character  have  melted  away  as  the  snows  from  this  mound, 
while  fresh  esteem  and  reverence  have  budded  and  blossomed  above  his  tomb 
like  the  trees  that  shade  it.  The  knowledge  that  thousands  for  whom  and  with 
whom  he  had  labored  for  so  many  years  —  whose  considerate  respect,  at  least, 
he  had  a  right  to  claim  —  were  angrily  alienated  from  him,  cast  a  dark  and  tragic 
pall  over  the  closing  days  of  his  life,  and  deepened  the  gloom  which  settled  upon 
his  empty  place.  But  time  swiftly  repairs  all  injustice;  and  those  few  years 
which,  let  us  hope,  have  planted  permanent  if  unspoken  regrets  in  many  hearts, 
have  already  placed  in  clear  historic  light  the  manly  honesty  and  unselfishness 
of  his  whole  life.  Men  begin  to  see  that  the  transparent  candor  of  Horace 
Greeley's  nature  was  a  rare  and  precious  virtue  in  a  man  wielding  his  influence. 
They  begin  to  understand  that  his  political  course,  from  first  to  last,  was  deter- 
mined by  the  operation  of  the  same  unchanging  principles.  When  there  was  a 
choice  between  right,  as  he  conceived  it,  and  temporary  popularity,  he  never 
hesitated.  When  he  seemed  to  overlook  or  disregard  the  cautious  steps  and 
carefully  selected  means  of  other  political  leaders,  it  was  simply  because  he  saw 
the  distant  result  so  clearly.  A  far-sighted  eye  may  sometimes  mistake  the  per- 
spective of  events,  yet  it  does  not  therefore  see  falsely.  The  clearness  of  Horace 
Greeley's  vision  arose  from  the  fact  that  he  understood,  as  few  Americans  have 
done,  the  temper  and  character  of  the  people.  He  kept  his  feet  in  their  paths, 
and  compelled  his  brain  to  work  on  the  level  of  their  intelligence.  He  knew  better 
than  they  how  their  moods  were  to  change,  and  their  opinions  to  be  recast  by  cir- 
cumstances. His  mind  was  a  marvel,  in  its  knowledge  of  local  characteristics, 
interests  and  influences,  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other.  No  success, 
no  distinction,  no  possibility  opened  to  him  of  more  eminent  fields  of  labor,  ever 
interrupted  the  acquisition  of  that  knowledge  or  lessened  the  sympathy  which 
grew  from  it.  The  broad  base  and  keen  intellectual  summit  of  our  national 
life  were  thus  equally  incarnate  in  him.  While  his  brain  grew,  his  hand  and  heart 
kept  their  early  habits  The  experience  of  the  man  deepened  and  broadened, 
but  the  unsophisticated  simplicity  of  the  child  remained.     He  was  so  naturally 


UNION  PRINTERS    WHO   ATTAINED   DISTINCTION.  63 1 

and  inevitably  good  that  his  goodness  almost  failed  to  be  reckoned  as  a  virtue. 
With  all  opportunities  of  development  which  he  so  conscientiously  seized  —  with 
all  his  wide  and  varied  knowledge  of  life  —  there  were  three  things  which  he 
could  never  learn:  to  mistrust  human  nature,  to  refuse  help  whenever  he  could 
give  it,  and  to  disguise  his  honest  opinions.  He  has  been  compared  to  Franklin; 
but  although  he  sometimes  seemed  to  echo  the  economical  philosophy  of  Poor 
Richard,  he  never  succeeded  in  practicing  its  first  maxim.  Only  those  who  stood 
nearest  to  him  can  truly  know  his  life  was  glorified  by  self-denial  and  self-sacrifice, 
by  labor  that  never  complained,  and  patience  that  never  uttered  itself  in  words. 

The  strong  individuality  of  Horace  Greeley  was  equally  moral  and  intellectual, 
and  the  lasting  influence  of  his  life  will  be  manifested  in  both  directions.  His 
memory  does  not  depend  upon  separate  acts  or  conspicuous  expressions:  it  is 
based  upon  and  embraces  the  entire  scope  of  activity,  the  total  aim  and  effort 
of  his  life.  He  would  have  been  the  last  of  men  to  present  himself  as  a  special 
model  for  the  imitation  of  his  younger  countrymen;  but  there  are  few  who  will 
now  deny  that  this  generation  is  better,  more  devoted  to  lofty  principles,  less 
subservient  to  the  dictation  of  party,  wiser,  more  tolerant  and  more  humane 
because  he  has  lived.  Nothing  worthier  than  this  can  be  said  of  any  man. 
When  most  men  die  the  ranks  close,  and  the  line  moves  forward  without  a  visible 
gap;  but  hundreds  of  thousands  miss,  and  long  shall  continue  to  miss,  the  coura- 
geous front  of  Horace  Greeley.  Like  Latour  d'Auvergne,  the  first  grenadier  of 
France,  his  name  is  still  called  in  the  regiment  of  those  who  dare  to  do,  for  the 
sake  of  mankind,  and  the  mournful  answer  comes,  "  Dead  upon  the  field  of 
honor!" 

I  should  like  to  speak  of  his  tenderness  and  generosity.  I  should  like  to  explain 
the  awkward  devices  of  his  heart  to  hide  itself,  knowing  that  the  exhibition  of 
feeling  is  unconventional,  and  sensitive  lest  its  earnest  impulses  should  be  mis- 
construed. But  the  veil  which  he  wore  during  life  must  not  be  lifted  by  the 
privilege  which  follows  death;  enough  of  light  shines  through  it  to  reveal  all  that 
the  world  need  know.  To  me  his  nature  seemed  like  a  fertile  tract  of  the  soil 
of  his  native  New  Hampshire.  It  was  cleaned  and  cultivated,  and  rich  harvests 
clad  its  southern  slopes;  yet  the  rough,  primitive  granite  cropped  out  here  and 
there,  and  there  were  dingles  which  defied  the  plough,  where  the  sweet  wild- 
fiowers  blossomed  in  their  season  and  the  wild  birds  built  their  nests  unharmed. 
In  a  word,  he  was  a  man  who  kept  his  life  as  God  fashioned  it  for  him,  neither 
assuming  a  grace  which  was  not  bestowed  nor  disguising  a  quality  which  asserted 
its  existence. 

A  life  like  his  cannot  be  lost.  That  sleepless  intelligence  is  not  extinguished, 
though  the  brain  which  was  its  implement  is  here  slowly  falling  to  dust;  that 
helping  and  forebearing  love  continues,  though  the  heart  which  it  quickened  is 
cold.  He  lives,  not  only  in  the  mysterious  realm  where  some  purer  and  grander 
form  of  activity  awaited  him,  but  also  as  an  imperishable  influence  in  the  people. 
Something  of  him  has  been  absorbed  into  a  multitude  of  other  lives,  and  will 
be  transmitted  to  their  seed.  His  true  monument  is  as  broad  as  the  land  he 
served.  This,  which  you  have  erected  over  his  ashes,  is  the  last  memorial  of 
his  life.  But  it  stands  as  he  himself  loved  to  stand,  on  a  breezy  knoll,  where  he 
could  bathe  his  brow  in  the  shadows  of  branches  and  listen  to  the  music  of  their 
leaves  It  looks  toward  the  city  where  he  lived  and  labored.  Commerce  passes 
on  yonder  waters,  and  industry  sends  up  her  smoke  in  the  distance.  So  may 
it  stand  for  many  a  century,  untouched  by  invasion  from  the  sea  or  civil  strife 


632  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL   UNION    NUMBER    SIX, 

from  within  the  land  —  teaching  men,  through  its  expressive  lineaments,  that 
success  may  be  modest,  that  experience  may  be  innocent,  that  power  may  be 
unselfish  and  pure! 

At  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  Taylor's  address  the  Rev.  Thomas  Farrell, 
of  vSt.  Joseph's  Catholic  Chtirch,  New  York  City,  closed  the  exercises 
with  this  benediction:  "  Bless  us,  O  Lord,  who  are  here  assembled  to 
honor  the  memory  and  the  virtues  of  Thy  great  servant,  and  grant 
us  strength,  O  Lord,  to  imitate  his  example  and  to  labor  for  the  bene- 
fit of  our  fellow-creatures  and  our  beloved  country." 

To  further  honor  the  memory  of  Horace  Greeley  the  union  printers 
of  New  York  and  Brooklyn  started  a  movement  in  1888  looking  to 
the  erection  of  a  bronze  statue  of  the  eminent  typo- 
Statue  of  Greeley  journalist  at  a  prominent  point  on  Manhattan 
Erected  by  Island.     It  was  on  April  ist,  that  year,  that  No.  6 

Union  Printers.  received  from  Horace  Greeley  Post  No.  5  7  7 ,  G.  A.  R. , 
composed  of  organized  printers,  a  request  that  the 
union  designate  a  committee  to  act  in  conjunction  with  a  similar 
body  from  the  post,  "with  a  view  to  the  erection  of  a  monument  in 
City  Hall  Park  to  the  memory  of  Horace  Greeley."  The  committee 
was  appointed,  and  Typographical  Union  No.  98  of  Brooklyn  also 
took  like  action.  These  representatives  of  the  three  organizations 
then  formed  the  Horace  Greeley  Statue  Committee,  and  at  once 
went  to  work  to  obtain  subscriptions.  Soon  after  its  organization 
the  committee  learned  of  the  existence  of  the  Horace  Greeley  Monu- 
ment Association,  which  had  a  corresponding  purpose  in  view,  and 
an  amalgamation  of  the  two  bodies  was  effected,  the  money  in  the 
possession  of  both  committees  going  into  a  common  ftmd.  A  con- 
tract was  made  with  Alexander  Doyle,  a  sculptor  of  national  repute, 
and  he  produced  a  statue  that  gave  satisfaction  to  the  joint  commit- 
tee. The  figure,  which  is  some  seven  feet  in  height  and  faces  the 
north,  represents  Greeley  sitting  in  his  editorial  chair  in  a  contem- 
plative attitude,  with  a  newspaper  in  the  right  hand  and  spectacles 
in  the  left.  The  statue  stands  on  a  plinth  five  feet  by  seven  feet, 
surmounting  a  pedestal  of  polished  Quincy  granite  six  feet  high, 
the  whole  resting  on  a  granite  base  ten  feet  long  and  eight  feet 
wide.  The  name  "  Horace  Greeley,"  in  raised  bronze  letters,  is 
attached  to  the  stone  at  the  front,  while  on  the  east  side  of 
the  pedestal  is  this  inscription,  also  in  bronze  letters  in  relief: 
"  This  statue  of  the  first  president  of  New  York  Typographical 
Union  No.  6  was  presented  to  the  City  of  New  York  by  Horace 
Greeley  Post  No.  577,  G.  A.  R.,  New  York  Typographical  Union 
No.  6  and  Brooklyn  Typographical  Union  No.  98." 


Statue  of  Horace  Greeley,  Erected  by  Union  Printers  in  Grcclcy  Square,  New  York  City. 


UNION    PRINTERS    WHO    ATTAINED    DISTINCTION.  633 

No.  6  on  April  3,  1892,  passed  a  resolution  recommending  to  the 
Department  of  Public  Parks  that  it  approve  the  site  for  the  statue 
at  the  Seventy-second  street  entrance  to  Central  Park  at  Fifth 
avenue.  That  site,  however,  was  not  selected,  but  in  1894  the 
Common  Council  designated  the  spot  where  the  statue  should 
stand,  in  the  following  resolution,  which  was  approved  by  Mayor 
Thomas  F.  Gilroy  on  April  27th: 

Whereas,  The  Horace  Greeley  Statue  Committee  are  about  to  erect  a  statue 
to  the  late  Horace  Greeley  in  the  park  just  north  of  the  Union  Dime  Savings 
Bank,  on  the  triangle  bounded  by  Thirty-second  street,  Broadway  and  Sixth 
avenue  and  it  is  deemed  fitting  that  when  the  said  statue  of  Horace  Greeley  has 
been  completed  and  put  in  position,  that  locality  should  receive  a  name  in  his 
honor;  therefore  be  it 

Resolved,  That  the  area  bounded  by  the  south  side  of  Thirty-second  street, 
the  north  side  of  Thirty -fourth  street,  the  east  side  of  Broadway  and  the  west 
side  of  Sixth  avenue,  be  and  it  shall  hereafter  be  known  as  "  Greeley  Square," 
provided  the  street  numbers  shall  not  be  changed  on  any  of  the  thoroughfares 
mentioned,  except  as  shall  hereafter  be  authorized  by  the  Common  Covmcil. 

Hon.  S.  Wesley  Smith,  in  introducing  the  foregoing,  paid  this 
tribute  to  the  character  and  characteristics  of  Greeley: 

Mr.  President: —  If  only  the  orator  were  present  the  ofifering  of  this  resolution 
might  well  evoke  an  oration  that  would  live  in  our  land's  language.  The  proposi- 
tion to  confer  the  name  of  Horace  Greeley  on  a  conspicuous  section  of  this 
Metropolis  must  necessarily  recall  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  men  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  It  may  with  little  reservation  be  said  that  Greeley  was  the 
most  American  of  all  Americans  —  the  most  absolute,  original  and  unique 
character,  not  only  in  the  annals  of  this  great  city,  but  in  the  public  history  of 
the  United  States  and  of  the  New  World.  Not  FrankHn,  not  Jackson,  not  old 
Zachary  Taylor,  riding  a  mill  horse  conspicuously  white  in  the  gulches  of  Buena 
Vista;  not  the  great  Lincoln  —  tall,  gaunt  and  immortal  —  was  more  absolutely 
and  perfectly  American  than  the  man  Horace  Greeley.  Of  that  name  there  has 
been  but  one,  and  there  can  never  be  another.  Popular  tradition  itself  has  fixed 
upon  the  aspects  and  incidents  of  his  singular  character.  But  popular  tradition 
has  hardly  touched  the  heart  of  his  greatness.  It  is  not  his  shambling  gait  in 
Broadway;  it  is  not  his  amazing  bald  head,  red  almost  as  the  sun's  disc  seen 
through  a  spectral  fog  at  setting,  not  his  astonishing  and  indescribable  clothes, 
not  the  astounding  ramshackle  architecture  of  the  whole  visible  man,  shuffling 
with  unheard-of  noises  and  objurgations  upstairs  and  downstairs,  to  and  from 
that  immortal  office,  whence  he  issued  his  immortal  fulminations;  not  any  or 
all  of  these  things  combined;  but  it  was  the  tremendous  man  that  was  in  him. 
It  was  not  the  Greeley,  bent  over  his  desk,  shaking  his  hand  behind  him  at  some 
intruder,  telling  him  to  "  Go  West;"  not  the  astonishing  dedication  of  his  book 
to  somebody  who  should  invent  a  plough  that  would  turn  over  so  much  dirt  in 
a  day;  not  the  ridiculous  spectacle  of  his  signing  a  formal  petition  to  the  Governor 
of  New  York  to  have  himself  publicly  executed  as  a  benefaction  to  the  people  — 
the  petition  being  held  before  him  by  some  friends  who  made  game  of  him  by  telling 
him  that  it  was  a  plea  for  philanthropy  he  was  to  sign;  but  it  was  the  unswerving 


634  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

citizen  and  determined  journalist;  the  man  who  dared  all  things  for  Liberty  and 
Right ;  the  ferocious  patriot  to  whom  a  lion's  den  was  no  more  than  a  covert  of  mice, 
if  it  lay  in  the  way  of  human  freedom;  the  just  man  who  knew  no  fear,  who  broke 
with  his  party,  with  his  countrymen  when  he  thought  them  wrong,  with  all  man- 
kind if  needs  be;  who  went  dauntlessly  to  the  late  capital  of  the  overthrown  Con- 
federacy and  voluntarily  signed  the  bail  bond  of  the  fallen  and  imprisoned  Davis 
rather  than  that  his  country  should  commit  the  crime  of  keeping  any  man  in  a 
felon's  cell  without  a  trial;  who  ran  for  President  dictating  his  own  platform, 
and  drawing  after  him  the  great  mass  of  those  against  whom  he  had  waged  a 
life-long  battle  —  this  is  the  Horace  Greeley  who  belongs  to  the  pantheon  of  the 
immortals;  this  is  the  Horace  Greeley  who  after  more  than  21  years  since  the 
oblivion  of  pallid  death  fell  upon  his  unequalled  life,  revives  to-day  in  democratic 
majesty  more  sublime  than  the  spectral  majesty  of  Caesar  at  Philippi;  and  whose 
life  and  deeds,  with  a  force  and  eloquence  unknown  to  human  speech,  approve 
and  ratify  the  proposition  to  honor  a  certain  distinguished  part  of  this  Metropolis 
by  conferring  on  it  forever  the  name  and  designation  of  Greeley  Square. 

The  time  set  for  the  unveiling  of  the  statue  was  Memorial  Day, 
1894,  and  on  the  6th  of  that  month  it  was  ordered  by  No.  6  that  its 
members  parade  in  a  body.  After  the  procession,  headed  by  Edin- 
ger's  band,  5,000  people  were  massed  about  Greeley  Square  during 
the  ceremonies,  which  began  at  2  o'clock  p.  m.  on  May  30th.  The 
exercises  opened  with  an  invocation  by  the  Rev.  F.  M.  Clendennin. 
Upon  the  conclusion  of  the  singing  of  the  hymn  "  One  Sweetly  Solemn 
Thought,"  Hon.  William  W.  Niles,  chairman  of  the  Greeley  Monu- 
ment Association,  made  the  introductory  speech.  George  H.  Moore, 
chairman  of  the  Statue  Committee,  presented  the  bronze  figure  to  the 
city,  the  unveiling  by  Miss  Winifred  Burke  following,  and  the  re- 
sponse was  made  by  Col.  John  R.  Fellows,  representing  the  Mayor. 
An  address  on  "  Horace  Greeley  and  the  Press  "  was  delivered  by 
John  W.  Keller,  president  of  the  New  York  Press  Club.  Congressman 
Amos  J.  Ctmimings,  a  member  of  No.  6,  was  the  orator  of  the  day, 
and  he  spoke  as  follows: 

Comrades: — The  names  of  those  who  saved  the  Republic  are  forever  linked 
with  the  names  of  those  who  created  it.  Lincoln  and  Grant  recall  Washington 
and  Jefferson.  Adams  and  Franklin  were  prototypes  of  Seward  and  Greeley. 
The  soldier,  the  statesman,  the  philosopher  and  the  philanthropist  united  in 
planting  the  tree  of  liberty  on  American  soil,  and  were  united  in  preserving  it 
85  years  afterward.  All  live  in  the  hearts  of  their  countrymen.  All  are  to-day 
honored  in  commemorative  bronze.  Gladstone  once  said  that  "  from  the  people 
of  the  thirteen  colonies  at  the  close  of  the  American  Revolution  there  came  a 
group  of  statesmen  that  might  defy  the  whole  history  of  the  world  to  beat  them 
in  any  one  State  and  at  any  one  time.  Such  were  the  consequences  of  a  well- 
regulated  and  masculine  freedom."  There  the  great  Englishman  stopped.  He 
should  have  said  more.  Behind  this  group  of  statesmen  came  a  group  of  thinkers, 
authors,  divines,  orators,  editors,  inventors,  artists,  actors  and  soldiers  that  has 
challenged  the   admiration  of  the  world.     Both  groups  have  passed  into  his- 


"i  ''■*  0  O  >'  '   ^      ""  ''  •-  ■ 


Inscription  on  Base  of  Statue  of  liuracc  Greeley  in  Grceky  Square,  Xcw  York  City. 


UNION    PRINTERS    WHO    ATTAINED    DISTINCTION.  635 

tory.  In  the  second  group  no  figure  stands  more  distinctive  than  the  quaint 
personality  of  Horace  Greeley.  None  filled  the  eye  of  the  nation  more  completely 
and  persistently;  none  excited  more  sympathetic  interest,  and  none  met  a  fate 
more  sad.  For  30  years  his  broad-brimmed  hat  and  white  overcoat  were  as 
familiar  objects  in  America  as  were  the  cocked  hat  and  brown  surtout  of  Napoleon 
in  Europe. 

He  was  ever  before  the  public.  He  lectured  on  temperance  in  country  churches 
and  before  Father  Mathew  societies.  He  spoke  at  agricultural  fairs  and  attended 
philanthropic  and  political  conventions.  The  anniversaries  were  his  especial 
delight.  He  mixed  with  mankind,  sympathizing  with  the  poor  and  struggling, 
cheering  workingmen  with  the  co-operative  and  other  suggestions  and  often 
lending  a  helping  hand  to  those  least  deserving  of  it.  What  wonder  that  he  was 
idolized  by  speculative  minds! 

But  it  was  in  the  battle  with  American  slavery  that  he  became  truly  great. 
A  sincere  republican,  he  had  fought  tyranny  at  every  point.  In  the  revolution 
of  1 848  he  had  seen  a  second  bow  of  promise  to  mankind.  Italy,  Hungary,  France, 
Germany,  downtrodden  Ireland  —  the  world  itself  —  were  to  be  redeemed. 
When  monarchists  triumphed  and  Kossuth,  Garibaldi,  Schurz,  Meagher  and 
other  patriots  were  fugitives,  his  purse  was  always  open  to  them. 

All  this  time  a  slavery  more  horrible  was  recognized  and  legally  fostered  in 
his  own  country.  At  heart  a  thorough  Abolitionist,  his  sympathies  were  at  first 
chilled  by  his  devotion  to  his  party.  The  passage  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law, 
signed  by  a  Whig  President,  pricked  him  into  resistance  to  the  extension  of  the 
slave  power.  This  resistance  was  intensified  by  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise.  It  was  not  until  the  death  of  Henry  Clay  and  of  the  Whig  party 
organization  that  he  was  freed  from  party  trammels.  Then  he  asserted  that 
slavery  was  the  canker  worm  of  the  Republic. 

When  the  flag  of  Sumter  fell  his  pre-eminent  patriotism  put  him  to  the  front, 
and  he  struck  direct  at  the  vitals  of  the  Confederacy.  Fremont's  emancipation 
proclamation  was  only  one  of  Greeley's  editorial  articles,  afterward  completed 
by  the  pen  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  ratification  of  the  Thirteenth  Amendment 
marked  the  zenith  of  his  glory  and  was  the  legitimate  result  of  his  aspirations 
and  endeavors.  It  raised  him  into  the  foremost  niche  of  the  temple  of  fame. 
It  made  him  a  colossal  figure  in  popular  estimation.  No  man  loved  his  country 
and  his  countrymen  more  than  he.  When  the  war  closed  his  was  the  first  hand 
outstretched  to  his  vanquished  brethren.  His  appeal  for  universal  amnesty 
rang  throughout  the  land  on  the  morning  after  Lee's  surrender. 

Heedless  of  his  own  personal  interests,  he  was  the  first  to  go  upon  the  bend  of 
the  imprisoned  President  of  the  Confederacy.  Maddened  by  the  assassination 
of  Lincoln,  the  attention  of  his  political  friends  was  diverted  from  the  intent 
of  the  act  to  the  un timeliness  and  incongruity  of  it.  He  was  looked  upon  by  the 
Republicans  as  a  Judas  Iscariot,  and  cursed  by  them  from  one  end  of  the  country 
to  the  other. 

The  bailing  of  Jefferson  Davis,  then  the  most  condemned  and  unpopular  act 
of  Mr.  Greeley's  life,  is  to-day  the  most  magnanimous  and  disinterested.  It 
furnishes  the  keynote  to  his  character  and  career.  It  reveals  his  Puritan  inde- 
pendence, his  intense  passion  for  justice  to  every  man,  and  his  tenderness  of 
heart.  This  and  his  earnest  efforts  to  reconcile  the  sections  undoubtedly  led  to 
his  nomination  for  the  Presidency  in  after  years,  when  the  nobility  and  wisdom 
of  his  conduct  began  to  be  appreciated.     He  looked  for  political  preferment. 


636  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

He  wanted  to  become  President  of  the  United  States.  It  was  the  only  office 
that  could  fill  the  sum  of  his  ambition.  It  was  because  he  fancied  that  in  such  a 
station  he  could  elevate  honest  labor  and  purge  the  public  service  of  corruption. 
From  the  day  that  he  went  on  the  bond  of  Jefferson  Davis  to  the  day  of  his  death 
he  sought  to  save  the  country  from  the  evils  that  trained  in  the  wake  of  the  great 
conflict. 

Comrades,  men  are  great  practically  and  great  theoretically.  Mr.  Greeley's 
mind  was  not  executive.  It  was  pre-eminently  speculative.  His  exceptional 
mental  power  and  his  sympathetic  heart  were  the  motors  of  his  life.  There  were 
no  currents  in  his  early  life  to  bear  him  into  the  iron  realm  of  religious  bigotry 
or  to  confine  his  great  heart  within  the  narrow  domain  of  selfishness. 

Fellow  feeling  was  his  guiding  star.  He  abhorred  intolerance.  His  concep- 
tions of  right  and  wrong  were  rooted  in  a  sympathetic  heart  and  nursed  by  an 
analytical  mind.  The  logic  of  events  alone  could  change  them.  He  once  said 
that  the  reading  of  the  story  of  Demetrius  and  the  Athenian  made  him  a  member 
of  the  Universalist  denomination.  He  was  a  born  Universalist.  The  sentiment 
of  kindness  permeated  his  whole  being  and  illumined  his  life.  The  first  Franklin 
is  the  patron  saint  of  the  Typothetae.  They  honor  his  birthday  and  admire  his 
shrewd  business  qualities.  The  second  Franklin  is  the  patron  saint  of  the  typo- 
graphical unions.  While  acknowledging  the  sagacity  of  the  first  Franklin,  they 
cherish  the  more  endearing  virtues  of  his  successor.  He  was  more  than  a  printer; 
he  was  a  union  printer.  And  as  long  as  there  is  a  trade  union  on  the  soil  of  the 
great  Republic  his  memory  will  be  cherished  and  revered. 

The  exercises  closed  with  the  singing  of  the  national  anthem, 
"  God  Bless  Our  Native  Land,"  followed  by  the  benediction. 

Steps  were  taken  by  Typographical  Union  No.  6  on  December  6, 
1908,  to  celebrate  the  natal  day  of  Horace  Greeley  on  February  3, 
1909.    The  committee  that  was  then  chosen  to  con- 
Horace  sider  the  matter  reported  on  January  3,   1909,  in 
Greeley  favor  of  having  a  banquet  on  the  third  of  the  suc- 
Centenary.       ceeding  month,  but  it  was  deemed  advisable  to  wait 
until  the  looth  anniversary  of  his  birth,  on  February 
3,  191 1 ,  and  then  hold  a  celebration  that  would  be  a  fitting  tribute  to 
this  great  national  character.    The  tmion  on  October  9,  19 10,  ordered 
that  a  committee  be  appointed  to  make  arrangements  for  a  suitable 
observance  of  the  event,  and  to  John  F.  McCabe  (chairman),  John 
F.  Lane,  William  F.  Wetzel,  John  F.  Crossland  and  James  H.  Dahm 
(secretary),  that  important  duty  was  assigned.     In  the  meanwhile 
other  associations,  notably  the  American  Scenic  and  Historic  Pres- 
ervation Society,  the  Chappaqua  Historical  Society,  and  the  City 
Club  of  New  York,  took  up  the  project,  with  the  result  that  three 
days  were  devoted  to  the  centenary  exercises  —  February  3,  4  and  5, 
191 1.    No.  6  observed  the  occasion  on  Sunday  afternoon,  February 
5th,  at  the  New  York  Theater,  Broadway,  between  West  Forty- 
fourth  and  West  Forty-fifth  streets.     The  auditorium,  proscenium 


UNION    PRINTERS    WHO    ATTAINED    DISTINCTION.  637 

boxes  and  balconies  of  the  theater  were  crowded  with  printers  and 
their  friends,  among  whom  were  a  number  of  prominent  personages. 
President  James  Tole  of  Union  No.  6  presided,  and  on  the  stage, 
besides  invited  guests,  were  many  of  the  former  presidents  of  the 
organization.  The  musical  programme  consisted  of  soprano  solos 
by  Mme.  Alma  Webster  Powell  and  violin  selections  by  Miss  Marie 
Deutscher,  together  with  several  appropriate  numbers  by  a  large 
orchestra  conducted  by  Prof.  Max  Schmidt. 

Among  the  letters  of  regret  read  by  the  chairman  was  one  from 
William  Dean  Howells,  the  novelist,  who  from  his  winter  home  in 
Hamilton,  Bermuda,  wrote:  "  I  should  be  glad  and  proud  to  come 
to  No.  6's  celebration  of  the  Greeley  centenary.  But  I  am  almost  a 
hundred  years  old  myself,  by  my  personal  almanac,  which  has  been 
sent  forward  by  two  attacks  of  the  grippe,  and  I  can  only  join  you 
in  the  cordial  sense  of  unity  which  never  ceases  to  bind  printers 
together.  Greeley  was  one  of  the  best  of  us,  and  we  ought  to  keep 
his  memory  green."  Another  was  from  Henry  M.  Alden,  the  dis- 
tinguished editor  of  Harper  &  Brothers'  publications.  He  said: 
"As  I  live  in  the  country  and  am  much  enfeebled  by  recent  illness, 
I  am  unable  to  accept  the  kind  invitation  of  your  committee  to  the 
meeting  commemorating  the  centenary  of  Horace  Greeley's  birth. 
Along  with  Lincoln  and  old  Ben  Franklin,  Horace  Greeley  ranks  as  a 
singular  type,  eminently  original  and  individual,  of  the  plain  Ameri- 
can; and  it  is  peculiarly  fitting  that  this  centenary  of  his  birth  should 
be  celebrated  under  the  auspices  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  of 
which  he  was  the  first  president." 

So  far  as  is  known  the  oldest  printer  in  the  Metropolis  who  holds 
a  certificate  of  membership  signed  by  Horace  Greeley  as  president 
of  the  New  York  Printers'  Union  is  Charles  Vogt,  who  was  bom  of 
German  parents  on  June  15,  1823,  and  is  therefore  in  his  89th  year 
at  the  close  of  this  chronicle.  This  venerable  compositor  still  enjoys 
excellent  health  and  is  actively  engaged  in  business  affairs.  Up  to 
80  he  was  engaged  at  proofreading,  but  impairment  of  eyesight  then 
forbade  his  pursuance  of  that  branch  of  the  printing  trade,  and  he  is 
at  present  occupied  in  another  vocation.  He  was  an  apprentice  on 
the  New  York  Commercial  Advertiser  in  1835.  While  the  other  em- 
ployees of  that  afternoon  newspaper  began  their  daily  tasks  at  7 
o'clock  A.  M.  he  reported  at  the  office  at  6  o'clock  a.  m.,  walking  from 
his  home  in  Bayard  street  to  the  comer  of  Pine  and  William  streets, 
building  the  fire  in  the  composing-room  stove,  sweeping  the  floor, 
and  setting  type  until  the  forms  went  to  press.  He  carried  papers 
to  subscribers  during  the  remainder  of  the  day.    Among  the  men  of 


638  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

eminence  to  whom  he  dolivered  the  Commercial  Advertiser  was  Aaron 
Burr,  whose  law  office  was  then  at  No.  52  Broadway,  New  York  City. 
Mr.  Vogt  was  intimately  acquainted  with  Greeley,  by  whom  he  was 
employed  on  the  New  Yorker  in  1838.  On  January  23,  191 1,  this 
remarkable  octogenarian  addressed  the  following  interesting  letter 
to  the  Centenary  Committee,  and  at  the  end  of  its  reading  by  Presi- 
dent Tole  the  sentiments  it  contained  were  generously  applauded  by 
the  auditors: 

Greeley  Centennial  Committee: 

Gentlemen: — A  desire  to  add  a  meed  of  praise  and  admiration  to  that  of 
the  host  of  others  has  induced  me  to  note  a  few  incidents  in  the  Ufe  of  Horace 
Greeley,  that  grand  old  man,  whom  I  saw  quite  early  in  his  professional  career 
when  he  was  exerting  all  his  intellectual  and  physical  powers  to  achieve  success 
in  establishing  the  New  Yorker  in  1838,  when  the  office  was  located  in  the  rear 
building  of  No.  29  Ann  street.  There  were  three  hands  beside  myself  —  Mr. 
Bowe,  the  foreman,  Mr.  Winchester  and  Mr.  Swain,  who  set  up  the  piece  of 
music  that  always  graced  the  last  page  of  that  popular  newspaper.  Mr.  Greeley 
would  often  "  lend  a  hand  "  when  the  paper  was  behind,  by  setting  up  a  few 
sticksful.  His  bent  attitude  while  standing  at  the  case,  and  bobbing  motion 
while  setting  type,  are  vividly  impressed  on  my  memory.  If  he  "  pied  "  a  line 
his  proverbial  equanimity  was  not  disturbed  thereby.  Apropos  of  pie,  it  was  his 
custom  every  Saturday  at  noon  —  the  paper  having  been  printed  and  mailed  — 
to  provide  what  was  designated  as  a  "  pie  gorge,"  to  which  we  were  freely  invited. 
About  a  dozen  good-sized  pies,  fresh  from  the  famous  pie  bakery  of  Russel,  in  Spruce 
street,  would  grace  the  imposing  stone.  Ample  justice  was  done  to  the  delicious 
pastries,  especially  by  the  great  editor  himself,  who,  released  from  the  week's 
toil  and  anxiety,  gave  full  rein  to  his  natural  flow  of  humor,  and  indulged  in 
witticisms  and  anecdotes  that  were  a  feast  for  the  soul,  besides  being  a  digestive 
assistant.  A  feature  of  the  entertainment  to  me  —  a  Knickerbocker  —  was  the 
Yankee  accent,  with  the  nasal  intonation,  that  marked  the  utterances  of  most 
of  the  hands,  who  hailed  from  "  Varmount,"  including  Mr.  Greeley  himself,  who 
was  long  a  resident  there. 

Notwithstanding  the  financial  difficulties  that  beset  him  while  publishing  the 

New  Yorker,  he  never  failed  to  pay  his  hands  promptly  every  cent  they  had 
earned.  He  seemed  to  regard  that  obhgation  as  a  sacred  one;  and  so,  too,  with 
regard  to  the  same  obligations  to  the  Tribune  printers.  He  was  truly  the  work- 
ingman's  best  friend  in  all  that  the  term  implies,  as  his  newspaper  fully  evidenced. 

I  am  proud  of  holding  a  union  card  of  July  6,  1850,  with  his  signature  as  its  first 
president. 

Charles  Vogt, 

Card  No.  54  in  1850. 

In  opening  the  exercises  President  Tole  spoke  as  follows: 

It  is  fitting  that  Typographical  Union  No.  6  should  to-day  bring  to  a  close  the 
three-days'  series  of  celebrations  of  the  birth  of  Horace  Greeley  —  its  first  presi- 
dent. Greeley  was  noted  for  many  things,  but  we  wish  to  remember  him  as 
Horace  Greeley  the  printer!    What  emotions  are  stirred  by  the  mere  utterance 


UNION    PRINTERS    WHO    ATTAINED    DISTINCTION.  639 

of  those  simple  words!  From  1850  to  191 1,  in  the  counting  of  time,  is  but  the 
passing  of  a  shadow.  Yet  in  the  fleeting  years  nations  and  peoples  have  run  the 
gamut  of  change;  heroes  have  disported  their  laurel  wreaths  and  passed  away; 
statesmen  and  great  men  in  all  lines  of  endeavor  have  enjoyed  the  sweets  of  their 
greatness,  and  have  then  stepped  from  the  gaze  of  the  moment.  But  we  have 
been  endowed  with  the  blessed  faculty  of  memory  —  that  memory  which  at 
bidding  conjures  to  the  mind  the  glories  of  the  past  and  maintains  our  venera- 
tion of  those  to  whose  examples  we  owe  so  much. 

It  is,  therefore,  with  more  than  pride  and  gratitude  that  we  of  the  printing 
craft  speak  and  think  of  Horace  Greeley  as  a  printer.  Should  we  not  be  proud, 
indeed,  to  remember  that  in  the  hour  of  his  greatest  triumphs  he,  too,  was  proud 
that  he  was  a  printer? 

And  how  grateful  are  we  that  the  first  line  written  in  the  glorious  history  of 
our  organization  emanated  from  so  great  a  mind;  for  on  January  i,  1850, — 
61  years  ago  —  the  New  York  Printers'  Union  was  organized  and  Greeley  was 
its  first  president. 

The  inspiring  figure  of  Horace  Greeley  has  surely  spurred  on  to  ambitious 
heights  many  of  our  craftsmen  who  followed  him,  and  who  themselves  have 
attained  to  high  honors  in  the  land.  Notable  names  might  be  mentioned  of 
those  who,  like  the  subject  of  the  day,  left  the  printers'  case  to  take  their  places 
in  the  highest  intelligence  of  the  day. 

The  printers'  trade  has  been  described  as  "  the  art  preservative,"  It  is  more  — 
it  is  the  avenue  through  which  was  approached  the  wonderful  career  of  this 
immortal  American,  whose  impress  upon  the  social  and  political  history  of  our 
country  is  written  in  lines  of  grateful  remembrance.  It  may  be  that  when  the 
present  fades  away  in  the  shadows  of  the  past  —  when  the  children  of  the  future 
shall  have  become  the  moulders  of  the  nation's  destiny,  when  the  press  of  new 
and  strange  things  fills  the  pubUc  mind  —  it  may  be  that  the  world  at  large  will 
but  hazily  think  of  the  commanding  intellect  of  the  printer  in  honor  of  whose 
memory  we  are  now  assembled. 

But  the  "  art  preservative  of  all  arts  " —  the  art  of  which  he  was  so  ardent  a 
disciple  —  keeps  forever  the  indehble  record  of  his  life,  forever  furnishing  deepest 
inspiration,  encouraging  ambition  to  great  achievements. 

No  grander  character  springs  from  history's  pages  than  this  man,  who,  first 
perceiving  the  need  of  reforms  in  trade  conditions  then  existing,  was  the  first 
to  set  about  effecting  those  reforms.  No  union  printer  of  the  present  day  can 
fail  to  appreciate  the  efforts  of  this  pioneer  to  establish  the  craft  upon  a  basis 
deserving  the  respect  of  the  community.  Who  shall  say  that  the  widespreading 
influence  and  power  of  the  International  Typographical  Union  are  not  due  to 
the  energies  of  those  who  laid  our  foundations  more  than  half  a  century  ago? 

The  man  who  began  by  putting  into  type  the  thoughts  of  others  —  who  later 
aspired  even  to  the  highest  honor  within  the  gift  of  his  countrymen  —  was  a 
printer.  Never  forgetting  his  early  training  and  associations  in  a  printing  office, 
it  is  a  matter  of  record  that  among  his  most  active  work  in  New  York  City  was 
that  in  the  direction  of  elevating  his  chosen  craft,  and  the  success  of  his  labors 
is  now  evidenced  in  the  position  of  influence  of  the  present  tmion  of  almost  7,000 
members,  of  which  he  was  the  first  president  —  a  union  then  of  28  members. 

Since  the  stirring  days  of  his  activities  in  our  ranks  others  have  appeared  and 
performed  their  allotted  duties  among  men;  men  and  times  and  conditions  have 
changed;  adversities  have  been  met  and  conquered;  we  have  been  torn  by  strife 


640  XEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

and  at  times  have  been  forced  almost  to  the  last  issue  in  order  to  maintain  our 
integrity.  But  throughout  it  all  —  even  in  the  darkest  hour,  when  hope  was 
ebbing  low  —  there  was  always  before  us  the  indomitable  spirit  of  the  man  who 
set  our  ship  afloat,  the  man  who  knew  how  to  battle  for  right,  whose  fearlessness 
and  determination  are  to-day  the  pride  and  glory  of  every  American  union  printer. 

Fitting  it  is,  then,  that  on  this  day,  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  assem- 
blages such  as  this  one  have  gathered  together  to  pay  tribute  to  the  memory  of 
this  great  American.  Men  of  the  journalistic  profession  are  to-day  extoUing  the 
qualities  of  the  genius  whose  magic  has  widened  the  scope  of  their  endeavors, 
and  whose  name  is  linked  forever  with  the  highest  and  purest  ideals.  They  will 
speak  reverently  of  him  not  only  as  the  leading  editor  of  his  time,  as  the  greatest 
power  in  journalism  of  his  day,  but  also  as  an  astute  statesman,  a  true  and  keen 
observer  of  the  trend  of  events. 

Journalist,  statesman,  thinker,  reformer,  man  of  affairs  he  was,  leaving  behind 
him  the  ineffaceable  record  of  his  greatness!  But  our  fondest  thought  of  him  is 
of  the  man  in  all  his  simple  earnestness,  the  worker  in  the  ranks  of  his  fellow-men, 
ever  striving  for  the  general  uplift  of  mankind  and  thinking  of  himself  merely 
as  Horace  Greeley  —  the  printer. 

United  States  Senator  Albert  J.  Beveridge,  of  Indiana,  who  was 
then  introduced,  received  an  ovation.  His  theme  was  "  Horace 
Greeley  and  the  Cause  of  Labor."  Extracts  from  his  address,  which 
was  frequently  applauded  during  its  eloquent  delivery,  appear  below : 

The  labor  problem  is  the  fundamental  problem.  Believing  this,  Horace  Greeley 
was,  in  his  time,  the  prophet  of  a  brighter  day  for  those  who  toil.  The  great 
journal  which  he  founded  became,  in  a  critical  period,  the  trumpet  of  American 
conscience;  yet  even  above  his  fame  as  one  of  the  most  brilliant  journalists  the 
world  has  produced  stands  his  renown  as  a  champion  of  the  rights  of  Labor. 

The  welfare  of  men,  women  and  children  who  must  eat  their  bread  in  the  sweat 
of  their  faces  was  his  deepest  concern.  Wise  counselor  of  the  toiling  masses,  he 
also  was  a  fearless  fighter  to  better  their  conditions.  What  Horace  Greeley 
believed  in,  that  he  fought  for. 

Even  in  his  early  manhood  Horace  Greeley  saw  that  simple  and  sublime  truth 
that  the  laborer  is  not  merely  a  commodity,  but  a  human  being,  and  therefore 
that  every  phase  of  the  labor  problem  can  be  solved  only  from  this  Christian 
viewpoint. 

The  old  and  savage  theory  that  the  workingman  is  merely  merchandise  like 
a  sack  of  flour  or  a  bucket  of  coal  or  a  threshing  machine;  that  the  life  energies 
of  man,  woman  and  child  should  be  bought  in  a  labor  market  at  the  lowest  price 
which  the  competition  of  hunger  made  possible;  that  the  employer  need  not 
think  of  the  employee  as  a  human  being,  but  only  as  a  working  animal  to  be  used 
until  exhausted  and  then  cast  aside  —  that  idea  is  the  child  of  brutal  barbarism. 

It  came  down  to  us  from  the  hideous  past.  It  has  built  more  hovels  and  pre- 
vented the  building  of  more  homes;  placed  more  broken  human  beings  in  their 
graves  and  filled  the  abiding  places  of  mankind  with  more  misery  and  woe  than 
all  the  wars  that  have  cursed  the  world.  This  apparently  is  extreme;  yet  it  is 
but  a  carefully  guarded  statement  of  facts  established  by  history  and  statistics. 

To  Horace  Greeley  this  idea  of  human  labor  was  horrible.  It  would  be  better 
for  the  nation  and  all  the  world  if  the  master  minds  directing  the  material  forces 
of  our  time  could  see  this  as  Horace  Greeley  saw  it. 


UNION   PRINTERS    WHO   ATTAINED  DISTINCTION.  64 1 

For  the  present  progress  and  final  triumph  o£  the  idea  of  the  laborer  as  a  human 
being  as  much  if  not  more  credit  is  due  Horace  Greeley  than  to  any  other  single 
American  intellect.  His  declaration  that  "  man  was  not  made  merely  to  eat, 
work,  and  sleep  "  went  to  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen  when  he  uttered  it  and 
comes  to  us  to-day  like  the  burning  words  of  the  Hebrew  prophets. 

His  battle-cry  was  "  a  place  for  every  man  and  a  man  for  every  place."  He 
declared  that  "  Dives  might  perhaps  give  Lazarus  a  steady  job  of  oakum-picking, 
or  even  gardening,  in  order  to  keep  the  crumbs  about  his  table  for  his  dogs  exclu- 
sively, without  at  all  recognizing  the  essential  brotherhood  between  them  or 
doing  anything  to  vindicate  it." 

For  an  hour  I  might  quote  such  utterances  of  Horace  Greeley.  But  he  did  not 
stop  with  these  splendid  generalities.  With  the  vigor  of  conviction  he  gave  them 
point  and  substance  by  concrete  plans  for  Labor's  betterment. 

He  was  among  the  greatest  of  the  advocates  of  organized  labor.  He  saw  not 
only  the  inhumanity  that  the  toiler  suffered  from  want  of  organization;  saw  not 
only  that  the  disorganization  of  Labor  and  the  organization  of  Capital  made 
possible  "  man's  inhumanity  to  man  "  which  "  makes  countless  thousands 
mourn,"  but  also  he  saw  that  lack  of  organization  among  laborers  caused  incred- 
ible waste  and  loss. 

It  was  Horace  Greeley  who  declared  that  "  the  aggregate  waste  of  labor  and 
faculty  for  want  of  organization  in  any  year  exceeds  the  cost  of  any  war  for  five 
years,  ruinous  and  detestable  as  all  war  is.  It  is  palpable  fatuity  and  criminal 
waste  of  the  divine  bounty  to  let  this  go  on  interminably." 

And  so  Horace  Greeley  preached  the  righteousness  and  wisdom  of  the  organ- 
ization of  Labor.  He  was  our  great  American  champion  of  the  brotherhood  of 
toil.  Not  even  to-day  does  any  economist  more  thoroughly  understand  the 
philosophy  of  the  organization  of  Labor  than  Horace  Greeley  understood  it 
three-quarters  of  a  century  ago.  And  no  man  to-day  expounds  with  more  guarded 
thoughtfulness  or  brilUant  argument  the  common  sense  and  beneficence  of  organ- 
ized labor  than  did  this  journalistic  tribune  of  the  people  from  early  manhood 
to  the  very  sunset  of  his  life. 

He  thought,  spoke  and  fought  for  improved  labor  conditions  in  every  phase 
of  Labor's  activity  and  life.  He  believed  Labor  entitled  to  higher  wages.  Horace 
Greeley  thought  that  Labor,  which,  jointly  with  Capital,  produces  this  wealth, 
should  get  an  increased  and  increasing  share  of  it.  Even  in  that  day  Greeley 
was  shocked  at  the  lightning-like  accumulation  of  riches  in  the  hands  of  a  few 
who  did  Uttle  to  earn  them  and  the  appalling  increase  of  the  thousands  who 
asked  only  an  opportunity  to  work  that  they  might  eat. 

No  clearer  light  ever  has  been  thrown  on  unjustifiable  industrial  and  financial 
inequalities  than  Horace  Greeley's  remorseless  analysis;  few  stronger  denuncia- 
tions of  this  wicked  condition  ever  were  pronounced  since  the  time  when  the 
Divine  Equalizer  gave  to  mankind  His  sacred  message  2,000  years  ago. 

But  in  nearly  all  he  said  and  proposed  for  the  welfare  of  the  workingman, 
Greeley  was  carefully  practical;  he  did  not  propose  to  cure  between  morning  and 
nightfall  all  the  injustices  we  have  inherited  from  the  beginning  of  time. 

But  there  were  some  things  upon  which  he  did  insist  as  immediately  necessary 
and  not  to  be  compromised.  One  of  these  was  a  shortening  of  the  laborer's 
working  day. 

At  that  time  it  was  both  law  and  usage  to  employ  labor  at  the  lowest  possible 
point  to  which  the  fear  of  starvation  could  drive  wages,  and  then  compel  the 


642  NEW    YORK   TYPO(-.KAPHlCAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

laborer  to  work  as  many  hours  as  tlie  cmpUjycr  chose  without  consultation  or 
consent  of  the  man  who  did  the  work. 

So  laborers  were  compelled  to  work  twelve  and  fourteen  hours,  and  for  even 
longer  periods,  every  working  day.  Greeley  proposed  to  shorten  this  period  of 
toil,  either  by  agreement  or  by  law,  to  a  maximum  of  ten  hours  a  day.  The 
employers  thought  this  meant  their  business  injury  —  even  their  bankruptcy. 
Greeley  showed  them,  instead,  that  shorter  hours  and  higher  wages  meant  the 
employers'  increased  prosperity. 

Aside  from  the  economic  folly  of  an  unlimited  working  day,  its  crass  injustice 
shocked  Greeley's  honest  soul.  Of  this  stupid  wrong  he  said:  "  It  would  be  as 
sensible  and  just  to  prescribe  that  a  pound  of  meat  or  sugar  or  coffee  should 
consist  of  just  as  many  ounces  as  the  buyer  should  see  fit,  after  the  price  had 
been  settled,  to  exact,  or  that  a  bushel  of  grain  should  consist  of  an  indefinite 
number  of  quarts,  as  that  a  day's  work  should  consist  of  ten,  eleven,  twelve  or 
thirteen  hours'  faithful  labor,  just  as  the  purchaser  of  that  labor  should  think 
proper  to  require." 

The  fact  that  in  nearly  50  trades  there  is  at  the  present  time  an  eight-hour 
day  by  agreement  between  employers  and  their  organized  employees;  that  as 
a  result  there  is  an  increased  and  better  product,  a  sturdier,  happier  and  more 
enlightened  laboring  class;  that  there  are  more  homes  and  fewer  hovels  for  these 
laborers,  and  that  those  homes  have  more  books,  music  and  comforts  than  ever 
before,  is  due  to  this  humane  agitation  for  a  shorter  day  of  labor,  of  which  Horace 
Greeley  was  one  of  the  first  and  greatest  American  apostles,  and  to  the  steady, 
intelligent  efforts  of  organized  labor,  of  which  Horace  Greeley  was  one  of  the 
first  greatest  American  champions. 

Child  labor  is  America's  peculiar  industrial  shame.  It  is  a  crime  against  man- 
hood labor  —  every  child  laborer  at  childhood  wages  takes  the  place  of  a  man 
laborer  at  manhood  wages. 

It  is  a  crime  against  the  humane  business  man  —  his  goods  made  by  manhood 
labor  at  manhood  wages  must  meet  his  competitors'  goods  made  by  child  labor 
at  childhood  wages. 

It  is  a  crime  against  childhood  —  every  little  one  has  an  inalienable,  a  sacred 
right  to  grow  into  sotmd-bodied,  clear-brained,  pure-souled  maturity. 

It  is  a  crime  against  society;  it  pours  into  our  citizenship  a  stream  of  people 
weakened  in  body  and  mind. 

It  is  an  insult  to  our  religion,  whose  Founder  said:  "  SuflFer  little  children 
to  come  unto  Me,  and  forbid  them  not,  for  of  such  is  the  Kingdom  of 
God." 

Horace  Greeley  was  against  it.  Even  in  his  day,  when  greed  had  scarcely 
begun  to  chain  us  to  this  body  of  death,  he  sought  to  restrain  it.  It  was  Horace 
Greeley  who  declared:  "  The  State  has  a  right  to  see  and  ought  to  see  that  the 
frames  of  the  rising  generation  are  not  shattered  nor  their  constitutions  under- 
mined by  excessive  toil.  She  should  do  this  for  her  own  sake  as  well  as  for  Hu- 
manity's. She  has  a  vital  interest  in  the  strength  and  vigor  of  those  who  are  to 
be  her  future  fathers  and  mothers,  her  defenders  in  war,  her  cultivators  and 
artisans  in  peace.  *  *  *  por  whatever  service  it  may  be  necessary  to  employ 
labor  *  *  *  there  will  always  be  found  an  abundance  of  adults  if  proper 
inducements  are  offered." 

Thus  spoke  Horace  Greeley  when  child  labor  in  America  was  a  pleasant 
pastime  compared  with  the  black  brutality  of  child  labor  in  America  to-day. 


CHARLES  WALTER  COLBURN, 

Whose  Signature  Was  the  First  One  Affixed  to  the  Liitial 

Constitution  of  New  York  Printers'  Union  and 

Who  Reeeived  Working  Card  No.  i ,  Issued 

by  Horace  Greeley  as  President. 


UNION    PRINTERS    WHO   ATTAINED   DISTINCTION.  643 

Here  is  how  he  summed  up  his  unanswerable  arguments  for  a  higher  estate 
for  those  who  toil:  "A  better  social  condition,  enlarged  opportunities  for  good, 
an  atmosphere  of  humanity  and  hope,  would  insure  a  nobler  and  truer  character, 
and  that  the  dens  of  dissipation  will  clear  to  leave  those  whom  a  proper  education 
has  qualified  and  whom  excessive  toil  has  not  disqualified  for  the  improvement 
of  liberty  and  leisure." 

Most  of  the  labor  reforms  which  Greeley  proposed  and  for  which  he  fought 
already  have  been  realized  in  part  and  ultimately  and  soon  will  be  realized  en- 
tirely. 

The  ten-hour  working  day  for  which  Greeley  battled,  against  the  unlimited 
working  day  of  his  time,  now  has  grown  into  the  eight-hour  day  from  the  same 
arguments  and  facts  which  Greeley  used.    It  ought  to  be  universal  in  all  trades. 

From  ocean  to  ocean  organized  labor  is  now  a  fact  as  permanent  as  the  govern- 
ment itself. 

The  holy  crusade  against  child  labor  now  moving  militantly  forward  will  not 
cease  until  this  stain  is  wiped  entirely  from  our  flag. 

In  short,  the  day  is  dawning  when  the  evils  that  Greeley  denounced  and  the 
principal  reforms  which  he  proposed  will  be  accomplished,  and  the  multiplying 
millions  who  produce  the  wealth  of  the  land  in  peace  and  carry  its  muskets  in 
war  will  more  largely  enjoy  Ufe,  liberty  and  pursuit  of  happiness,  which  is  their 
inalienable  right. 

And  when  the  sun  of  that  day  is  fully  above  the  horizon  its  glad  light  will 
reveal  Horace  Greeley  as  the  heroic  figure  of  that  notable  epoch  for  those  who 
toil  —  Horace  Greeley  at  once  that  epoch's  prophet,  philosopherj  orator  and 
soldier  of  the  common  good. 

An  address  was  also  made  by  William  H.  McElroy,  former  editor 
of  the  New  York  Tribune,  who  spoke  on  "  Horace  Greeley,  the  Jour- 
nalist," and  Andrew  McLean,  editor  of  the  Brooklyn  Citizen,  closed 
the  exercises  with  a  eulogy  of  "  Horace  Greeley,  the  Man." 


II. 

Other  Prominent  Members. 

Dissatisfied  with  conditions  in  the  printing  trade,  Charles  Walter 
Colbum  and  a  few  of  his  compositor  friends  met  in  the  parlor  of  his 
home  at  No.  48  Rutgers  street,  New  York  City,  one 
evening  in  the  latter  part  of  1849  and  discussed  the        Charles 
advisability  of  forming  a  union  of  printers.     Mr.        Walter 
Colburn  always  spoke  of  that  meeting  as  the  birth-        Colbum. 
place  of  "  Big  Six  "  Typographical  Union.     When 
the  initial  constitution  of  the  New  York  Printers'  Union  was  adopted 
on  January  12,  1850,  he  was  the  first  member  to  affix  his  signature 
to  that  instrument,  and  President  Horace  Greeley  awarded  to  him 
working  card  No.  i.     He  held  many  offices  in  the  union.     In  1851 


644  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

and  a  part  of  1852  he  served  as  recording  secretary,  was  president 
in  1859  and  delegate  to  the  National  Typographical  Union  in  the 
same  year.  Beginning  with  1876  he  was  chosen  secretary  of  No.  6 
for  six  consecutive  terms.  Although  an  active  and  uncompromising 
trade  unionist  for  40  years,  he  was  nevertheless  just  and  conserva- 
tive in  his  dealings,  and  his  counsel  and  assistance  were  as  frequently 
sought  by  employers  as  by  employees. 

Mr.  Colburn,  who  was  the  seventh  child  of  Walter  and  Anna  Sly 
Colburn,  was  bom  in  Rome,  N.  Y.,  on  December  3,  1824.  His  father 
was  killed  by  falling  from  a  horse  when  Charles  was  a  lad  and  the 
boy  was  shortly  thereafter  apprenticed  to  a  printer  in  Rome.  His 
environment  not  being  congenial,  he  left  that  place  when  he  was  15 
years  of  age,  went  to  Buffalo  and  thence  to  Pennsylvania,  where  he 
taught  school  for  one  winter.  Having  obtained  an  appointment  as 
naval  cadet,  he  started  to  work  his  way  to  Annapolis.  It  took  him 
some  time  to  accomplish  the  journey,  and  when  he  finally  reached 
the  Naval  Academy  he  learned  that  he  was  too  old  to  be  admitted, 
having  passed  his  17th  birthday.  Thereupon  he  went  to  New  York 
City  and  obtained  employment  at  his  trade. 

Mr.  Colburn  was  among  the  early  typesetters  employed  on  the 
New  York  Tribune.  He  worked  on  that  paper,  off  and  on,  as  com- 
positor and  proofreader,  for  many  years  —  up  to  the  death  of  Horace 
Greeley,  with  whom  he  was  a  particular  favorite;  indeed,  Greeley 
several  times  invited  him  to  join  the  editorial  staff  of  the  Tribune, 
but  Colburn  declined  the  proffer.  He  was  one  of  the  very  few  printers 
who  could  read  Greeley's  manuscript  with  ease,  and  it  was  not  an 
unusual  occurrence  for  him  to  be  sent  for  post-haste  to  decipher  some 
article  which  was  to  appear  in  the  morning  edition  of  the  paper  and 
which  no  other  person  present  at  the  office  could  interpret. 

In  the  early  forties  Bayard  Taylor  was  connected  with  the  Tribune, 
and  a  warm  friendship  sprang  up  between  him  and  Colburn.  When 
the  poet  started  for  Europe  on  the  journey  which  is  described  in 
"  Views  Afoot  "  he  urged  the  subject  of  this  sketch  to  accompany 
him,  but  Colburn  had  other  things  in  mind,  so  remained  at  home  and 
in  June,  1846,  married  Miss  Mary  A.  Collie.  Five  sons  and  three 
daughters  were  the  result  of  this  union,  but  of  these  children  only 
two  daughters  survive. 

In  1852  he  went  to  St.  Louis  to  assume  the  foremanship  of  the 
Intelligencer.  Although  he  remained  in  that  city  only  about  a  year 
and  a  half,  during  that  time  he  was  elected  to  the  presidency  of  the 
typographical  union  there  and  also  served  as  a  member  of  its 
Vigilance    Committee.     The    Intelligencer    changed    hands    in    the 


OTHER   PROMINENT   MEMBERS.  645 

autimm  of  1853  and  Colburn  rettimed  to  New  York  and  to  the 
Tribune,  despite  the  fact  that  prominent  citizens  of  St.  Louis  had 
urged  him  to  remain,  assuring  him  that  if  he  would  do  so  he  undoubt- 
edly would  be  retiimed  to  Congress  at  the  succeeding  election. 

When  in  March,  1855,  Judge  Gideon  J.  Tucker  (who  afterward 
became  New  York's  Secretary  of  State)  began  the  publication  of  the 
New  York  Daily  News  Colburn  was  engaged  as  the  first  foreman  of 
its  composing  room,  retaining  that  situation  for  several  years.  Many 
years  afterward  Judge  Tucker,  in  speaking  of  Colburn 's  connection 
with  the  News,  said  of  him:  "  You  can  bet  there  were  no  *  rats  '  in 
his  shop.  He  was  a  splendid  printer,  a  sincere  trade  unionist  and  a 
faithfiil  friend." 

Upon  the  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War  he  volunteered  for  service 
in  the  Union  Army,  but  was  refused  because  of  severe  bronchial 
asthma,  which  unfitted  him  for  forced  marches  and  the  rigors  of  war. 
In  1863  he  went  to  the  National  Capital  to  take  charge  of  the  me- 
chanical department  of  one  of  the  Washington  newspapers,  remaining 
about  a  year.  He  was  in  the  spring  of  1864  appointed  an  Assistant 
Assessor  in  the  Revenue  Service  in  New  York  City,  a  position  that 
he  held  till  it  was  abolished  nearly  ten  years  later.  During  the  latter 
part  of  his  life  he  worked  as  compositor  and  proofreader  —  mainly 
the  latter  —  on  the  New  York  Sun,  of  which  Charles  A.  Dana  was 
editor-in-chief,  and  a  sincere  friendship  existed  between  the  two  men. 

In  the  fall  of  1887  Mr.  Colburn  was  taken  ill  with  a  lethal  disease. 
After  bearing  his  suffering  with  characteristic  fortitude  and  cheer- 
fulness for  more  than  two  years  he  expired  on  April  5,  1890.  For 
many  years  he  was  one  of  the  best  known  working  printers  in  the 
United  States,  being  a  man  of  strong  character  and  active  brain,  a 
ready  speaker  and  writer  and  a  genial  companion.  The  high  esteem 
in  which  Mr.  Colburn  was  held  by  his  fellows  was  indicated  by  Henry 
M.  Failing  in  a  letter  addressed  to  the  former  on  December  31,  1852, 
in  describing  the  proceedings  at  a  meeting  of  No.  6,  He  wrote: 
"When  Ottarson,  president,  announced  the  receipt  of  a  telegraphic 
dispatch  from  St.  Louis,  stating  that  he  had  seen  your  name  as  chair- 
man of  the  Vigilance  Committee,  and  that  he  had  no  doubt  you  were 
doing  good  service  for  the  cause  there,  as  you  always  did  here,  it 
brought  down  a  round  of  applause  that  made  the  windows  of  old 
Fountain  Hall  rattle  in  their  casings."  Thus  feelingly  did  the  union 
speak  of  him  at  the  time  of  his  demise:  "  In  his  death  we  mourn  the 
loss  of  one  who  was  a  pioneer  in  the  foundation  of  the  Typographical 
Union,  the  first  intelligent  movement  for  the  betterment  of  the  con- 
dition of  the  journeyman  printer.    This  organization  has  lost  a  mem- 


646  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

ber  steadfast  in  every  storm,  hopeful  in  every  period  of  depression, 
temperate  and  wise  in  victory  —  a  lifelong  career  that  compelled  the 
respect  of  all  who  knew  him.  The  union  reflects  with  pride  on  his 
services  as  its  secretary,  president  and  delegate  to  the  International 
Typographical  Union.  To  eminent  fitness  he  added  tireless  zeal ;  his 
sound  judgment  and  strict  integrity  formed  a  combination  that  se- 
cured for  ovir  organization  the  happiest  results." 

Among  the  active  journeymen  printers  who  took  part  in  the  for- 
mation of  the  New  York  Printers'  Union  was  Franklin  J.  Ottarson, 
who  passed  away  in  New  York  City  on  July  10,  1884, 
Franklin  J.  at  the  age  of  69  years.  He  was  apprenticed  to  the 
Ottarson.  printing  business  in  Watertown,   N.   Y.,  in   1830. 

Seven  years  afterward  he  arrived  in  the  Metropolis. 
His  experience  as  corresponding  secretary  of  the  Franklin  Typo- 
graphical Association,  which  had  a  brief  existence  in  1844,  helped 
to  fit  him  for  more  important  stations  in  the  New  York  Printers' 
Union,  of  which  he  was  the  second  president,  serving  with  distinction 
in  that  office  during  185 1  and  1852.  He  was  a  delegate  to  the 
national  conventions  of  union  printers  in  1850  and  1851,  and  in  the 
first-named  year  was  chosen  secretary  of  the  assemblage. 

Soon  after  the  founding  of  the  New  York  Tribune  Ottarson's  abiUty 
and  facility  for  writing  on  miscellaneous  topics  won  for  him  a  place 
on  the  reportorial  staff  of  that  paper.  In  an  obituary  notice  in  its  issue 
of  August,  1884,  the  Philadelphia  Printers'  Circular  paid  this  tribute 
to  his  memory:  "His  aptness,  reHability  and  diligence  induced 
Horace  Greeley  to  promote  him  to  the  responsible  position  of  city 
editor,  a  post  he  filled  with  credit  to  himself  and  honor  to  the  news- 
paper he  served.  From  city  editor  he  became  night  editor,  a  post 
he  held  for  many  years.  In  his  long  and  useful  life  he  was  always 
conscientious  in  the  discharge  of  whatever  duties  were  imposed  upon 
him.  For  a  generation  he  was  the  wheel-horse  of  a  great  daily  news- 
paper, unknown  to  the  general  public,  but  recognized  and  looked  up 
to  by  the  brotherhood  of  working  editors." 

In  1857  and  1859  he  served  as  a  member  of  the  New  York  City 
Board  of  Councilmen,  having  been  elected  for  the  former  year  in  the 
Forty-first  District  and  represented  the  Sixth  District  in  1859. 

Mr.  Ottarson  was  also  a  noted  writer  of  verse.  He  composed  the 
closing  ode,  entitled  "Speed  the  Press!"  that  was  sung  at  the 
banquet  of  the  New  York  Typographical  Society  on  January  17, 
1850.  His  lines  on  "Hark  to  the  click  of  the  types  in  the  stick!" 
popular  among  printers  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  and 
still  recalled  by  numerous  typos  throughout  the  land,  are  presented 
below : 


OTHER   PROMINENT    MEMBERS.  647 

SETTING  TYPE. 

Hark  to  the  click 

Of  the  types  in  the  stick! 
They  fall  and  they  meet  with  monotonous  sound. 
As  swiftly  the  fingers  that  seize  them  go  round 

To  hurry  them  into  the  stick, 

With  a  click,  click. 

There  they  are  in  the  stick! 
What  do  the  types  tell  the  world  as  they  stand? 
Here  it  is  satire;  there  eloquence  grand. 
Weak  as  nothing  when  single,  combined  they  command 

A  wonder-power  in  their  click, 

As  to  order  they  march  into  the  stick. 

Look  again  in  the  stick. 
To  the  workers  of  evil  they  sorrow  betide; 
The  cheat  and  oppressor  in  vain  try  to  glide 
Away  from  the  click,  but  the  earth  cannot  hide 

Them  away  from  the  click,  click. 

Of  the  types  falling  into  the  stick. 

As  they  click,  click,  in  the  stick, 
Monarchs  and  tyrants  their  marshaling  dread; 
They  know  that  to  freedom  the  types  have  been  wed, 
And  the  visions  they  see  are  in  color  blood-red, 

And  they  shake  at  the  sound  of  the  click. 

Hark,  the  noise  from  the  stick! 
Guilt  flies  from  the  sound  in  a  tremor  of  fear; 
But  guilt  cannot  hide  in  the  day  or  the  night. 
Though  it  try  every  method  of  hiding  or  flight 
From  the  sound  of  that  terrible  click. 

Forever  that  click,  click! 
In  the  gas  that  makes  day-shine,  or  in  the  sun's  light, 
That  click  is  increasing  forever  its  might. 
And  seeming  to  say:     "  Here  we  stand  for  the  right! 

Oppressors,  beware  of  the  stick!  " 

Those  gray-colored  types  in  the  stick! 
States,  monarchies,  potentates,  pachas  and  kings. 
The  painter,  the  player,  the  poet  who  sings. 
Stand  in  awe  of  these  poor,  little,  dull,  leaden  things, 

And  the  ominous  noise  of  the  click. 

But  these  types  in  the  stick. 
To  the  just  and  the  true  all  the  nations  around. 
To  the  whole  of  mankind  where  the  virtues  abound  — 
Most  welcome  to  such  is  the  musical  sound 

Of  the  types  with  their  click. 


648  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    MEMBER    SIX. 

The  membership  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  had  been  so  greatly 
depleted  at  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  owing  principally  to  the  disas- 
trous newspaper  strike  in  1864,  that  it  was  a  difficult 
Robert  matter  to  obtain  a  quorum  for  a  regular  meeting. 

McKechnie.  It  was  at  this  critical  moment  in  the  life  of  the  union 
that  it  selected  as  its  president  Robert  McKechnie, 
who  immediately  initiated  a  movement  to  add  to  the  numerical 
strength  of  the  organization.  He  was  elected  at  the  end  of  December, 
1865,  and  during  a  service  of  two  years  much  of  his  time  and  energy 
were  devoted  to  advancing  the  interests  of  his  fellow-craftsmen.  In 
January,  1866,  at  the  beginning  of  his  administration,  the  union  had 
264  members  on  its  books,  although  at  that  time  there  were  several 
thousand  compositors  in  the  city.  By  1867  his  efiforts  had  resulted 
in  increasing  the  membership  to  588.  The  city  was  districted  in  that 
year  and  proselyting  was  so  successfully  carried  on  under  President 
McKechnie's  direction  that  at  the  opening  of  1868  there  were  1,226 
on  the  membership  rolls.  He  was  elected  president  of  the  National 
Typographical  Union  in  1868,  the  most  striking  event  of  his  admin- 
istration being  the  issuance  of  an  "  amnesty  proclamation,"  by  which 
all  persons  who  had  been  expelled  from  unions  for  working  under 
prices  or  for  otherwise  violating  union  rules  could  be  restored  to  mem- 
bership. As  a  result  of  this  action  the  subordinate  bodies  all  over  the 
country  added  largely  to  their  ranks,  but  the  greatest  gain  was  made 
by  "  Big  Six,"  which  on  January  i,  1869,  nimibered  2,105. 

At  the  regular  meeting  of  the  union  on  January  7,  1868,  as  Presi- 
dent McKechnie  was  about  retiring  from  office,  after  his  second  term, 
a  valuable  gold  watch  was  presented  to  him  by  the  membership  as  a 
mark  of  the  high  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  by  his  fellows.  After 
he  had  installed  the  new  president  and  was  about  introducing  him  to 
the  assembled  printers.  Nelson  W.  Young  stepped  forward  and  ad- 
dressed him  as  follows: 

Mr.  McKechnie: — Your  retirement  from  the  position  of  president  of  New 
York  Typographical  Union  No.  6  cannot  be  allowed  to  take  place  without  some 
allusion  being  made  to  the  efficiency  with  which  you  have  discharged  your  duties, 
nor  an  acknowledgment  of  the  important  services  you  have  rendered  to  the  union. 
Two  years  ago,  when  you  were  elected  president,  the  state  of  the  trade  in  this 
city  presented  a  far  from  encouraging  aspect,  the  claims  of  union  printers  in 
many  of  the  principal  offices  being  ignored  —  not  because  those  claims  were 
unjust,  nor  because  the  employers  really  thought  them  so,  but  for  the  reason, 
pure  and  simple,  that  the  bond  of  union  and  feeling  of  confidence  which  should 
at  all  times  exist  between  the  employer  and  the  employed  was  wanting.  You, 
sir,  belong  to  the  large  majority  in  this  union  who  believe  that  employers  have 
rights  which  should  be  acknowledged  and  respected  equally  with  those  of  the 
employed.     With  us  you  believe  that  if  employers  would  allow  themselves  to 


OTHER   PROMINENT   MEMBERS.  649 

be  consulted  upon  the  changes  which  the  advance  or  the  reduction  in  the  price 
of  rent,  fuel,  provisions  —  in  fact,  all  the  necessaries  of  life  —  compel  us  to  ask 
for  our  labor,  the  interests  of  both  parties  would  be  subserved.  We  felt  then, 
as  we  feel  now,  that  if  our  constitution  and  by-laws  could  be  placed  in  the  hands 
of  every  employing  printer,  and  a  free  interchange  of  sentiment  could  be  had 
between  him  and  the  proper  party  appointed  to  represent  the  union,  that  we 
could  demonstrate  —  by  practical  results  —  that  time  and  money  would  be  saved 
by  conducting  an  office  in  which  all  were  members  of  the  union.  We  felt  at 
that  time,  therefore,  the  importance  of  selecting  a  presiding  officer  whose  ante- 
cedents would  be  a  guarantee  that  he  would  labor  for  the  end  so  much  desired, 
and  initiate  measures  that  would  indisputably  prove  to  the  employer  that  his 
interests,  financially,  and  as  regards  workmanship,  were  identified  with  ours. 
We  felt  also  that  we  needed  an  officer  who  would  infuse  new  Ufe  and  vigor  into 
the  profession.  The  choice  fell  upon  you.  The  roll  of  membership  to-day,  the 
highly  satisfactory  state  of  our  treasury  and  the  harmony  and  good  feeling 
which  pervade  the  craft,  are  irrefutable  evidences  that  the  selection  was  a  wise 
and  judicious  one  —  in  a  word,  that  we  had  found  "  the  right  man  for  the  right 
place."  This  increase  of  membership,  and  the  improved  condition  of  the  union 
and  the  trade,  bore  ample  testimony  to  the  zeal,  energy  and  success  of  your 
administration  —  so  much  so  that,  at  the  close  of  your  official  term,  notwith- 
standing your  natural  modesty  impelled  you  to  seek  retirement,  the  unanimous 
voice  of  the  members  was  raised  for  your  retention  in  a  position  which  reflected 
so  much  credit  upon  yourself  and  such  substantial  benefits  to  the  union.  To  be 
the  unanimous  choice  of  intelligent  men  was  an  honor  of  which  you  might  well 
feel  proud;  but,  sir,  I  stand  before  you  to-night  to  tell  you,  in  the  name  of  your 
associates,  that  the  honor  was  deserved,  and  properly  bestowed  upon  you.  When 
you  first  assumed  the  duties  of  your  office  I  perceive  by  this  list  that  our  member- 
ship numbered  but  264.  To-night,  when  you  surrender  your  official  position, 
the  list  foots  up  i  ,200.  To  you,  sir,  belongs  the  honor  of  this  prosperity,  and  I 
appeal  to  this  large  concourse  of  members  if  I  may  not  say,  in  their  name,  "  Well 
done,  good  and  faithful  servant!"  Sensible  of  your  worth  as  an  officer,  appre- 
ciating your  high  qualities  as  a  man,  a  printer  and  an  associate,  a  number  of 
your  friends  have  delegated  me  to  present  to  you  this  testimonial  of  their  esteem 
and  regard.  In  fulfilling  this  duty  my  heart  throbs  with  pleasing  emotions. 
This  testimonial,  sir,  is  but  the  emblem  of  your  traits  of  character  —  regularity, 
order  and  correct  principles.  Take  it,  sir,  and  each  day  as  its  hands  revolve  may 
they  note  your  advancement  in  health  and  prosperity,  and  as  its  tickings 
admonish  you  that  time  is  fleeting,  so  may  the  throbbings  of  your  heart  beat 
in  unison  with  all  the  holy  aspirations  of  a  man  and  brother. 

The  gift  was  a  complete  surprise  to  Mr.  McKechnie.  "  Gentlemen, 
I  am  completely  overpowered,  and  hardly  know  what  to  say,"  he 
responded.  "  The  highly  complimentary  and  very  flattering  speech 
of  Mr.  Young  overestimates  any  service  I  may  have  done  the  union. 
It  was  not  I  who  built  up  this  union ;  it  was  your  committees  and  the 
earnest,  energetic  workers  that  have  done  it ;  you  have  them  to  thank 
for  its  prosperity,  not  me.  I  am  glad  you  have  this  opinion  of  me. 
I  never  had  it  of  myself.  One  matter  I  wish  to  call  your  attention 
to,  and  that  is,  to  carry  out  the  portion  of  the  obligation,  which  we 


650  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

have  all  taken,  to  abide  by  the  decision  of  the  majority.  Whatever 
differences  of  opinion  may  exist  previous  to  a  question  being  disposed 
of  let  us  all  remember  that  after  it  has  been  decided  we  are  bound  by 
our  obligations  to  see  that  it  is  carried  out.  If  we  only  do  this,  and 
you  give  to  my  successor  the  same  support  that  you  have  always  given 
me,  I  feel  satisfied  that  at  the  end  of  his  term  of  office  our  union  will 
be  found  more  powerful  than  it  is  to-day,  and  wielding  a  greater 
influence  for  the  benefit  of  its  members  and  the  craft  at  large.  Gentle- 
men, I  thank  you.    I  am  unable  to  say  any  more." 

Mr.  McKechnic  was  again  chosen  president  of  Union  No.  6  for  the 
year  1872,  and  during  that  term  136  members  were  added  to  its  rolls. 

Robert  McKechnie  was  born  in  the  County  of  Armagh,  Ireland, 
on  October  20,  1834.  He  was  educated  at  the  Academical  Institute, 
Belfast,  and  learned  the  printing  trade  on  the  Belfast  Whig.  In 
January,  1854,  he  arrived  in  New  York,  and  in  1855  went  to  Nashville 
Term.,  where  he  was  employed  by  the  Methodist  Book  Concern,  but 
afterward  returned  to  New  York  and  became  an  active  member  of 
No.  6. 

His  father  was  a  native  of  Scotland  and  had  been  a  soldier  of  some 
note.  From  him  young  Robert  inherited  the  martial  spirit  that 
prompted  him  to  go  to  the  front  in  the  Civil  War  at  the  first  call  to 
arms,  enlisting  in  Company  H,  Ninth  New  York  Volunteers  (Haw- 
kins'  Zouaves),  on  April  19,  1861.  He  was  soon  promoted  to  first 
lieutenant  and  adjutant,  and  took  part  in  a  number  of  battles,  in- 
cluding Antietam  and  South  Mountain.  When  he  was  mustered  out 
of  the  service  in  midsummer,  1863,  he  went  back  to  New  York  City, 
where  he  resumed  work  as  compositor.  At  one  time  he  was  foreman 
of  the  New  York  World. 

Mr.  McKechnie  died  in  the  spring  of  1893.  His  loss  was  greatly 
deplored  by  the  membership  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  which 
on  May  7th,  that  year,  thus  expressed  its  sympathy:  "  We  have 
heard  with  profound  sorrow  of  the  death  of  Robert  McKechnie,  who 
for  3  5  years  was  an  honored  member  of  our  union,  having  served  as  its 
president  three  times,  displaying  pronounced  ability  and  zeal  in  the 
conduct  of  its  affairs,  the  happy  results  of  which  were  increased  mem- 
bership and  prosperity.  He  also  filled  most  creditably  the  exalted 
position  of  president  of  the  National  Typographical  Union,  giving 
to  the  membership  a  vigorous  and  progressive  administration.  Mr. 
McKechnie  supplemented  his  splendid  career  as  a  member  of  the 
International  Typographical  Union  with  a  gallant  record  as  a  soldier 
in  the  United  States  Army  during  the  War  of  the  Rebellion.  No.  6 
hereby  declares  its  deep  regret  at  the  death  of  Robert  McKechnie, 


OTHER    PROMINENT    MEMBERS.  65 1 

who  was  a  good  printer,  a  brave  soldier,  and  an  uncompromising 
trade  unionist." 

One  of  the  ablest  and  most  enthusiastic  members  of  No.  6  was 
Amos  Jay  Cummings,  who  joined  the  union  on  February  4,  i860, 
and,  although  he  attained  considerable  eminence  in 
public  life  and  in  joumaHsm,  he  held  a  paid-up      Honorable 
working  card  up  to  the  time  of  his  demise.    He  was      Amos  Jay 
bom   in   Conklin,  N.  Y.,  on    May   15,   1842.     His      Cummings. 
father  was  a  Congregational  minister  and  editor  of 
the  Christian  Palladium  and  Messenger,  which  was  pubHshed  on  the 
first  floor  of  the  Cummings  home  in  Irvington,  N.  J.,  where  Amos 
mastered  the  art  of  typesetting.    After  acquiring  the  trade  he  became 
an  itinerant  compositor,  setting  type  in  every  State  in  the  Union. 

Cuinmings  enlisted  as  a  private  in  the  Twenty-sixth  New  Jersey 
Volimteer  Infantry,  Second  Division,  Sixth  Corps,  Army  of  the 
Potomac,  in  April,  1861,  and  came  out  of  the  Civil  War  as  sergeant- 
major  of  his  regiment.  He  fought  in  the  battles  of  Antietam, 
Chancellorsville  and  Fredericksburg.  For  gallantry  at  Salem 
Heights,  on  May  4,  1863,  he  received  the  Congressional  medal  of 
honor.  While  his  regiment  was  supporting  a  battery  against  a 
charge  of  the  enemy,  so  desperate  was  the  onslaught  of  the  Confed- 
erates that  the  lines  of  the  Jerseymen  were  broken  and  they  beat  a 
retreat.  At  this  critical  moment,  says  a  describer  of  the  courageous 
act,  "  seizing  the  colors  from  the  hands  of  the  color  sergeant,  who 
had  been  mortally  wounded,  Cimmiings  turned,  and  under  a  galling 
fire  ran  back  to  the  captiu-ed  guns.  The  regiment  halted,  rallied 
around  him,  and  the  guns  were  recovered.  It  was  one  of  the 
bravest  and  most  daring  feats  of  courage  performed  on  the  field  of 
battle,  and  for  sterHng  valor  and  brilHancy  of  achievement  was  most 
remarkable,  indeed  if  not  miraculous." 

At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  Cummings  went  to  New  York  City, 
where  he  entered  the  journalistic  profession,  becoming  editor  of  the 
Weekly  Tribune.  Afterward  he  joined  the  staff  of  the  New  York  Sun, 
of  which  paper  he  was  managing  editor  in  1869.  His  health  faiHng 
in  1872,  he  left  New  York  on  an  extended  journey,  during  which  his 
correspondence  over  the  signature  of  "  Ziska  "  brought  him  world- 
wide fame.  In  1876  he  took  editorial  charge  of  the  New  York  Evening 
Express  and  in  1887  was  managing  editor  of  the  New  York  Evening 
Sun. 

He  entered  the  political  arena  in  1886,  being  elected  by  the  Demo- 
crats that  year  to  the  House  of  Representatives  from  New  York 
City,  and  also  served  the  people  in  the  three  succeeding  Congresses. 


6S2  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Having  been  defeated  for  the  Fifty-fourth  Congress,  he  was  subse- 
quently chosen  in  another  district  to  fill  the  vacancy  caused  by  the 
death  of  Representative  A.  J,  Campbell.  Elected  to  the  Fifty-fifth, 
Fifth-sixth  and  Fifty-seventh  Congresses,  his  continuous  term  of 
service  in  the  National  Legislature  was  approximately  fifteen  years. 
During  his  entire  public  career  in  Washington  he  was  a  strong  and 
consistent  advocate  of  labor  measures  and  industrial  reform,  serving 
with  great  credit  as  a  member  of  the  House  Committee  on  Labor. 
He  was  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs,  and  the  present 
navy  of  the  United  States  owes  much  to  the  persistency  of  his  support 
of  all  bills  for  an  enlarged  fleet  of  modern  war  vessels.  Mr.  Cum- 
mings'  services  in  behalf  of  Labor  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
were  described  by  him  at  a  meeting  of  No.  6  on  November  4,  1894. 
The  rules  of  the  union  were  suspended  at  that  session,  and  he  was 
invited  to  make  a  report  concerning  his  work  in  Washington.  Among 
other  things  he  said: 

Mr.  President  and  Fellow-Members:  —  There  is  only  one  member  of  the 
Printers'  Union  in  Congress,  and  the  sooner  you  get  more  of  them  there  the 
better  it  will  be  for  your  interests.  If  there  were  more  trade  unionists  in  Con- 
gress the  printers  and  other  workers  in  Government  employ  would  soon  obtain 
better  wages  than  they  now  receive. 

Ben  Butterworth  was  one  of  the  most  dangerous  foes  of  Labor  in  Congress. 
He's  not  there  now.  He's  been  laid  off.  There  was  another  one,  named  Payson, 
who  got  cranky  when  the  Copyright  Bill  was  up.  While  believing  in  protection 
he  opposed  the  Copyright  Bill,  which,  as  you  all  know,  provides  that  a  foreign 
author  in  order  to  have  his  productions  copyrighted  in  the  United  States  must 
have  his  type  set  here  and  his  book  made  here.  The  bill  was  defeated.  At  the 
next  session,  having  acquired  a  more  extensive  knowledge  of  parliamentary 
practice  and  Congressional  methods,  I  again  introduced  the  Copyright  Bill, 
had  it  referred  to  the  Judiciary  Committee,  and  at  the  same  time  introduced  a 
similar  measure,  which  was  sent  to  the  Committee  on  Patents,  so  that,  if  it  failed 
in  one  committee,  I  would  have  an  additional  chance  of  getting  it  out  of  the  other 
committee.  Just  as  I  had  expected,  the  bill  was  killed  in  the  Judiciary  Com- 
mittee; but  I  succeeded  in  having  the  duplicate  called  from  the  Committee  on 
Patents.  When  Chairman  Simonds  of  that  committee  reported  the  bill  I  asked 
him  to  move  the  previous  question.  At  first  he  hesitated,  but  finally  he  ac- 
quiesced in  my  wishes,  and  the  bill  passed  and  became  a  law.  Congressman 
Simonds  is  glad  now  that  he  moved  the  previous  question  on  the  Copyright 
Bill  —  not  that  he  has  any  love  for  the  printers,  but  because  the  French  Govern- 
ment has  awarded  him  the  medal  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  for  the  prominent  part 
he  took  in  having  such  a  meritorious  measure  enacted  into  law.  Simonds  has 
been  a  friend  of  trade  unions  ever  since. 

In  1 88 1  there  was  a  reduction  of  wages  in  the  Government  Printing  Office. 
John  Farquhar '  and  I  worked  hard  to  have  the  wages  restored.     It  took  two 


'  Hon.  John  M.  Farquhar  represented  the  Thirty-second  (Buffalo.  N.  Y.)  District  in  the 
Forty-ninth.  Fiftieth  and  Fifty-first  Congresses  (1885-1891).  He  was  president  of  the  National 
Typographical  Union  in  1860-2. 


OTHER    PROMINENT    MEMBERS.  653 

and  a  half  hours'  sharp  fighting  in  Committee  of  the  Whole,  but  we  were  successful 
in  getting  the  restoration  bill  through. 

I  was  a  factor  in  passing  the  bill  known  as  the  Contract  Labor  Law.  It  was 
passed  to  prevent  the  importation  of  foreign  contract  labor.  It  has  stopped  the 
business  so  far  as  coal  mining  and  manufacturing  are  concerned.  There  are 
some  deficiencies  in  the  law  yet.  The  theatrical  employees'  unions  and  the 
musical  unions  want  it  amended.  As  it  now  stands,  when  a  German  student, 
or  one  of  those  fellows  that  "swill"  beer  along  the  Rhine,  desires  to  come  here 
for  the  summer,  all  he  has  to  do  is  to  get  a  saxaphone  or  some  other  kind  of  musical 
instrument,  call  himself  an  artist,  and  is  allowed  to  land.  We  want  to  prevent 
this. 

An  Eight-Hour  Law  was  enacted  in  1868.  It  had  been  violated  in  the  navy 
yards  and  arsenals,  where  the  men  were  compelled  to  work  ten  hours  a  day. 
When  General  Grant  took  office  as  President  he  insisted  upon  the  enforcement 
of  the  law,  but  the  men  did  not  get  additional  pay  for  the  extra  two  hours  a 
day  they  had  worked.  I  introduced  a  bill  to  compensate  them  for  this  extra 
service.  Holman,  of  Indiana,  asked,  "  How  much  money  will  it  take  out  of  the 
Treasury?  "  I  said,  "  None  of  your  business!  These  men  are  entitled  to  the 
money,  and  the  Government  should  pay  its  just  debts."  The  bill  was  lost. 
In  the  succeeding  Congressional  session  I  introduced  a  bill  allowing  these  men 
to  go  to  the  Court  of  Claims  and  ask  to  be  compensated.  The  measure  was  lost 
every  time  it  was  introduced,  but  we  will  keep  putting  it  in  until  it  is  passed. 

We  have  succeeded  in  passing  an  amendment  to  the  Eight-Hour  Law,  re- 
quiring all  contractors  on  Government  work  to  employ  their  men  not  more  than 
eight  hours  a  day  and  give  them  a  full  day's  pay. 

Dozens  of  bills  of  interest  to  Labor  have  come  before  Congress  since  I  have 
been  there.  I  have  watched  them  —  and  presented  arguments  in  their  favor. 
Last  session  in  the  Sundry  Civil  Bill  there  was  a  clause  that  would  have  repealed 
the  Eight-Hour  Law.  I  called  Chairman  Dockery's  attention  to  it,  and  had  it 
stricken  out. 

I  thank  you  for  your  kind  reception,  and  I  hope  that  the  Typographical  Union 
will,  like  the  country,  soon  get  on  the  road  to  prosperity,  and  flourish  like  a  green 
bay  tree. 

Amos  Jay  Cummings  passed  away  in  the  city  of  Baltimore  on 
May  2,  1902.  The  funeral  obsequies  were  held  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  on  May  4th,  and  the  interment  was  in  the  cemetery 
near  his  boyhood  home  in  Irvington.  It  was  said  of  him  that  he 
was  "a  good  partisan,  but  better  American.  He  was  broad-gauged 
in  both  politics  and  religion.  A  Republican  House  paid  him  the 
unusual  tribute  of  a  pubHc  funeral,  albeit  he  was  a  Democrat,  and  a 
distinguished  Catholic  prelate  participated  in  his  funeral  services, 
although  he  was  a  Protestant."  Memorial  services  in  his  honor 
were  held  in  Carnegie  Hall,  New  York  City,  on  June  22,  1902,  tmder 
the  auspices  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6.  James  J.  Murphy, 
vice-chairman  of  the  Memorial  Committee,  was  master  of  ceremonies. 
Among  those  who  addressed  the  large  assemblage  were  Hon.  John 
W.  Keller,  ex-president  of  the  New  York  Press  Club;  Gen.  James  R. 
O'Beirne,  Congressmen  James  M.  Robinson,  of  Indiana;  David  H. 


654  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Mercer,  of  Nebraska,  and  John  Sharp  WilHams,  of  Mississippi;  the 
Rev.  L.  J.  Evers,  pastor  of  St.  Andrew's  Catholic  Church,  New  York; 
the  Rev.  PhiHp  Markham  Kerridge,  vicar  of  the  Pro-Cathedral, 
New  York,  and  President  Marsden  G.  Scott,  Robert  M.  Campbell 
and  Owen  J.  Kindelon,  of  No.  6. 

At  the  convention  of  the  International  Typographical  Union  in 
Cincinnati,  O.,  on  August  12,  1902,  the  following  resolutions  were 
adopted  by  a  rising  vote: 

Whereas,  in  the  death  of  Hon.  Amos  J.  Cummings  the  International  Typo- 
graphical Union  of  North  America  loses  one  of  its  most  able  and  ardent  supporters, 
and  the  working  classes  in  general  a  loyal  and  true  friend ;  therefore,  be  it 

Resolved,  That  the  International  Typographical  Union,  in  convention  assem- 
bled, hereby  expresses  its  heartfelt  sympathy  at  the  death  of  this  highly  esteemed 
and  sympathetic  co-worker  by  rising  and  remaining  silent  with  bowed  heads  for  a 
period  of  one  minute;  be  it  further 

Resolved,  That  we  convey  to  the  widow  of  the  dead  Congressman  our  sincere 
condolence  in  her  great  bereavement,  and  that  a  page  of  the  minutes  be  set  apart 
in  honor  of  our  esteemed  friend. 

Foremost  among  the  great  editors  and  news  gatherers  of  this  country 
was  John  C.  Reid,  who  was  also  a  thorough  printer  and  possessed 
extraordinary  ability  and  superior  judgment  as  a 
John  C.  political  counselor.     He  was  at  one  time  a  member 

Reid.  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  joining  on  March 

3,  1868,  and  continuing  his  activity  in  union  affairs 
until  January  9,  1873,  when  he  appUed  for  and  received  an  honorable 
withdrawal  card,  having  then  permanently  retired  from  the  printing 
trade.  Mr.  Reid  was  born  in  Kenosha,  Wis.,  in  1839.  In  his  youth 
he  went  to  Chicago,  and  as  he  himself  once  said  in  referring  to  that 
early  event  of  his  life,  "  I  was  so  tall  and  thin  that  I  was  a  perfect 
type  of  the  awkward  and  gawky  backwoodsman."  His  education 
was  obtained  in  a  country  school,  but  he  had  that  sort  of  determina- 
tion and  spirit  which  enabled  him,  like  many  other  Americans  of 
similar  humble  beginning,  to  achieve  success  in  a  chosen  field.  He 
started  life  as  a  printers'  apprentice  on  a  Chicago  newspaper,  speedily 
becoming  a  finished  compositor,  and  at  the  opening  of  the  Civil  War 
began  to  make  his  influence  felt  in  municipal  politics.  After  serving 
a  brief  period  in  an  Illinois  regiment  he  re-enlisted  for  the  remainder 
of  the  Rebellion  in  an  Ohio  regiment,  of  which  he  was  quarter- 
master-sergeant. While  engaged  as  acting  quartermaster  he  was 
captured  by  Confederate  raiders  and  sent  to  Andersonville  Prison. 
As  he  was  being  conveyed  into  the  pen  he  overheard  one  of  the 
guards,  who  had  recognized  him  as  a  brother  typo,  remark  to  a 


OTHER   PROMINENT    MEMBERS.  655 

companion:  "  Hello,  there's  John  Reid!  Poor  fellow,  he  won't 
last  long  in  such  a  place  as  this!  "  Measuring  more  than  six  feet 
in  height,  and,  as  he  quaintly  described  himself,  "  thinner  than  a 
split  rail,"  Mr.  Reid  thought  there  was  little  wonder  that  the  guard 
felt  certain  that  consumption  would  claim  him  before  an  exchange 
could  be  effected.  The  remark  of  the  Southern  soldier  caused  the 
young  prisoner  of  war  to  do  some  serious  thinking,  and  he  was  a 
captive  but  a  short  time  before  he  began  planning  to  escape.  Within 
a  few  months  he  managed  to  get  outside  of  the  stockade  by  tunnel- 
ing, and,  assisted  by  friendly  negroes,  he  reached  the  Union  lines 
greatly  emaciated  after  the  privations  he  had  endured  both  at  Ander- 
sonville  and  during  the  period  following  his  escape. 

Mr.  Reid  returned  to  his  trade  at  the  end  of  the  war,  obtaining 
a  situation  on  the  Chicago  Times,  but  he  found  the  political  conditions 
in  that  city  so  changed  that  he  came  East,  and  after  drifting  about 
for  a  time  began  work  as  a  compositor  on  the  New  York  Times.  His 
competency  and  thoroughness  as  a  workman  led  to  his  advancement 
to  a  position  as  proofreader,  in  which  place  the  superiority  of  his 
work  attracted  the  attention  of  Louis  J.  Jennings,  then  editor-in- 
chief.  In  1 87 1  he  was  promoted  to  the  night  editorship  of  the  Times 
and  showed  such  a  remarkable  "  scent  for  news  "  and  made  so  many 
practical  suggestions  about  gathering  and  handling  news  —  no  one 
in  the  profession  knowing  its  value  better  than  he  —  that  in  1872 
he  was  made  managing  news  editor,  serving  in  that  capacity  until 
the  spring  of  1889,  when  he  discontinued  his  services  with  the  paper. 

During  his  connection  with  the  Times,  and  particularly  after  he 
had  organized  the  staff  of  correspondents  which  originally  gave  that 
journal  a  reputation  for  accuracy  as  a  chronicler  of  matters  of  a 
political  character,  Mr.  Reid's  advice  was  constantly  sought  by  mem- 
bers of  both  the  National  and  State  Republican  Committees,  and 
his  judgment  was  usually  correct.  He  was  best  known  to  the  pubHc 
at  large  because  of  his  association  with  the  Tilden-Hayes  campaign 
in  1876,  setting  on  foot,  before  dawn  of  the  day  after  the  casting  of 
the  votes,  the  movement  that  ended  in  the  seating  of  the  Republican 
nominee  by  the  Electoral  Commission.  Early  in  the  morning 
succeeding  the  general  election  he  wrote  an  article  declaring  that 
Rutherford  B.  Hayes  had  been  elected  to  the  Presidency.  That  day 
it  was  printed  in  the  Times,  which  was  the  only  paper  in  the  United 
States  that  thus  early  claimed  the  election  of  Hayes  over  Tilden. 
Telegrams  from  correspondents,  coupled  with  inquiries  sent  to  the 
Times  office  by  W.  H.  Bamum,  then  the  chairman  of  the  Democratic 
National  Committee,  led  Mr.  Reid  to  doubt  whether  Florida,  Louis- 


6s6  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

iana  and  South  Carolina  had  been  carried  by  the  Democrats  as  they 
claimed,  and  he  announced  that  the  RepubUcans  had  triumphed. 
After  the  Times  had  gone  to  press  Mr.  Reid  hastened  to  the  Fifth 
Avenue  Hotel,  the  headquarters  of  the  Republican  National  Com- 
mittee, to  confer  with  Zachariah  Chandler,  its  chairman.  Instead, 
he  met  William  E.  Chandler,  of  New  Hampshire,  secretary  of  the 
committee,  who  was  about  to  start  for  home  firmly  convinced  of 
Samuel  J.  Tilden's  election.  To  him  Mr.  Reid  commtmicated  his 
belief,  and  orders  were  immediately  dispatched  to  claim  the  three 
States  for  Hayes,  which  effort  eventually  resulted  in  the  Republicans 
getting  their  electoral  votes,  they  being  absolutely  necessary  to  the 
election  of  Hayes.  For  the  part  that  Mr.  Reid  took  in  that  historic 
incident  he  never  asked  for  nor  received  any  political  remuneration. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  he  declined  the  proffer  of  the  post  of  United 
States  Marshal  for  the  District  of  New  York. 

Upon  severing  his  connection  with  the  Times  Mr.  Reid  went  to 
England,  where  in  1889  he  became  managing  editor  of  the  London 
edition  of  the  New  York  Herald.  When  that  paper  was  discontinued 
he  came  back  to  America,  resting  for  a  year  on  the  Pacific  Coast. 
He  was  afterward  associated  editorially  with  the  New  York  Recorder, 
New  York  World,  and  finally  with  the  New  Haven  (Conn.)  Pal- 
ladium. Not  finding  his  work  as  managing  editor  on  the  New 
England  newspaper  congenial  he  returned  to  New  York  City  and 
accepted  a  place  as  confidential  assistant  and  manager  with  the 
Republican  State  Committee,  which  position  he  held  at  the  time  of 
his  death,  on  January  25,  1897. 

Through  the  masterly  leadership  of  President  John  R.  O'Donnell 
Typographical  Union  No.  6  was  in  1883  completely  resuscitated  from 

the  straits  into  which  it  had  been  precipitated  by 
John  R.  the  panic  of  the  seventies.     When  he  assumed  the 

O'Donnell.       presidency  in  January  of  that  year  many  of  the 

newspaper  offices  and  most  of  the  book  and  job 
printing  establishments  were  conducted  without  regard  to  the  wage 
scale  or  terms  of  employment.  He  inaugurated  a  new  era  in  the 
trade  unionism  of  his  craft,  with  few  exceptions  unifying  the  trade 
of  the  whole  city,  so  far  as  the  newspaper  branch  was  concerned,  and 
instilling  vigor  into  the  book  and  job  section.  His  first  aim  was  to 
improve  the  numerical  strength  of  the  union,  and  in  a  single  year, 
as  an  outcome  of  his  persistent  crusade,  no  less  than  1,610  recruits 
were  added  to  the  membership  rolls.  Then  marshaling  his  forces 
he  pursued  an  active  and  efficient  campaign,  unionizing  offices, 
raising  wages,  securing  agreements  with  employers,  and  otherwise 


OTHER    PROMINENT   MEMBERS.  657 

amending  the  depressed  state  of  affairs  into  which  the  union  had 
fallen. 

Though  re-elected  to  the  presidency  in  1884  he  was  very  soon 
thereafter  appointed  assistant  night  editor  of  the  New  York  Herald, 
and  thereupon  resigned  as  the  executive  head  of  the  printers'  organi- 
zation. It  was  during  his  administration  that  "  Big  Six's  "  long 
conflict  with  the  Tribune  began.  He  planned  to  gain  the  influence 
of  the  RepubUcan  party,  whose  principles  the  Tribune  expounded, 
to  the  end  of  victory  for  the  organized  printers,  but  his  transfer  to 
editorial  work  changed  his  personal  relations  to  these  matters.  His 
successors,  however,  carried  out  his  ideas,  and  after  a  dispute  of 
nine  years  the  struggle  came  to  a  satisfactory  conclusion.  In  the 
189 1  convention  of  the  International  Typographical  Union  he  headed 
the  delegation  that  was  chosen  by  No.  6,  of  which  he  remained  an 
active  member  until  December  8,  1897,  when  he  was  granted  an 
honorable  withdrawal  card. 

Mr.  O'Donnell  was  born  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  on  September  13,  1854. 
He  accompanied  his  parents  to  Wheeling,  W.  Va.,  and  when  a  mere 
child  he  obtained  employment  as  a  press-boy  in  the  office  of  the 
Register  in  that  city,  afterward  acquiring  the  printers'  trade  there. 
Leaving  Wheeling  when  he  was  1 7  years  of  age  he  set  type  for  news- 
papers in  Pittsburgh,  Cleveland,  Buffalo  and  Albany  before  going 
to  New  York  City,  where  he  deposited  with  No.  6,  on  August  31, 
1876,  a  traveling  card  issued  by  the  Capital  City  Typographical 
Union.  Upon  his  arrival  in  the  Metropohs  he  immediately  obtained 
employment  in  the  Herald  composing  room. 

During  the  remainder  of  his  life  Mr.  O'Donnell  continued  in  the 
employ  of  the  Herald.  He  was  promoted  to  the  position  of  night 
editor  after  serving  successfully  as  assistant,  and  on  July  24,  1903, 
he  was  made  news  editor,  holding  the  latter  post  until  ill  health 
caused  his  retirement  in  1909,  his  death  occurring  on  October  5th 
of  that  year. 

The  New  York  Herald  of  October  6,  1909,  paid  this  tribute  to 
his  memory: 

Like  many  men  who  have  made  their  mark,  Mr.  O'Donnell  began  life  at  the 
printers'  case.  Of  exceptional  native  force  and  ability,  a  voracious  reader  and 
gifted  with  a  truly  phenomenal  memory,  he  early  acquired  an  education,  hard 
bought,  but  wider  than  that  usually  obtained  in  universities,  since  it  embraces  a 
profound  knowledge  not  merely  of  books,  but  of  men.  A  bom  leader,  he  became 
while  still  a  young  man  the  president  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  and  con- 
spicuous in  the  labor  organizations  of  the  country.  Taking  up  the  study  of  law, 
he  was  graduated  from  the  Columbia  School  and  admitted  to  the  Bar.  Although 
he  never  practiced,  his  knowledge  of  the  sources  and  fundamental  principles  of 
the  law  was  deep  and  thorough  and  stood  him  in  good  stead  when  25  years 


658  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

ago  he  was  transferred  from  the  composing  room  of  the  Herald  to  the  editorial 
staff,  as  a  member  of  which  he  gave  faithful  and  efficient  service  in  every  position 
to  which  he  was  assigned  and  won  the  affection  and  esteem  of  all  his  associates. 

It  was  the  luminous  intellect  of  John  W.  Touhey  that  lent  force 

and  piquancy  to  the  literary  side  of  the  uplift  campaign  directed 

by  President  O'Donnell  for  Typographical   Union 

John  W.  No.  6  in  1883.     Mr.  Touhey  assumed  the  editorial 

Touhey.  management  of  The  Boycotter  when  that  organ  was 

started  by  the  union,  and  its  colimins  continually 

gleamed  with  the  effective  effusions  wrought  by  his  facile  pen.     Both 

in  the  seventies  and  the  eighties  he  took  an  active  part  in  matters 

pertaining  to  the  union.     He  learned  the  printing  art  in  Chenango 

County,  N.  Y.,  and  went  to  New  York  City  in  1869,  on  the  fifth 

of  January,   that  year,   affiliating  with  No.    6.     Many  important 

duties  were  performed  by  him  in  the  interest  of  the  membership, 

whom  he  ably  represented  at  the  International  Typographical  Union 

convention  that  assembled  in  St.  Louis  in  1882. 

Mr.  Touhey  was  a  man  of  remarkable  attainments,  and  for  a  long 
tenn  of  years  prior  to  1888  was  associated  with  the  New  York  Shoe 
and  Leather  Reporter,  a  trade  journal  of  commanding  influence,  in 
a  responsible  editorial  capacity.  He  was  of  Irish  extraction  and  the 
captivating  wit  and  ingenuous  philosophy  characteristic  of  that 
people  were  extraordinarily  developed  in  his  nature.  For  years  he 
conducted  the  "  Phosphorescence  "  coltimn  of  the  Reporter,  which 
glistened  each  week  with  the  kindly,  pervasive  humor  of  which  he 
was  so  thorough  a  master.  In  1888  he  was  afflicted  with  a  severe 
illness,  and  was  compelled  to  relinquish  his  editorial  duties.  For 
twelve  years  he  was  an  invalid  and  on  November  18,  1900,  he  passed 
away  in  the  little  hamlet  of  King's  Settlement,  near  Norwich,  Che- 
nango County,  N.Y.,  where  he  had  been  living  in  retirement  with 
relatives.  His  editorial  associates  and  union  printers  still  remember 
him  with  feelings  of  sincere  affection,  and  he  was  a  favorite  of  and 
highly  esteemed  by  men  connected  with  the  leather  trade. 

A  compositor  writing  over  the  signature  of  "  Card  No.  39  "  in  the 
New  York  Unionist  of  November  24,  1900,  spoke  thus  eloquently 
of  the  life  and  character  of  Mr.  Touhey: 

In  the  Shoe  and  Leather  Reporter  of  Thursday  last  appeared  a  highly  appre- 
ciative obituary  of  an  old  friend  —  John  W.  Touhey.  Mr.  Touhey  occupied  a 
high  position  in  the  editorial  department  of  that  publication  up  to  1888,  when  he 
retired  to  his  home  in  Chenango  County,  where  he  spent  the  remainder  of  his 
days.  The  high  esteem  expressed  in  that  article  is  well  deserved  and  cannot  but 
be  pleasing  to  his  many  friends.  But  there  was  another  phase  in  his  life  which 
will  bring  him  nearer  to  the  readers  of  the  Unionist  —  his  earnest  steadfastness 
in  the  cause  of  organized  labor  and  the  yeoman  ser\nce  rendered  by  his  pen  in  that 


OTHER    PROMINENT    MEMBERS.  659 

cause.  In  the  old  Boycotter  —  that  unique  publication  which  has  never  had  a 
compeer  —  his  peculiar  abilities  had  full  scope  and  were  not  hampered  as  in  the 
business  periodical. 

All  the  "  common  people,"  as  he  termed  them,  were  his  friends,  and  his  pen 
was  quick  with  kindly  counsel  and  compassion  for  the  oppressed,  while  for  the 
oppressor  his  sentences  seemed  to  be  moulded  with  the  sledge-hammer  and  the 
battle-axe.  During  his  editorial  career  on  The  Boycotter  he  made  hosts  of  friends 
and  admirers,  not  only  among  those  with  whom  he  came  into  personal  contact, 
but  among  the  thousands  who  read  his  articles  and  looked  up  to  him  as  a  leader 
worthy  of  an  earnest  following. 

A  member  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6  from  the  day  he  landed  in  New  York 
with  the  hayseeds  of  Chenango  County  still  about  him  and  took  cases  under  Hugh 
Hastings  on  the  old  Commercial  Advertiser,  to  his  death,  he  devoted  much  of  his 
energy  to  the  success  of  that  organization;  and  in  the  long  contest  during  which 
The  Boycotter  was  the  printers'  organ  he  soon  rose  to  the  surface  among  the  3,000 
members  as  the  one  best  fitted  to  "  carry  the  war  into  Africa,"  as  he  expressed  it. 
And  he  did.  In  those  days  he  was  a  recognized  power  in  the  union,  respected  by 
those  who  differed  with  him  as  to  methods.  In  the  columns  of  The  Boycotter  he 
found  room  for  words  of  sympathy  for  the  struggling  employees  of  other  trades, 
and  many  of  the  old  leaders  in  other  organizations  than  the  printing  fraternity 
will  read  of  his  death  with  a  kind  remembrance  of  the  man  who  always  found 
time  to  help  the  oppressed  and  fight  the  oppressor. 

John  W.  Touhey  was  genial  and  pleasant  in  social  life  almost  to  a  fault.  His 
active  life  was  short  —  brought  to  a  standstill  by  affliction  before  it  reached  its 
full  power  —  but  the  impress  which  it  left  in  those  few  years  more  than  equalled 
many  longer  lives. 

Wesley  Washington   Pasko,   who  became   a  charter  member  of 
Troy  (N.  Y.)  Typographical  Union  No.  52  on  July  26,  i860,  and  was 
its  first  recording  secretary,  affiliated  with  Typo- 
graphical Union  No.  6  in  1859,  subsequently  taking      Wesley 
a  foremost  part  in  the  latter's  councils.     He  was      Washington 
born  in  Waterloo,  N.  Y.,  on  January  4,  1840,  and      Pasko. 
commenced  to  set  type  in  Utica  at  the  age  of  15 
years.     After  an  experience  of  four  years  in  a  country  printing  office 
he  proceeded  to  New  York  City,  where  he  was  employed  as  a  com- 
positor on  the  Tribune  until  January,  i860,  when  he  went  to  Troy ,  in 
which  place,  he  worked  for  awhile  at  his  trade,  and  assisted  in  the 
formation  of  the  first  union  of  printers  in  that  city .    On  January  5,1861, 
he  returned  to  New  York  City  and  deposited  his  traveling  card  with 
No.  6,  but  again  took  a  withdrawal  certificate  in  the  succeeding  March. 
About  that  time  he  went  to  Charleston,  S.  C,  as  a  representative 
of  the    Tribune,  and  while  there  his  connection  with  that  paper 
caused  him  to  be  apprehended  as  an  Abolitionist.     He  considered 
himself  quite  fortunate  at  being  discharged  from  custody  with  only 
an  admonition  to  leave  town.     Going  back  to  the  MetropoHs  in 
1862  he  resumed  his  membership  in  the  organization  of  compositors 


66o  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

there,  and,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  years  spent  in  Albany,  when 
he  was  attached  to  the  typographical  union  in  that  city,  he  remained 
a  member  of  "Big  Six  "  until  the  early  seventies.  In  the  Civil 
War  he  served  as  a  private  in  the  Sixteenth  New  York  Heavy 
Artillery,  taking  part  in  the  fighting  near  Richmond  during  the 
peninsular  campaign. 

Mr.  Pasko  was  endowed  with  rare  Hterary  talents.  Shortly  after 
the  Rebellion  closed  he  went  to  Albany,  and  for  two  years  performed 
editorial  work  on  newspapers  in  that  city,  as  well  as  in  Troy.  At 
that  period  he  also  assisted  in  the  task  of  codifying  the  school  laws 
of  New  York,  and  subsequently  aided  in  the  preparation  of  reports 
for  the  State  Superintendent  of  PubHc  Instruction.  Following  this 
work  he  wrote  "  Men  Who  Advertise,"  and  was  afterward  engaged 
as  editor  of  the  "  Albion,"  succeeding  Richard  H.  Stoddard.  In 
1872  he  was  again  an  attache  of  the  Tribune,  but  later  embarked  in 
the  printing  business  in  Beekman  street.  New  York  City,  where  he 
published  several  trade  papers.  He  sold  his  plant  in  1879  and  went 
to  Cincinnati  as  editor  in  a  publishing  house.  Beginning  in  1880 
his  time  for  three  years  was  devoted  to  writing  a  number  of  books, 
principally  local  histories  and  biographies.  Returning  to  New  York 
City  in  1883  he  wrote  extensively  on  technical  subjects  for  printing 
trade  journals.  From  1889  to  1891  he  edited  "  Old  New  York," 
a  publication  relating  to  the  history  and  antiquities  of  the  Metropolis. 
His  most  important  task  was  the  production  of  the  "American  Dic- 
tionary of  Printing  and  Bookmaking,"  published  by  Howard  Lock- 
wood  &  Co.  in  1894,  preparing  the  most  of  that  standard  work  and 
carrying  it  to  completion  within  four  years. 

Mr.  Pasko  was  a  leading  member  of  the  Typothetae  of  the  City 
of  New  York,  composed  of  employing  printers.  He  was  chosen 
as  its  librarian  in  1885  and  subsequently  was  elected  recording  sec- 
retary. Considerable  pioneer  work  was  done  by  him  in  the  forma- 
tion of  various  local  Typothetass,  and  he  assisted  in  organizing  the 
master  printers  of  Newark,  N.  J.,  only  a  short  while  before  his  death, 
which  occurred  on  December  15, 1897.  At  the  time  of  his  demise  his 
home  was  in  Caldwell,  N.  J.,  of  which  borough  he  was  once  Mayor, 

Hon.  George  Wilbur  Peck,  formerly  Governor  of  Wisconsin,  was  for 
some  time  a  member  of  Union  No.  6,  which  in 
Governor  1900  granted  him  an  honorable  withdrawal  card. 

Peck  of  Under  date  of  August  10,   1900,  the  distinguished 

Wisconsin.  statesman-printer-editor-humorist  addressed  from 
the  city  of  Milwaukee  the  following  letter  of  ap- 
preciation to  "  Big  Six:" 


OTHER    PROMINENT    MEMBERS.  66 1 

New  York  Tyfug/apliical  Union  No.  6: 

Gentlemen: —  I  have  received  the  withdrawal  card  which  old  No.  6  through 
its  ofticers  was  kind  enough  to  grant  me,  and  shall  have  it  framed  and  placed  in 
my  library,  where  it  shall  remain  as  long  as  I  live.  After  that  the  boys  can  take 
turns  having  it  in  their  homes. 

I  thank  you  and  the  present  officers  of  No.  6,  and  I  will  always  be  ready  to 
respond  to  any  call.  When  the  printers  get  in  trouble,  and  the  finances  run  low 
from  any  cause  —  from  epidemic,  strike,  panic,  or  anything  that  can  happen  — 
consider  me  as  one  of  those  who  will  gladly  contribute  towards  making  some  one 
happy.  , 

Very  truly  yours, 

George  W.  Peck. 

George  Wilbur  Peck  was  born  in  Henderson,  N.  Y.,  on  September 
28,  1840.  He  removed  with  his  parents  to  Wisconsin  in  1843.  His 
public  school  education  was  completed  in  1855,  when  he  became  a 
printers'  apprentice,  and  in  the  course  of  four  years  he  was  a  full- 
fledged  journeyman.  Serving  two  and  one-half  years  during  the 
Civil  War  in  the  Fourth  Wisconsin  Cavalry,  he  was  mustered  out  of 
the  service  as  a  lieutenant.  Founding  the  La  Crosse  (Wisconsin) 
Sun  in  1874,  he  removed  it  to  Milwaukee  in  1878  and  called  it  Peck's 
Sun,  which  became  noted  for  its  htmiorous  sketches  and  particularly 
the  "  Peck's  Bad  Boy  "  series.  He  also  wrote  a  nimiber  of  interest- 
ing books.  As  a  Democrat  he  was  elected  Mayor  of  Milwaukee  for 
the  years  1 890-1,  and  was  Governor  of  Wisconsin  from  1891  to  1895. 

Among  the  men  who  early  became  members  of  Typographical 
Union  No.  6,  inscribing  their  names  in  its  first  constitution  and  after- 
ward attaining  renown,  was  Isaac  W.  England.     In 
1853  he  was  particularly  active  in  the  movement       Isaac  W. 
to  improve  the  economic  condition  of  printers  en-       England, 
gaged  in  the  book  and  job  branches  of  the  trade. 
His  life  was  subsequently  a  very  busy  one  in  newspaper  offices.     He 
was  bom  in  the  small  village  of  Tiverton,  a  suburb  of  Bath,  England, 
on  February  16,   1832.     His  father,  George  King  England,  was  a 
cloth  worker,  superintendent  of  one  of  the  woolen  mills  in  that 
section.    When  very  young  the  boy  was  compelled  to  assist  in  the 
support  of  his  mother  and  sister.     At  the  age  of  13  he  was  appren- 
ticed to  John  Diplock,  who  conducted  a  bookbindery  in  Trowbridge, 
a  market  town  in  the  valley  of  the  River  Bliss,  ten  miles  southeast 
of  Bath.     The   indenture  was  to   run  until  Mr.   England's   21st 
year   and   his  wages  were  fixed  at  the  modest  sum  of  three  shil- 
lings per  month.     He  served  Mr.  Diplock  faithfully  for  a  period  of 
four  years  and  during  that  time  often  worked  far  into  the  night  in  an 
endeavor  to  support  his  mother  and  sister,  who  slept  at  the  other 


662  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

end  of  a  small  room  curtained  off  from  his  little  workshop.  At  the 
age  of  17  Mr.  Diplock  released  him  from  his  apprenticeship  and  he 
came  to  the  United  States  to  seek  his  fortune.  On  arriving  in  this 
country  he  proceeded  to  Providence,  R.  I.,  in  which  city  he  went  to 
work  at  his  trade.  Subsequently,  going  to  New  York  City,  he  found 
employment  with  the  firm  of  Baker,  Godwin  &  Co.,  master  printers. 
So  well  did  he  succeed  that  at  the  end  of  three  years  he  was  able  to 
return  on  a  visit  to  his  birthplace.  He  repaired  at  once  to  Mr. 
Diplock's  bookbindery,  and  after  paying  his  fonner  employer  for 
the  loss  of  his  time  and  services,  doffed  his  coat  and  demonstrated 
to  his  old  comrades  the  improved  method  of  lettering  and  embossing, 
as  practiced  in  America.  This  episode  in  his  life  was  something 
that  Mr.  England  took  much  pleasure  in  recounting,  and  he  never 
wearied  of  telling  how  greatly  astonished  the  Englishmen  were  to 
observe  the  extent  to  which  the  Yankees  were  in  advance  of  them 
in  that  branch  of  the  printing  art. 

After  a  stay  of  two  months  in  the  land  of  his  nativity  Mr.  England 
returned  to  this  country,  and  during  the  voyage,  which  was  made 
in  the  steerage,  he  gathered  data  for  a  series  of  articles  that  he  after- 
ward wrote  on  the  transportation  of  immigrants.  These  were 
printed  in  the  New  York  Tribune  and  in  pamphlet  form.  Their 
publication  helped  to  arouse  public  indignation  against  the  brutal 
treatment  inflicted  upon  aliens  on  ocean  vessels,  and  influenced  the 
abolition  of  the  inhuman  system  that  for  years  had  been  practiced 
on  immigrant  ships. 

Upon  his  return  from  England  he  resumed  employment  with  Baker, 
Godwin  &  Co.,  and  later  procured  a  situation  on  the  Tribune,  pulling 
a  hand  press  at  $10  per  week.  Young  England's  ambition  was 
boundless,  however,  and  he  longed  for  an  opportunity  to  obtain 
employment  in  the  editorial  department  of  the  paper,  but,  owing 
to  the  necessity  of  having  to  work  hard  all  day  in  the  printing  office, 
he  at  first  could  not  see  his  way  clear  to  gratify  his  aspirations.  His 
frequent  applications  for  a  position  as  newswriter  having  been 
refused,  he  at  last  forced  recognition  by  spending  his  evenings  in 
the  streets  gathering  information  and  handing  into  the  editorial 
department  carefully  prepared  articles  on  what  he  saw.  With  such 
industry,  alertness  and  good  judgment  did  he  pursue  this  plan  that 
he  was  soon  recognized  as  a  valuable  man  on  the  paper.  Finally 
one  of  Greeley's  lieutenants  went  to  the  editor-in-chief  and  said: 
"  Horace,  we  have  a  young  man  pulling  a  hand  press  at  $10  per 
week  downstairs  who  ought  to  be  up  here  in  the  editorial  depart- 
ment.    He  is  turning  in  articles  that  are  wonderfully  well  written 


OTHER    PROMINENT    MEMBERS.  663 

and  he  should  be  given  a  chance."  Greeley  sent  for  Mr.  England, 
put  him  to  work  at  once  as  a  reporter,  and  in  less  than  three  years 
he  was  appointed  city  editor  of  the  Tribune.  The  friendship  thus 
formed  between  the  two  men  lasted  until  the  day  of  Greeley's  death. 
In  fact,  Mr.  England  endeavored  to  have  Mr.  Greeley  taken  to  his 
simimer  home  in  Ridgewood,  N.  J.,  to  spend  his  last  days  with  him. 
He  remained  on  the  Tribune  for  several  years,  and  when  he  severed 
his  connection  with  it  he  was  a  thorough  newspaper  man.  Next 
he  went  to  Chicago,  where  he  became  associate  editor  of  the  Repub- 
lican, afterward  the  Inter-Ocean.  Returning  to  the  East  within  a 
year  he  assumed  the  management  of  the  Jersey  City  Times  until 
1868,  when  he  joined  with  Charles  A.  Dana  and  his  associates  in 
the  purchase  of  the  New  York  Sun  from  the  Moses  S.  Beach  estate, 
and  that  newspaper  was  immediately  popularized  under  the  new 
management,  soon  gaining  a  large  circulation  and  profitable  adver- 
tising patronage.  During  the  first  year  of  his  connection  with  the 
Sun  Mr.  England  was  managing  editor,  but  in  1869  he  was  selected 
as  its  publisher,  remaining  in  charge  of  the  business  department 
during  the  rest  of  his  life.  Under  his  management  the  Sun  for 
many  years  paid  annual  dividends  of  mere  than  100  per  cent  and 
prospered  exceedingly. 

Mr.  England's  business  relations  with  "  Big  Six  "  were  always 
cordial.  During  the  panic  period  of  the  seventies  the  union  reduced 
the  schedule  of  prices  on  morning  newspapers.  When  the  ofhcers 
notified  the  management  of  the  Sun  of  the  change  they  were  informed 
that  the  newspaper  was  in  such  a  prosperous  condition  that  it  could 
afford  to  pay  the  old  wage  scale  and  would  continue  to  do  so,  not- 
withstanding the  action  of  the  union  in  reducing  it.  This  generosity 
on  the  part  of  Publisher  England  and  Editor-in-Chief  Dana  was 
thoroughly  appreciated  by  union  printers,  who  still  refer  to  the  occa- 
sion as  among  the  most  important  events  in  the  history  of  their 
organization. 

When  Frank  Leslie  (whose  publications  pleased  the  public  taste 
more  than  30  years  ago)  went  into  bankruptcy  in  1877,  Mr.  England 
was  made  assignee.  Under  his  able  management  the  debts  of  the 
firm,  amounting  to  $250,000,  were  paid  off  in  three  years,  and  when 
the  business  was  turned  over  to  Frank  Leslie's  widow  it  was  earning 
a  clear  profit  of  $25,000  per  year. 

Though  never  having  had  a  day's  schooling  after  the  age  of  13, 
Mr.  England  was  an  assiduous  reader  and  few  men  were  so  well 
posted  as  he  on  topics  of  every  nature.  He  was  twice  married,  the 
first  time  to  ]\liss  Evelyn  Colston,  who  died  in  187 1,  and  by  whom 


664  NEW    YORK   TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

he  had  four  children.  In  the  following  year  he  was  wedded  to  Mrs. 
Paddock.  By  this  union  there  was  one  child,  a  son.  For  20  years 
Mr.  England  lived  in  Bergen  County,  N.  J.,  where  he  was  widely 
known  for  his  public  spirit  and  charitable  disposition.  He  died  in 
Ridgewood  on  April  25,  1885. 

While  engaged  in  editorial  work  on  the  Tribune  Mr.  England 
fonned  an  endearing  friendship  with  Charles  A.  Dana  that  continued 
through  the  remainder  of  his  life.  Speaking  of  the  demise  of  his  old 
friend  and  business  associate  Mr.  Dana  wrote  as  follows  in  an  editorial 
which  appeared  in  the  Sun  of  April  26,  1885: 

Isaac  W.  England,  who  for  the  last  seventeen  years  has  had  charge  of  the  busi- 
ness department  of  this  journal,  died  yesterday  afternoon  at  his  home  in  Ridge- 
wood, N.  J.  He  was  not  yet  an  old  man  and  his  vigorous  and  energetic  appearance 
seemed  to  promise  a  long  life;  yet  for  some  months  he  had  been  a  sufferer  from 
rheumatism  and  when  the  disease  passed  from  the  extremities  to  the  heart  his 
power  of  resistance  gave  way.  In  his  death  we  lose  the  friend  of  almost  a  life- 
time, a  man  of  unconquerable  integrity,  true  and  faithful  in  all  things.  During 
30  years  that  we  have  been  continually  associated  with  him  both  as  a  journalist 
and  a  man  of  business,  he  has  never  been  wanting  in  his  duty  towards  his  prin- 
ciples, his  friends,  or  the  community  in  which  he  lived. 

Born  in  England,  he  came  to  the  United  States  at  an  early  age,  and  no  native 
of  this  land  was  ever  more  thoroughly  an  American.  His  heart  was  warm,  his 
intelligence  was  strong,  his  devotion  to  his  convictions  and  his  obligations  im- 
movable. To  lose  such  a  man  from  among  the  living  seems  an  irreparable  mis- 
fortune, and  we  bid  him  farewell  with  sorrow  deep  and  earnest. 

Isaac  W.  England's  character  is  best  summed  up  in  the  following 
letter,  which  was  sent  to  the  editor  of  the  Sun  by  J.  H.  Bates  on 
April  28,  1885: 

I  assisted  to-day  to  place  in  lasting  rest  Mr.  Isaac  W.  England,  now  for  so  long 
the  publisher  of  the  Sun,  and  before  the  plenteous  flowers  strewn  on  his  grave 
are  faded  I  ask  a  little  space  where,  with  a  few  rough  strokes,  I  may  sketch  him 
as  he  seemed  to  me. 

He  was  a  manly  man,  cast  in  generous  mould,  so  that  his  faculties,  manners, 
habits,  whatever  pertained  to  him,  became  noticeable  and  impressive,  and  he 
took  rank  at  once  anywhere  as  a  strong  masculine  nature,  worthy  to  be  listened 
to,  and  not  easily  to  be  put  aside. 

His  intellectual  powers  were  of  a  high  order.  With  greater  mental  placidity 
and  evenness  he  would  have  approached  our  Franklin,  for  his  intuitions  were 
clear  and  profound  and  his  mind  philosophical.  He  owed  almost  nothing  to  early 
instruction;  was,  as  fully  as  any  man  may  be,  self-made,  yet  his  best-informed 
associates  constantly  found  cause  to  marvel  at  the  extent  of  his  knowledge,  for 
he  seemed  to  have  given  study  and  reflection  to  almost  all  themes  of  human 
interest. 

His  impulses  were  high  and  noble.  The  errors  and  vices  of  society  saddened 
and  distressed  him.  His  sentiments  toward  woman  were  pure  and  chivalric.  He 
instinctively  took  the  side  of  the  weak  against  the  strong  and  longed  to  see  men 


OTHER   PROMINENT  MEMBERS.  665 

grow  better.  He  hated  cant,  hypocrisy,  duplicity,  all  meannesses,  with  a  steady, 
angry  impatience  of  them,  loved  and  practiced  sincerity,  openness,  plain  speaking 
and  dealing.  "I  have  been  trying  to  think,"  said  a  friend  of  his  to-day  who  knew 
him  long  and  well,  "  how  England  would  have  treated  a  man  who  should  come  to 
him  with  a  mean  proposal  of  any  kind," —  meaning  by  this  what  form  his  indig- 
nation would  take. 

No  honester  man  ever  lived.  There  are  thousands  of  men  whose  honesty  may 
be  swerved  if  the  motives  are  strenuous  enough.  No  one  ever  imagined  it  of 
his,  for  it  was  fundamental  and  ingrained  in  his  character.  He  was  generous  — 
if  one  may  be  so  —  to  a  fault.  Sorrow  and  need  were  ready  passports  to  his 
heart.  He  corrected  the  errors  and  chid  the  faults  of  the  necessitous  with  biting 
speech,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  and  a  helping  hand. 

He  stood,  and  this  is  the  sum  of  all,  a  true  man  in  his  appointed  place,  doing 
all  duties  honestly  and  to  the  best  of  his  might,  and  his  course  ended  in  honor. 
He  sleeps  well  amid  the  rural  scenes  he  loved  with  so  much  natural  heartiness, 
while  the  world  is  poorer  by  the  loss  of  a  sincere  man. 

Hon.  Joseph  J.  Little,  president  of  one  of  the  largest  printing  and 
bookbinding  companies  in  New  York  City,  was  for  a  time  connected 
with  No.  6,  joining  it  on  September  19,  1863,  taking 
a  leading  part  in  the  discussion  of  economic  sub-        Honorable 
jects  at  its  meetings,   and  assisting  in  efforts  to        Joseph  J. 
advance  the  well-being  of  his  fellow-workers.     Mr.        Little. 
Little  was  bom  in  Bristol,  England,  on  June  5,  1841. 
He  came  to  the  United  States  in  1847,  settling  with  his  parents  in 
Morris,  Otsego  County,  N.  Y.,  where  he  was  educated  in  the  district 
school,  and  at  the  age  of  14  years  was  apprenticed  to  a  local  printer. 
At  17  he  went  to  New  York  City,  completing  his  trade  there.     When 
he  was  24  he  became  foreman  of  a  printing  estabHshment,  and  in 
1867  embarked  in  business  for  himself.     His  career  as  an  employing 
printer  has  been  marked  with  uninterrupted  success. 

In  public  Hfe  his  undertakings  have  been  equally  auspicious. 
In  1 89 1-3  he  was  a  Member  of  Congress  and  performed  excellent 
service  for  his  constituency  during  his  term  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. For  several  years  previous  to  the  passage  of  the  act 
that  consolidated  the  various  localities  into  the  present  municipality, 
with  its  five  boroughs,  he  was  a  School  Commissioner  in  New  York 
City.  In  1891,  as  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Buildings,  Com- 
missioner Little  reorganized  the  building  department  of  the  board 
and  greatly  improved  the  quaHty  of  school  buildings  in  the  Metrop- 
olis. After  the  founding  of  Greater  New  York  he  was  twice  President 
of  the  Department  of  Education. 

Mr.  Little  was  an  early  member  of  the  New  York  Typothetse  and 
was  its  president  some  years  back.  He  frequently  represented  the 
local  organization  of  employing  printers  at  the  conventions  of  the 


666  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

United  Typothetae  of  America.  In  1898  he  was  a  member  of  the 
delegation  of  five  from  the  latter  association  that  met  in  conference 
in  Syracuse  with  representatives  of  the  International  Typographical 
Union,  International  Printing  Pressmen  and  Assistants'  Union  and 
the  International  Brotherhood  of  Bookbinders,  which  meeting  unani- 
mously decided  upon  the  inauguration  on  November  21,  1899,  of 
the  nine-hour  working  day  for  book  and  job  printers  throughout 
the  United  States  and  Canada.  In  1906  he  withdrew  from  the  Typo- 
thetae and  granted  his  workmen  the  eight-hour  day. 

Joining  the  Thirty-seventh  New  York  Regiment  in  1861,  Mr. 
Little  volunteered  in  1862  with  that  military  organization  to  engage 
in  the  Civil  War  when  President  Lincoln  called  for  emergency  troops, 
and  he  served  in  all  grades  from  private  to  first  lieutenant. 

Two  of  the  oldest  ex-presidents  of  the  union  are  still  men  of  vigor- 
ous physical  constitutions  and  sound  mentality  and  continue  to 
engage  actively  in  business  affairs.     Hugh  Dalton, 

Presidents  of      the  older  of  these  former  executives,  was  bom  in 

Typographical     Ireland  in  1839,  and  is  therefore  72  years  of  age. 

Union  No.  6.  fjg  came  to  America  with  his  parents  in  1841. 
After  receiving  a  common  school  education  in  New 
York  City  he  entered  a  printing  office  and  served  a  seven  years* 
apprenticeship  in  the  book  and  job  branch.  He  joined  the  union 
on  May  9,  1863,  in  which  year  he  obtained  employment  on  the 
Daily  News,  and  was  soon  promoted  to  the  assistant  foremanship  of 
its  composing  room.  He  resigned  that  place  in  1866,  but  again 
resumed  it  in  1867.  In  1868  he  was  appointed  foreman  and 
remained  in  that  position  for  30  years.  At  present  he  is  employed 
on  the  day  force  of  the  New  York  Herald. 

Mr.  Dalton  enjoys  the  distinction  of  being  the  only  member  who 
has  been  honored  by  No.  6  with  four  consecutive  terms  as  president, 
he  having  successfully  performed  the  duties  of  that  office  from  1873 
to  1877.  Twice  the  union  elected  him  a  delegate  to  International 
Typographical  Union  conventions  —  in  187 1  in  Baltimore  and  in 
1876  in  Philadelphia.  Owing  to  President  Dalton's  unerring  judg- 
ment and  foresight  five  of  the  largest  firms  in  the  book  and  job  trade 
accepted  a  revised  scale  of  prices  proposed  by  the  union  in  June, 
1876,  at  the  height  of  the  industrial  depression,  that  schedule  being 
a  slight  reduction  on  previous  rates.  Through  the  logic  of  his  argu- 
ment on  that  occasion  a  large  number  of  union  compositors  were 
kept  in  employment.  This  was  accomplished  when  other  employers 
were  antagonizing  the  printers'  organization.  In  1876  he  was  the 
recipient  of  a  costly  gold  watch  and  chain  from  No.  6  as  a  testimonial 


OTHER   PROMINENT    MEMBERS.  667 

of  the  valuable  services  he  had  rendered  the  membership.  He  holds 
Card  No.  i  in  the  union. 

Mannis  J.  Geary  is  the  other  erstwhile  president  referred  to.  He 
was  chosen  in  March,  1884,  to  fill  the  unexpired  term  occasioned  by 
the  resignation  of  John  R.  O'Donnell,  and  also  went  as  a  delegate 
from  No.  6  to  the  International  Typographical  Union  convention 
held  in  Kansas  City  in  1888.  Born  in  Ireland  on  September  13, 
1844,  in  1848  he  settled  with  his  parents  in  New  York  City,  where  he 
started  to  learn  typesetting  in  1856  with  Davies  &  Roberts  at  No. 
113  Nassau  street.  Obtaining  a  situation  in  i860  on  the  Brooklyn 
Standard,  then  a  weekly  newspaper,  he  worked  for  two  weeks  at 
the  case,  and  was  then  advanced  to  the  foremanship  of  the  composing 
room.  After  the  Civil  War  he  was  employed  for  a  few  weeks  on 
the  New  York  World,  but  relinquished  his  situation  there  when  an 
attempt  was  made  to  reduce  the  wage  scale.  Then  he  set  type  for 
awhile  in  the  office  of  George  F.  Nesbitt  &  Co.,  and  finally  went  to 
the  New  York  Herald,  in  the  composing  room  of  which  paper  he 
was  foreman  for  20  years.  Several  years  ago  he  was  placed  on  the 
retired  list  of  the  Herald  Company,  but  continues  to  act  as  a  member 
of  its  Board  of  Conirol. 

On  April  18,  1861,  Mr.  Geary  enrolled  in  Company  A,  Fourteenth 
New  York  State  Militia,  and  he  was  mustered  into  the  United  States 
service  on  May  23,  1861.  His  term  as  a  soldier  in  the  Union  Army 
expired  on  June  6,  1864,  when  he  received  an  honorable  discharge. 
Among  the  important  engagements  in  which  he  took  part  were  the 
battles  of  Bull  Run  and  the  Wilderness.  In  September,  1864,  he 
raised  a  company  in  the  Twenty-eighth  New  York  State  Militia, 
was  commissioned  captain  and  mustered  into  the  Federal  Army 
for  100  days'  service.  At  the  expiration  of  that  term  he  started  to 
raise  another  company  for  three  years'  service,  but  the  war  ended, 
and  his  recruiting  efforts  consequently  ceased. 

He  was  admitted  to  No.  6  in  September,  1865,  and  still  holds  a 
membership  card,  which  is  No.  4. 

On  the  succeeding  page  is  a  complete  roster  of  the  presidents  of 
No.  6,  with  the  length  of  their  official  terms: 


668  NEW    YORK    TYPOGRAPHICAL    UNION    NUMBER    SIX. 

Presidents  of  New  York  Typographical  Union  No  6. 

Duration  of  Service. 


Name.  From —  To — 

1.  Horace  Greeley January,  1850 January, 

2.  Franklin  J.  Ottarson January,  1851 January, 

3.  Jeremiah  Gray^ January,  1853 May, 

4.  Charles  F.  Town May,         1853 January, 

5.  Thomas  J.  Walsh January,  1854 January, 

6.  William  L.  Stubbs January,  1856 January, 

7.  WiUiam  B.  McManus January,  1857 January, 

8.  Charles  B.  Smith January,  1858 January, 

9.  Charles  W.  Colburn January,  1859 January, 

10.  Patrick  H.  Browne January,  i860 January, 

11.  John  L.  Brown January,  1861 January, 

12.  Michael  H.  McNamara January,  1862 January, 

13.  Henry  M.  Failing January,  1863 January, 

14.  Edward  A.  Holmes January,  1864 January, 

15.  Theodore  S.  Conklin January,  1865 January, 

16.  Robert  McKechnie January,  1866 January, 

17.  Thomas  T.  Sutliffe^ January,  1868 May, 

18.  William  Stirk May,        1868 January, 

19.  Charles  B.  Smith January,  1870 January, 

20.  Gilbert  Vale January,  1871 January, 

21.  Robert  McKechnie January,  1872 January, 

22.  Hugh  Dalton January,  1873 January, 

23.  WiUiam  White January,  1877 January, 

24.  John  A.  Ganong January,  1878 January, 

25.  David  Kells January,  1879 January, 

26.  Charles  B.  Smith January,  1880 January, 

27.  George  A.  McKay January,  1881 January, 

28.  John  R.  O'Donnell- January,  1883 March, 

29.  Mannis  J.  Geary March,     1884 January, 

30.  James  M.  Duncan January,  1885 January, 

31.  Everett  Glackin January,  1886 January, 

32.  James  M.  Duncan January,  1888 January, 

33.  WiUiam  E.  Boselly January,  1889 April, 

34.  Charles  J.  Dumas April,        1890 April, 

35.  William  J.  Brennan April,        1891 April, 

36.  John  A.  Kenney April,        1892 April, 

37.  James  J.  Murphy April,        1893 August, 

38.  Samuel  B.  DonneUy August,    1895 August, 

39.  James  P.  Farrell August,    1898 August, 

40.  John  H.  Delaney August,    1899 August, 

41.  James  P.  Rahal August,    1900 June, 

42.  Marsden  G.  Scott June,        1901 June, 

43.  Patrick  H.  McCormick June,        1903 June, 

44.  James  J.  Murphy June,         1906 June, 

45.  James  Tole June,         1908 June, 

46.  Charles  M.  Maxwell June,        191 1 

2  Resigned. 


851 
853 
853 
854 
856 

857 
858 

859 
860 
861 
862 
863 
864 
865 
866 
868 
868 
870 
871 
872 

873 
877 
878 
879 
880 


884 
885 


892 
893 
895 
898 
899 
900 
901 

903 
906 
908 
911 


INDEX 


[669] 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Abolition  petitions,  objection  to  by  Congressman  Ely  Moore  in  1839. ...  188 

Abolitionist  party,  organization  of ; 188 

Actors 31 

Adams,  Charles  A 141 

John 634 

President  John  Quincy 97 

Address  issued  bj'^  the  National  Convention  of  Journeymen  Printers  in  1850  570 
Agreement  of  international  unions  in    1898  with  the  Typothetas  for  a 

shorter  working  day 376 

Typographical  Union  No.  98  with  the  Brooklyn  £ag/e.  .  .  .  405 
Agreement  of  Union  No.  6  — 

in  1883  with  the  New  York  Tribune 387 

1894  with  the  New  York  Tribune 395 

1897  with  the  Typothetse  for  the  nine-and-one-half-hour   work- 
ing day 374 

1899  with  the  Typothetae  as  to  overtime  in  all-machine  offices.  .  .  342 

1902  with  the  Typothetae  as  to  wage  scale 343 

1906  with  the  Brooklyn  Eagle 406 

Ahem,  James 329 

Aimison,  William 497 

Albany  Argus,  letter  regarding  prison  labor  printed  in  the 517 

Evening  Journal 100 

Printers'  Union 225 

Register 98 

Sentinel 38 

Typographical  Society n.  50,  64 

Albany  Typographical  Union  — 

mentioned 3,  m.  206,  n.  302,  520,  583,  598,  657 

remonstrance  of,  against  contract  printing  in  prisons 516 

Albaugh,  F.  A 266,  268,  582 

Albion.     (See  New  York  Albion.) 

Alden,  Henry  M.,  letter  from,  read  at  the  Greeley  centenary  exercises.  .  .  637 

Allied  Printing  Trades 392,  566 

Allied  Printing  Trades  Council  — 

mentioned 521,  558,  562 

objects  of  the 513 

union  labels  of  the 511-12 

Allied  Printing  Trades  Council,  State  — 

delegates  from  Union  No.  6  at  the  first  convention  of  the 584 

formation  in  1897  of  the 584 

names  of  the  first  officers  of  the 584 

objects  of  the 584 

Ailing,  Mrs.  Julia  A 565,  612 

Alvord,  C.  A 297 

Amalgamated  Trades  and  Labor  Union  of  New  York  City 390,  593-4 

American  Anti-Slavery  Society 188 

Bible  Society 267 

Citizen,     {See  New  York  American  Citizen.) 

[671] 


672  INDEX. 

American  Federation  of  Labor  —  page 

mentioned 561,  566,  n.  585,  613-14 

New  York  State  Branch  of  the 520,  591 

petition  of  the,  in  favor  of  woman  suffrage n.  430 

American  Newspaper  Publishers'  Association  — 

arbitration  agreement  of  the  International  Typographical  Union  with 

the 344 

of  1907  wage  scale  by  Union  No.  6  with  the 355 

1910  wage  scale  by  Union  No.  6  with  the 359 

mentioned 360 

American  Printers'  Union,  formation  of  an,  urged  in  1849 568 

Scenic  and  Historic  Preservation  Society 636 

(See  New  York  American.) 

Tract  Society 98,  267 

Type  Founders  Company iv 

Unitarian  Society .  304 

Amnesty  of  the  National  Typographical  Union  increases  the  membership 

of  Union  No.  6  in  1868 416 

union  printers  in  1833  proclaim  a  general 144 

Ancient  customs  practiced  by  modern  printers 120 

Anderson,  James  B 106,  138 

w.  J.  s 379-81 

Andrews,  Charles  H 146 

of  Mack  &  Andrews 81 

S.  W 41 

Anthony,  Miss  Susan  B 429,  n.  430,  433-4 

Anti-Slavery  Society,  the  American 188 

Appleton  &  Co 300,  307 

Apprentices  — 

admission  of,  to  Union  No.  6  as  probationary  members 455 

employment  of  runaway,  in  the  thirties 108 

forbidden  to  work  overtime  on  newspapers 463 

indenturing  of,  on  newspapers  required  by  the  International  Typo- 
graphical Union  in  1887 460 

initiation  of,  in  the  chapel 128 

machine-tenders',  wage  scale  of 462,  465 

printers',  initiation  of,  into  trade  mysteries 125 

proportion  of,  increased  in  book  and  job  offices  in  1902 461 

State  law  relative  to 455 

the  1850  National  Convention  of  Journeymen  Printers  requests  em- 
ployers to  indenture 57° 

too  many  in  printing  trade,  Horace  Greeley  declares,  in  1850 220 

Union  No.  6  in  1897  prohibits  the  employment  of,  on  newspapers.  .  . .  461 
Apprenticeship  — 

National  Typographical  Union  in  1852  takes  cognizance  of  the  subject 

of 455 

question 454-67 

regulation  of,  by  the  National  Typographical  Convention  in  1836.  ...  156 

in  1851 454 

regulations,  broadening  of,  by  Union  No.  6  in  1910 464 

restrictive    measures    concerning,    cause    strike    of    book   and   job 

printers  in  1872 457 

revival  of,  on  newspapers  in  1907 462 

system,  advantage  of  an  unvarying 216 

regulation  of,  by  printers,  in  1815 65 

term  of,  reduced  by  Union  No  6  in  1869 455 

Arbeiter   Union.     (See  New  York  Arbeiter   Union.) 

Arbitration  and  Peace  Congress,  National 613 

Arbitration,  National  Board  of  — 

decision  of,  against  wage  increase  on  newspapers  in  1901 352 

increases  newspaper  wage  scale  in  1907 357 

1910 , 360 


INDEX.  673 

PAGE 

Arbitration  of  newspaper  wage  scale  in  1907 355 

1910 359 

plan  of  newspaper  publishers  and  the  International  Typographical 

Union,  revision  of  the 354,       359 

the  Printers'  League  and  Union  No.  6 365 

proceedings  under  the  first  newspaper  plan  of,  in  1901 344,       353 

State   Board   of  Mediation   and,  services  of,  requested  by  the  Ty- 

pothetae  in  1887 318 

Union  No.  6  declines,  in  1887 320 

"  Art  of  Printing,"  poem  by  Samuel  Woodworth 84 

Artemus  Ward  Fund,  the 495 

Arthur,  Hon.  Chester  A n.  589 

Asbridge,  George 42,  87-8 

Assessments  on  earnings,  levy  of,  by  Union  No.  6  for  beneficial  purposes. .       468 
Asylum  for  Superannuated  Printers,  the  Artemus  Ward  fund  for  establish- 
ing an  495 

Atkinson,  S.  H 267-8 

Atlantic  cable,  public  celebration  of  the  completion  of  the 606 

resolutions  of  Union  No.  6  on  the  completion  of  the 606 

Austin,  Attorney-General  James  Trecothic n.  188 

Bachmann,  Charles  G 553 

Bailey,  K.  Arthur 592 

Mr 263-4,  270 

Baker,  Christina 421,  435 

Godwin  &  Co 662 

Henry  V 202 

Peter  Carpenter 222,  n.  296 

W.  A 577,  582 

William 627 

Bakers,  journeymen 23 

Ballou,  S.  D 201 

Baltimore  Typographical  Union n.  206 

Bank  of  America 74 

Barber,  Mr 66 

Barbers 31 

Barnett,  Edward  N 538-9 

George  E.,  Ph.  D «.  50,  n.  511-12 

Barnum,  W.  H 655 

Barr,  Mr 12 

Bartlett,  Mary  A 421,  435,  437 

Willard,  Associate  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Appeals 382 

Barton,  William,  Jr 202 

Bates,  J.  H.,  tribute  of,  to  the  memory  of  Isaac  W.  England 664 

Baudoine,  Mr 21 

Bauer,  President 544,  546,  549 

Baxter,  Frank  A iv 

Beach,  M.  S.  &  A.  E 245 

Messrs 398 

Moses  S 248,  663 

Beatty,  Robert 163 

Becanon,  Philip 38 

Bechtel,  Charles 569 

Becker,  Mr 546 

Beecher,  the  Rev.  Henry  Ward 28,  518 

Belfast  Whig 650 

Bell,  James  M w.  287 

Bellamy,  Edward  S 163 

Belvidere  (N.  J.)  Warren  Journal 177 

Benedict,  C.  W 267 

S.  W 267 


674  INDEX. 

Beneficial  features  of  Union  No.  6  —  page 

a  study  of  the 472-510 

book  and  job  compositors  opposed  to 259 

Benefits,  morbidity  and  mortuary,  of  German  Typographia  No.  7 543 

Benefits,  mortuary  — 

amount  of,  disbursed  by  Union  No.  6  in  fifteen  years 505,  510 

established  by  union  printers  in  the  thirties 112 

International  Typographical  Union  laws  providing  for 505 

of  New  York  Printers'  Union 205 

payment  of,  by  Union  No.  6 504-10 

table  of  disbursements  by  Union  No.  6,  annually  for  fifteen  years ....  506 
Benefits  — 

sick,  amount  expended  by  Union  No.  6  in 510 

of  New  York  Printers'  Union 205 

strike,  established  by  union  printers  in  the  thirties 112 

paid  by  Union  No.  6  in  fifteen  years 510 

superannuation,  amount  expended  by  Union  No.  6  in 510 

table  of  disbursements  for,  in  fifteen  years  by  Union  No.  6 510 

the  1850  National  Convention  of  Journeymen  Printers  urges  typo- 
graphical trade  associations  to  abolish 570 

unemployment,  established  by  union  printers  in  the  thirties 112 

made  a  constitutional  right  by  Union  No.  6 479 

of  Typographia  No.  7 544 

Union  No.  6 474-5 

table  of 480 

paid  by  Union  No.  6  in  eighteen  years 481 

fifteen  years 510 

Bennett,  James  Gordon 324 

Thomas 379-8i 

William 202 

Beveridge,  Hon.  Albert  J.,  oration  of,  at  the  Greeley  centenary  exercises.  .  640 

Bible  House 300 

"  Big  Six,"  popular  title  of  New  York  Typographical  Union  No.  6 i 

Bigelow,  Hon.  John n.  518 

Billings  &  Taylor 267 

Bischoff,  Henry,  Supreme  Court  Justice 381-2 

Blades,  William 1 16-18,  128,  n.  130 

Blaemeke,  of  Randell  &  Blaemeke — 546 

Blaine,  Hon.  James  G 391 

Blair,  R.  C 18 

Blake,  vSpencer  C 28 

Blanchard,  James  A.,  Supreme  Court  Justice 379 

the  Rev.  Joseph  N.,  D.D 500 

Blatch,  Mrs.  Stanton n.  430 

Blind  makers 22 

Bliss,  the  Rev.  W.  D.  P 610 

Block  and  pump  makers 19 

Blunt's  printing  office 67 

Board  of  Delegates.     {See  Delegates.) 
Bodwell,  William  H.— 

address  by,  at  the  unveiling  of  the  Greeley  monument 628 

mentioned 539-40.  582,  627,       630 

Bogart,  John 36 

Newton 611 

Boiler  makers 19 

Bonaparte,  Napoleon 635 

Book  and  job  compositors.     (See  Compositors.) 
Book  and  job  offices  — 

general  inauguration  of  the  nine-and-one-half-hour  working  day  in.  .  .  376 

nine-hour  working  day  in 376 

strike  in  New  York  City,  in  1853 265 


INDEX.  675 

Book  and  job  offices  — ■  (Continued)  page 

successful  strike  in  New  York  City,  for  the  eight-hour  working  day  in 

1906 379 

wages  in  New  York  City,  in  1853 261 ,  264 

Book  printers,  low  average  earnings  of,  in  1853 260 

printing,  advance  of,  noted  in  1802 40 

Bookbinders 375,  512-14,  584,  666 

Bookstaver,  Henry  W.,  Supreme  Court  Justice 401 

Bookwork,  minimum  number  of  hours  fixed  for  piecework  on 340 

wage  scale  of  compositors  on,  in  1864 280 

wages  and  hours  of  labor  of  printers  on,  in  1851 226-9 

Boot  and  shoe  clerks 31 

workers 17 

Boselly,  William  E 322,  668 

Boston  Bee «.  201 

Columbian  Centinel 82 

Guide n.  567,  568 

Journal n.  201 

Printers'  Union 240 

Sunday  Sentinel n.  201 

Typographical  Society 64,  80 

Boston  Typographical  Union  — 

mentioned n.  206,  512 

refusal  of,  in  1857,  to  exclude  women  printers  who  received  equal  pay 

with  men 428 

Boston  Waverly  Magazine n.  507 

Boulton,  Alfred  J 584 

Bourne,  William  Orland 237 

Bowe,  Mr 638 

Bowie,  John  H 1 63 

Bowne,  of  Collins,  Bowne  &  Co 267 

Boy  labor,  evils  of  surplus 158 

menace  of  superfluous 213 

Boyce,  I.  D 201,  264,  269,  274 

Boycott  on  the  New  York  Sun  in  1887,  protest  by  Typographical  Union 

No.  6  against  the 399 

resolution  introduced  in    the   National    Typographical   Union  Con- 
vention of  1852  suggestive  of  the 397 

Boycotter,  The.     {See  New  York  Boycotter.) 

Boycotting,  commencement  of  the  system  of,  in  1883,  against  the  New 

York  Tribune 388 

non-union  printing  concerns  in  1833 145 

system  as  practiced  in  1850 11 

the  New  York  Sun,  injunction  in  1899  to  prohibit 401 

Bradstreet's 300 

Bramwood,  John  W 344,  357 

Brennan,  William  J 445,  668 

Breslin,  James  H v 

Bricklayers 474 

and  stone  masons 4 

Briggs,  WiUiam iv 

Brimmer,  G 129 

Bristol,  H.  D 141,  153 

Broderick,  John 60 

Brooklyn  Advertiser 536 

Borough  Central  Labor  Union 594 

Daily  Eagle  mentioned 359,  536 

strike  in  1891  on  the 405 

Freeman 536 

Independent 536 

printers,  attempt  of,  to  form  a  union  in  i860 536 

charter  from  the  National  Typographical  Union  sought  by .  536 


676  INDEX. 

Brooklyn  printers — (Continued)  page 

unsuccessful  strike  of,  in  1867 538 

Standard 667 

Star 536 

Brooklyn  Typographical  Union  No.  98  — 

amalgamation  of,  in  1898  with  Union  No.  6 540 

charter  granted  to,  by  the  National  Typographical  Union  in  1867 ....  538 

of,  surrendered  in  1868 538 

first  officers  of 538 

mentioned 520,  632 

rechartoring  of,  in  1874  by  the  International  Typographical  Union.  .  .  539 
reissue  of  charter  in   1883  to,  by  the  International  Typographical 

Union 540 

revocation  of  the  second  charter  of 539 

Brooks,  Erastus 224 

Brown,  John  L 155,  159,  202,  668 

M.  B 390 

M.  C 568 

of  Little,  Brown  &  Co 304 

Printing  and  Binding  Company,  Martin  B iv 

William  H 202 

Browne,  Charles 495 

P.N 578 

Patrick  H 668 

Bruce,  Book  of «•  37 

David,  life  sketch  of 38 

mentioned 37 

George,  life  sketch  of 38 

mentioned 37,  53,  618 

Robert 250 

Brush,  A.  A 519 

Conklin 28 

Buchanan,  Joseph  R.,  remarks  by,  at  workingmen's  mass  meeting  to  pro- 
mote peace  among  nations 613 

Buchholz,  Mr 546 

Buffalo  Courier 518 

Typographical  Union n.  206,  51 1 

Building  and  stone  working 3 

industry 36 

laborers 8 

trades.  New  York  City,  successful  strike  in  1872  of  the,  for  the  eight- 
hour  working  day 369 

BuUen,  Henry  L iv 

Bulletin  No.  61  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor .  .    n.  36,  n.  39,  n.  50,  n.  574 

Burbridge,  William 69,  87 

Burchell,  Mrs.  L.  G 565 

Bureau  of  Factory  Inspection,  co-operation  with  the,  by  the  Committee  on 

Health  and  Sanitation 504 

Labor  Statistics,  creation  in  1883  of  the  New  York  State n.  591 

of,  requested  by  workingmen  in  1871.  591 

Burgess,  the  Rt.  Rev.  Frederick 346,  352 

Burial  places  for  printers,  provision  made  by  Union  No.  6  for 509 

Burke,  Miss  Winifred 634 

Patrick 18 

Thomas n.  384,  623,  627 

Burr,  Aaron 638 

Burton,  Alfred 567 

Burtt,  Selah  H 21 

Business  revival  after  the  War  of  1 812 61 

Butler,  of  Hallock,  Butler  &  Hale 250 

Butterick  Publishing  Company,  Limited 378-9 

Butterworth,  Hon.  Benjamin 652 


INDEX.  677 

PAGE 

Cabinetmakers 21 

Cable,  Atlantic.     {See  Atlantic  Cable.) 

submarine  electric,  installation  of  the  original,  by  Benjamin  Franklin. .  606 

Caesar,  Julius 634 

Cahill,  John  L 501 

C.  A.  I.  L.,  bill  of,  to  restrict  the  hours  of  labor  of  working  children  to 

eight  per  day 611 

co-operation  of  Union  No.  6  with 608 

founding  of,  in  1887 610 

methods  of,  defined 610 

organization  of  a  Council  of  Mediation  and  Arbitration  by 610 

recognition  of  organized  labor  by 610 

Calverley,  Charles 629 

Calvin,  James 556 

Cameron,  James  R v 

Campbell,  Hon.  A.  J 652 

John  M 428 

Mr 536 

Robert  M 359,  654 

Cappelhr,  President 497 

Card  shops,  Typothetae  in  1887  refuses  to  grant 318 

Cardwell,  Miss  EHzabeth 612 

Carleton,  Sir  Guy w-  35 

Carmichael,  A.  D 501 

Carnegie,  Andrew 615 

Carpenter,  Alderman  Thomas 102 

Carpenters 4.  36,  149,  162 

Carter,  Mrs.  Charles  M 565 

Carvalho,  S.  S 355,  359 

Cavis,  A.  T 428 

Caxton,  William 1 15-18 

Celebrated  individual  strikes 384-412 

Cemeteries,  table  showing  number  of  interments  of  union  printers  in ...  .  509 
Central  Federated  Union  of  New  York  City  — 

mentioned 401 

organization  in  1899  of  the 594 

Central  Labor  Federation  of  New  York  City 594 

Central  Labor  Union  of  New  York  City  — 

consolidation  of  the,  with  the  Central  Labor  Federation 594 

formation  in  1877  of  the 593 

mentioned 390 

Chandler,  Adoniram 78-9 

WiUiam  E 656 

Zachariah 656 

Chapel,  characteristics  and  internal  workings  of  the  modem 445 

father  of  the 120 

inception  of  the 1 14 

initiation  of  apprentices  in  the 128 

origin  of  the,  in  doubt 115 

regulations  of  the,  about  the  year  1840 126 

rules  in  a  typical  newspaper  office 442-4 

system,  establishment  of  the,  by  Union  No.  6 441 

the,  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century 125 

in  1740 124 

unit  of  government  in  trade  affairs 124 

Chapels,  constitutional  provisions  of  Union  No.  6  defining  the  duties  of 

officials  of 441 

creation  of,  opposed  by  the  National  Typographical  Convention  in 

.1836 115 

earliest  description  of 120 

formation  of,  suggested  in  1850 217 

in  medieval  France  and  Belgium 1 18 


678  INDEX. 

Ch.ci.pc\s— {Continued)  page 
plenary  authority  in  the  matter  of  ordering  strikes  not  delegated  by 

the  Typographical  Union  to 445 

resolutions  of  thanks  from,  to  employers 245 

union  printers  in  1833  institute 114 

Chapin,  the  Reverend  Doctor 628 

Chappaqua  Historical  Society 636 

Charter  of  Union  No.  6  issued  by  the  International  Typographical  Union .  .  567 

National  Typographical  Union 201 

Women's  Typographical  Union  No.  i  issued  by  the  National 

Typographical  Union 42 1 

Chatfield,  A.  F 22.5 

Cherouny,  Heijry,  open  letter  by,  on  the  advantages  of  a  shorter  working 

day 374 

Chicago  fire  sufferers,  money  appropriated  in  1871  by  Union  No.  6  to 

relieve 473 

Inter-Ocean 663 

Republican 663 

Times 655 

Tribune 344 

Child  labor  in  America 642 

1831 106 

Childs-Drexel  Printers'  Home  Fund n.  201 

Childs,  George  W.,  benefactions  of,  to  his  employees 499 

death  of 499 

elected  an  honorary  member  of  Union  No.  6 499 

mentioned 494,  496-7 

services  of  Union  No.  6  in  memory  of 500 

John 51.53 

Church  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  the  Interests  of  Labor,  Union 

No.  6  co-operates  with  the 608 

Cigar  makers 27,  593 

Cincinnati  Typographical  Union n.  206 

City  Club  of  New  York 636 

Civil  War,  bonds  of  fraternity  of  union  printers  of  the  North  and  South 

not  severed  by  the 578 

number  of  members  of  Union  No.  6  who  enlisted  in  the 604 

Clark,  Mr 49 

Clarkson,  Hon.  J.  C 407 

Clay,  Henry 635 

Clayton,  W.  H 106 

Cleland,  Thomas  Maitland 603 

Clendennin,  the  Rev.  F.  M 634 

Clerks,  boot  and  shoe 31 

dry  goods 27 

Cleveland,  Hon.  Grover,  credit  of  the  election  of,  to  the  Presidency  in  1884 

claimed  by  union  printers 391 

mentioned n.  589 

John  F I 

Clinton,  Mayor  De  Witt 102 

Clothing  and  textiles ID 

Clough,  John 37 

Coach  makers , 589 

painters 21,  588 

Coachmen , 32 

Coby,  E.  P 374 

Colburn,  Anna  Sly 644 

Colburn,  Charles  Walter  — 

biographical  sketch  of 643-6 

mentioned iv,  203,  206,  219,  222,  238,  244,  n.  259,  n.  318,  ».  384 

413,  474,  477,  668 
reproduction  of  lirst  working  card  issued  by  New  York  Printers' 

Union  to 205 


INDEX.  679 

PAGE 

Colburn,  Geoi^e  A 250 

Miss  Jessie  B iv 

Walter 644 

Cole,  Harry  Mills 580 

Collie,  Miss  Mary  A 644 

Collins,  Bowne  &  Co 267 

Isaac 38 

John 421,  567 

Mr 60 

Colston,  Miss  Evelyn 663 

Colton,  Charles  W _ 270 

Columbia  Typographical  Society  — 

mentioned 96,  155.  I57.  192 

scale  of  prices  in  1 8 1 5  of  the 95 

Columbian.     {See  New  York  Columbian.) 

"  Columbia's  Independence,"  poem  by  Samuel  Woodworth 85 

Columbus  Typographical  Union «.  206 

Combinations,  transitory  labor 34 

Commercial  Advertiser.     (See  New  York  Commercial  Advertiser.) 

Committee  of  Union  No.  6  on  Health  and  Sanitation 502,  504 

Committees  of  Union  No.  6,  compensation  of 471 

Composing  machine  operators  — 

book  and  job,  wage  rates  of,  in  1910-12 366 

minimum  of  competency  of 354 

newspaper,  wage  rates  of,  in  1907 357-8 

1910 361-2 

Composing  machines  — 

cost  of  production  lessened  by w.  478 

direct  benefit  of,  to  journeymen  printers n.  478 

earliest  record  of  Union  No.  6  on  the  subject  of 326 

first  wage  scale  adopted  for  the  operation  of,  in  1887 327 

general  introduction  of,  1890-4 326-37 

growth  of  membership  of  Union  No.  6  since  the  introduction  of n.  478 

introduction  of,  in  German  offices,  in  1891 549 

opposition  by  Union  No.  6  to  restriction  of  output  on 337 

reduction  of  working  time  on  newspapers  caused  by 371 

school  of  instruction  for  operators  on 331 

skepticism  of  printers  as  to  the  successful  development  of 328 

statistics  concerning  the  effect  of,  on  the  working  force  of  printens. .  n.  477-8 

Union  No.  6  favors  the  introduction  of 329 

wage  scale  adopted  in  1891  for  operation  of,  on  newspapers 331 

1893  for  bookwork  on 336 

of  1897  for  learners  on,  in  book  offices 339 

proposed  in  1890  for  operation  of,  on  newspapers 329 

Compositors,  book  and  job  — 

eight-hour  working  day  gained  by,  in  1906 378 

hours  of  labor  of,  in  1 833 1 36 

movement  of,  for  the  nine-hour  working  day 372-6 

nine-and-one-half-hour  working  day  gained  by,  in  1898 374,  376 

nine-hour  working  day  gained  by,  in  1899 376 

observance  of  the  Saturday  half  holiday  by. 525 

right  of,  to  organize  a  separate  union  questioned 262 

strike  of,  in  1853 265 

1863 277 

1869 296 

1876 307 

1887 318 

1906 379 

wage  rates  of,  reduced  in  1876 308 

scale  adopted  for,  by  a  general  meeting  in  1853 261 

Union  No.  6  in  1853 264 

in  1863 277 


68o  INDEX. 

Compositors,  book  and  job  —  {Conlinued)  page 

wage  scale  adopted  for,  in  1864 294 

1 869 296,  303 

1883 316 

1887 317 

1902 343 

1910 366 

Compositors,  book,  partial  reduction  of  the  wage  scale  of,  in  1889 323 

Compositors,  book,  job  and  newspaper  — 

successful  strike  of,  in  1883 316 

suspension  of  wage  scales  of,  in  1877 309 

Compositors,  excessive  hours  of  labor  of,  on  morning  newspapers  in  1864..  289 
German.     {See  German  printers.) 

hours  of  labor  of,  in  1829 242 

job,  readjustment  in  1897  of  overtime  rates  for 340 

lives,  increase  in  longevity  of 506 

Compositors,  newspaper  — 

eight-hour  working  day  established  for 329 

eleven-hour  working  day  for,  in  1864 368 

original  rule  fixing  the  number  of  hours  per  day  for  piece  composi- 
tion of 279-80 

requiring  payment  for  standing  time  of 229 

revision  of  wage  scale  in  1889  of 324 

strike  in  1889  of 324 

twelve-hour  working  day  for,  in  1851 368 

wage  rates  of,  in  1850 202 

1853 246 

1864 278,  295 

1870  and  1872 305 

1883 315 

1887 317 

1907 357-8 

1910 361-2 

reduced  in  1857 276 

1876 308 

Compositors,  number  of,  in  New  York  City  in  1864 282 

reduction  of  wages  of,  on  novels  in  1896 338 

refusal  of  the  New  York  Sun  in  the  seventies  to  reduce  the  wage 

rates  of 663 

second  revision  of  wage  scale  in  1864  of 279 

strike  of,  in  181 1 60 

1840 141 

1851 238,  244 

1864 288 

1872 457 

1883 316 

on  the  Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle 405 

New  York  Day  Book 246 

Evening  Post 408-12 

Journal  of  Commerce 239 

Mail  and  Express 407 

strikes  of,  on  tne  New  York  Sun 396-402 

Times 404-5 

Tribune 286,  384--96 

World 402-4 

term  of  apprenticeship  of 455 

wages  and  hours  of  labor  of ,  in  1851 226-30 

of,  in  1809 57 

1815 62 

1829 242 

1833 134 

1844 195 

Washington  in  1815 95 


INDEX.  68l 

Compositors  —  ( Continued)  page 

whose  ages  were  60  years  and  over  at  death,  table  showing  the  number 

of,  in  ten  years 507 

women.     (See  Women  printers.) 

Conciliation,  settlement  of  1869  strike  of  compositors  by 302 

Confectioners 26 

Congressional  Library v 

Conklin,  Theodore  S 368,  428,  438,  668 

Conspiracy  Bill  of  1864  — 

described  as  "  Folger's  Anti-Trades  Union  Strike  Bill   ' 586 

introduction  of  the,  in  the  New  York  Senate 586 

mass  meeting  of  New  York  City  workingmen  to  protest  against  the. .  587 
resolutions  passed  by  New  York  City  workingmen  in  opposition  to 

the 588 

Union  No.  6  passes  resolutions  opposing  the 587 

Conspiracy  case,  a  celebrated 102 

Law,  amendment  in  1870  to  the 590 

trials,  notable 175 

Contempt  proceedings,  institution  of,  against  officers  and  members  of 

Typographical  Union  No.  6  in  1906 379 

Contents,  table  of vii 

Contract,  breaking  of  the  1883,  by  the  New  York  Tribune 388 

Labor  Law 653 

prison  labor.     (See  Prison  labor.) 

system,  beginning  of  the,  in  the  clothing  industry 13 

on  public  works,  petition  in  1850  for  the  abolition  of  the 2 

Conway,  James 589 

M.  F 569,  573,  n.  574 

Cooke,  David  A 262,  270-1,  273,  275 

Jay  &  Co 305 

Cooper,  Edward n.  390 

Co-operation,  industrial,  in  1850 i 

suggested  as  an  ultimate  cure  for  industrial  evils 218 

urged  by  the  1850  National  Convention  of  Journeymen  Printers 572 

views  of  Horace  Greeley  on 619 

Co-operative  clothing  shops  and  stores,  subscriptions  for,  in  1850 13 

Labor  League  in  1850,  regulations  of  the i 

shops,  carpenters  advocate  opening  of,  in  1850 6 

organized  by  sash  and  blind  makers  in  1850 22 

successful  conduct  of,  by  journeymen  bakers  in  1847-50 25 

store  opened  by  hat  finishers  in  1850 16 

Coopers'  Society,  officers  of  the,  in  1796 36 

Copper  workers 19 

Copy,  unfair  distribution  of 212 

Copyright.     {See  International  copyright.) 

Cordwainers,  conspiracy  case  against,  in  1809 102 

mentioned 17,  I75 

wages  of,  in  1809 102 

Corson,  John  W.,  M.  D 28 

Cost  of  hving  during  the  Revolutionary  epoch 35 

in  1837 139 

1850 I 

1853 251 

i860  and  1864 285 

1868 298 

1901 348 

Costello,  Vincent 379-82 

Cotter,  Michael 8 

Courier  and  Enquirer.     {See  New  York  Courier  and  Enquirer.) 

Cowles,  Alfred 344 

W.  G 578 

Craftsman,  the n.  $11 

Crane,  James 38 


682  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Crans,  James 556 

Crapsey,  the  Rev.  Algernon  S.,  D.  D 614 

Crate,  Henry  J 219,  592 

Crawford,  Mr 13 

Crean,  P 627 

Cressingham,  R.  H n.  36,  n.  39 

Cronly,  Mr 164 

Crooker,  Richard 219 

Thomas 1 06 

Crooks,  J 53 

Crossland,  John  F 636 

Croswell,  Machy 99 

Crowe,  Robert 290,  589 

Crowell,  Joseph  T 195 

Cuba,  granting  of  belHgerent  rights  to,  requested  by  Union  No.  6 605 

Cuddy,  WilHam 474 

Cuisack,  Kate 421,  435 

Cummin,  Sherman 580 

Cummings,  Hon.  Amos  Jay  — 

biographical  sketch  of 651 

memorial  services  of  Union  No.  6  in  honor  of 653 

mentioned 500,  528,  598,  603 

oration  of,  at  the  unveiling  of  the  Greeley  statue 634 

record  of,  on  labor  measures  in  Congress 652 

Cunnington,  Robert 201-2,  205 

Currency,  depreciation  of,  caused  by  1837  panic 141 

workingmen  in  1834  favor  gold  and  silver *    184 

Cuttle,  Edward 219 

D'Auvergne,  Latour 631 

Dack,  R.  D 201 

Dahm,  James  H 636 

Daily  Advertiser.     (See  New  York  Daily  Advertiser.) 
Express.     (See  New  York  Daily  Express.) 
News.     (See  New  York  Daily  News.) 

Dalton,  Hugh,  biographical  sketch  of  ! 666-7 

mentioned v,  626-7,  668 

Dana,  Charles  A.,  editorial  by,  on  the  death  of  Isaac  W.  England 664 

mentioned i ,  663 

Danielson,  Mrs.  Mary  A 439,  627 

Davies  &  Roberts 667 

Davis,  Charles  A 106,  152,  155,  159-60 

Hon.  David 585 

Horatio  N 519-20 

J 262-3 

J.  E.,  Jr 582 

Jefferson 635-6 

Mr 415 

William  A 94i  96 

Day  Book.     (See  New  York  Day  Book.) 

De  Costa,  the  Rev.  Benjamin  F 610 

De  Vinne,  Theodore  L n.  296,  303,  318-19,  345,  370,  603,  627 

Death  benefits.     {See  Benefits,  mortuary.) 

Deaths,  tabular  record  of,  by  years,  in  Union  No.  6  since  April  i,  1859. .  .  508 

Defense  fund,   the   1850  National  Convention  of  Journeymen  Printers 

urges  the  accumulation  of  a 569 

Delaney,  John  H v,  342,  376,  603,  668 

Delegate  system,  institution  of  the,  by  New  York  Printers'  Co-operative 

Union  in   1853 269 

pronouncement  in  1871  for  the 447 

reasons  for  the  adoption  of  the 448 

non-success  of  the 451 


INDEX.  683 

PAGE 

Delegates,  first  Board  of,  establishment  of,  in  1886 449 

repeal  in  1887  of  law  creating 449 

second  Board  of,  establishment  of,  in  1892 450 

repeal  in  1 894  of  law  creating 450 

third  Board  of,  establishment  of,  in  1897 450 

repeal  in  1900  of  law  creating 451 

Demokrat.     {See  New  York  Demokrat.) 

Denneen,  President  of  New  York  Stereotypers'  Union  No.  i 394 

Dent,  John 21 

Derfiinger,  William  F iv,  418 

Deutsch-Amerikanische  Buchdrucker-Zeitung,  article  from 542-9 

Deutscher,  Miss  Marie 637 

Diary,  or  Evening  Register.     (See  New  York  Diary,  or  Evening  Register.) 

Differences  between  Union  No.  6  and  Typographia  No.  7,  beginning  of. .  .  .  550 

settlement  of.  . .  553 

Dill,  Vincent 267 

Diplock,  John 661-2 

Dixon,  James 540 

Dockery ,  Congressman 653 

Dodge,  Daniel 37 

Washington  A 201 

Donaldson,  James  S 19 

Donath,  August 497 

Donnelly,  Augustine 273 

Samuel  B 372,  374,  440,  n.  446,  582,  584,  668 

Donovan,  F.  F 32 1 ,  540 

Dorion,  Stephen «•  50 

Douglass  &  Co 267 

Doyle,  Alexander 632 

Dreir,  Miss  Mary  E 612 

Drexel,  Anthony  J 496,  499 

DriscoU,  Frederick 344,  346,  352 

Dry  goods  clerks 27 

Dues  and  assessments  of  New  York  Printers'  Union 204 

Union  No.  6 468 

Duffy,  James 329 

Dumas,  Charles  J v,  331 ,  552,  668 

Dun  &  Co 300 

Duncan,  James  M.,  address  of  greeting  by,  at  the  1885  convention  of 

the  International  Typographical  Union 579 

mentioned v,  668 

Early -closing  movement  of  boot  and  shoe  clerks  in  1 852 31 

dry  goods  clerks  in  1850 28 

East  Poultney  (Vt.)  Northern  Spectator 617 

Eaton,  Mr 56 

Eckert,  W.  B 266,  268,  569,  573 

Egan,  William 303 

Eglc,  William  H 269 

Ehrich,  Louis  R 496 

Eight-Hour  Law,  enactment  in  1868  of  the 653 

Eight-hour  working  day  — 

adoption  of  the,  for  night  workers  on  newspapers  in  1864 279 

carpenters  plan  to  introduce  the,  in  1850 6 

demonstration  of  workingmen  for  the,  in  1871 369 

gaining  of  the,  by  nearly  50  trades 642 

general  strike  in  New  York  City  for  the,  in  1872 369 

German  printers  in  1886  gain  the 545,  549 

Typographia  No.  7  demands  the,  in  1886 371 

granting  of  the,  by  the  Typothetae 379 


684  INDEX. 

Eight-hour  working  day  —  {Contimied)                            _  page 
in  book  and  job  offices,  Internationa]  Typographical  Union  in  1904 

orders  the  general  introduction  of  the 377 

independent  New  York  City  book  and  job  offices  in  1906  grant  the. .  .  379 
legalization  of  the,  urged  by  the  State  Workingmen's  Assembly  in 

1865 590 

mentioned 329 

National  Typographical  Union  Convention  of  1867  sympathizes  with 

the  movement  for  the 368 

New  York  law  establishing  the,  for  working  children 611 

union  printers  in  1872  favor  the  adoption  of  the 370 

on  public  contracts,  resolutions  in  1850  favoring  the 2 

opposition  in  1904  by  the  United  Typothetaj  to  the 377 

proposal  for  the,  in  1890  on  machine  composition  on  newspapers.  .  .  .  329 

refusal  of  the  New  York  Typothetae  in  1906  to  grant  the 377 

strike  of  New  York  City  pressmen  in  1872  for  the 556 

Workingmen's  Union  in  1864  agitates  for  the 368 

Electrotypers 318,  379,  512-14 

Eleven-hour  working  day  for  morning  newspaper  printers  in  1864.  .  .  .   279,  368 

Elfreth,  J.  B «■  495 

Employing  printers.     {See  Printers,  employing.) 

Employment  bureau,  Typographia  No.  7  establishes  an 544 

Engels,  Paul 546,  549-  553 

Engineers,  typesetting  machine 560-3 

England,  George  King 661 

Isaac  W.,  biographical  sketch  of 661-5 

mentioned 259,  262 

Equal  rights'  advocates,  Labor's  recognition  sought  by 430 

party,  printers'  training  school  for  girls  projected  in  1869  by  433 
Era.     (See  New  York  Era.) 

Esteney,  John 117 

Evans,  Mr 536 

Evening  Call.     (See  New  York  Evening  Call.) 
Express.     (See  New  York  Evening  Express.) 
Mirror.     (See  New  York  Evening  Mirror.) 

Post  Book  office 300 

Post.     (See  New  York  Evening  Post.) 
Sun.     (See  New  York  Evening  Sun.) 
World.     (See  New  York  Evening  World.) 

Evers,  the  Rev.  L.  J 654 

Expenditures  of  Union  No.  6  in  fifteen  years 470 

Express.     (See  New  York  Express.) 

Failing,  Henry  M n.  259,  n.  318,  n.  384,  645,  668 

Fanshaw,  Daniel 42,  52,  98,  267 

Farm.     (See  Printers'  farm.) 

Farmer,  Little  &  Co 627 

Farquhar,  Hon.  John  M n.  652 

Farr,  C 67 

Farrell,  Edward  F 584 

James  P 603,  668 

the  Rev.  Thomas 632 

Fassett,  Hon.  J.  Sloat 598-9 

Faust,  Doctor  Johann n.  195 

Johann »•  I95 

The  order  of 567 

Federation  of  Printing  Trades  of  New  York,  organization  in  1890  of  the.  .  513 

Fellows,  Col.  John  R 634 

Felt,  David 81 

Fenton,  Hon.  Reuben  E «.  589 

Ferguson,  Frederick  W v 

William 33i.  395-  512 


INDEX.  68$ 

PAGE 

Field,  Cyrus  W 606 

Mrs.  Paul  G 565 

Fielding,  William 106 

Fields,  of  Ticknor  &  Fields 304 

Fiftieth  anniversary  of  Union  No.  6,  printing  exposition  to  commemorate  the  602 

Financial  aid,  granting  of,  to  other  trades  by  Union  No.  6 473 

Finch,  John 1 63 

Firewood,  dearth  of,  in  early  New  York "-35 

First  strike  of  printers  in  America 35 

Fish,  Alderman  Nicholas 103 

Fisher,  Francis  B n.  517 

Fitzgerald,  Thomas  D 584 

Fitzpatrick,  Francis n.  295 

Five-day  law,  inauguration  by  Typographia  No.  7  of  the 550 

Fivey,  John  A v,  81 

Flanagan,  A.  C 106,  144-5 

Michael 67 

Peter  J v 

Fleming,  Frederick  L 331 

Flower,  Hon.  Roswell  P.,  mentioned 598,  601 

message  of,  vetoing  State  Printing  Office  Bill. .  .  599 

Flynn,  D.  W 578 

Folger,  Hon.  Charles  J 586,  589 

Food  products  and  tobacco 23 

Forbes,  John 42 

Force,  Peter,  biographical  sketch  of 94~7 

mentioned 99 

Ford,  Mrs.  Andrew  W.  (n6e  Nixola  Greeley-Smith) iv 

Foremen  of  composing  rooms,  powers  of,  to  hire  and  discharge  workmen .  529 

Forster,  T.  G 577 

P'oster,  Miss  Lily  F 611 

Francis,  Charles 365 

Lewis 627-8 

Franey,  John 5^1 

Frank,  Jacob 40 

Frankhn,  Benjamin,  mentioned 38,  99,  n.  120,  174-5,  IQO,  421,  424-  "•  5^8 

631,  633-4,  636-7,664 

original  submarine  electric  cable  installed  by 606 

James 421 

Franklin  Typographical  Association  — 

disbanding  of,  in  1804 40 

dissolution  of,  in  1844 200 

first  officers  of I95 

formation  of,  in  Brooklyn 536 

founding  of,  in  1844 I95 

mentioned 617,  646 

officers  of,  in  1799 37 

protest  of,  against  wage  reduction 198 

wage  scale  of I95 

Prazee,  John I75 

Freckelton,  Francis 368,  398,  584 

Fremont,  John  C 635 

Fries,  Mr 11 

Fulton,  Robert i74 

Funds  of  Union  No.  6 468-71 

Furniture  workers 21 

Gale,  Monroe  F 202,  n.  318 

Gallinger,  Hon.  Jacob  H 497 

Gamble,  Adam 18 

Ganong,  Jolm  A 668 


686  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Gardner,  Joseph  A 501 

Garibaldi,  Giuseppe 635 

Garner,  E.  M 32 

Garrison,  Wendell  Phillips 412 

William  Lloyd 412 

Gas  fitters 7 

Gatter,  Charles  E 579 

John 539 

Gazette  and  General  Advertiser.     (See  New  York  Gazette  and  General  Adver- 
tiser.) 
(See  New  York  Gazette.) 

Geary,  Mannis  J.,  biographical  sketch  of 667 

mentioned 668 

Geddcs,  Mr 1 42 

Gehring,  Charles  E 603 

General  organization  of  printers 567-82 

General  Trades  Union  of  New  York  — 

address  of  Ely  Moore  at  commemorative  exercises  of  the 165 

first  constitution  of  the 163 

officers  of  the 1 63 

formation  in  1833  of  the  original 162 

mentioned 153,  185 

objects  of  the 167 

organization  of  the,  commemorated 165 

General  Trades  Union,  organization  of  a,  urged  in  1864 589 

George,  Isaac  D 42 1 

German-American  Typographia,  amalgamation  of,  in  1894  with  the  Inter- 
national Typographical  Union 554 

mentioned 552-3 

organization  in  1873  of  the 544 

in  New  York's  public  schools,  proposition  to  abolish  teaching  of 

opposed 548 

printers,  early  organizations  of 542 

first  national  convention  of 549 

mentioned 370,  474 

number  of,  in  New  York  City  in  1850 541 

Union 288 

Typographia  No.  7,  eight-hour  working  day  demanded  in  1886  by.  .  371 

organization  in  1869  of 542 

Typographical  Union  No.  274,  charter  issued  to 552 

Gibbons,  J.  L 569 

Gifford,  William 1 75 

Gift  from  Messrs.  Childs  and  Drexel  to  the  International  Typographical 

Union 494 

Gilders 7 

Gillespy,  William 569 

Gilroy,  Hon.  Thomas  F 633 

Gird,  Henry  H 41 ,  52 

Glackin,  Everett 320,  322,  449,  668 

Gladstone,  John  E 331 

William  E 634 

Gleason,  Mr 56 

Glen,  Thomas  R 232,  234,  568 

Godkin,  E.  L 412 

Godwin,  of  Baker,  Godwin  &  Co 662 

Gold  and  silver,  workingmen  in  1834  favor  the  constitutional  currency  of .  .  184 

fluctuation  in  1864  of  premiums  on 278 

Goldmann,  Mr 546 

Gompers,  Samuel 614 

Goodwin,  Daniel 627 

Gore,  J 106 

Gott,  Benjamin 6 


INDEX.  687 

PAGE 

Government  ownership  of  printing  plant  opposed  by  union  printers  in  1850.       595 
Government  Printing  Office  — 

decrease  of  wages  of  workers  in  the 652 

establishing  in  i860  of  the n.  ^g(, 

mentioned v,  n.  201 

purchase  price  of  the n.  596 

restoration  of  wages  of  workers  in  the 653 

Grace,  Mayor  William  R.,  speech  of,  at  union  printers'  banquet  in  New 

York  City  in  1 885 580 

Graham,  John  C 31 

L 2or 

Grangers,  the n.  585 

Grant,  Gen.  Ulysses  S 634,       653 

Grattan,  William 78 

Gray,  Jeremiah n.  194,  266-8,  397,       668 

John  A 267 


Nathaniel . 
S.  A. 


42 

429 

Graydon,  William,  Jr 580 

Greeley,  Horace  — 

address  of,  at  general  meeting  of  printers  in  1850 219 

advises  printers  to  join  Franklin  Typographical  Association 197 

biographical  sketch  of 616-43 

centenary  of,  observed  by  Union  No.  6 636 

chirography  of «.  624 

close  of  the  controversy  with  the  Journal  of  Commerce  by 256 

criticism  by,  on  the  attitude  of  the  Journal  of  Commerce  in  1853 252 

death  of 625 

defense  by,  of  the  course  of  journeymen  printers  in  1851 242 

early  career  of 617 

erection  of  a  Labor  Exchange  suggested  by 62 1 

experiences  of,  as  a  tramp  printer 617 

expiration  of  term  of,  as  president  of  New  York  Printers'  Union 238 

first  president  of  New  York  Printers'  Union 205,  616 

harmony  among  journeymen  printers  urged  by 261 

initial  venture  of,  as  an  employer 618 

inscription  on  the  base  of  the  statue  of,  erected  by  union  printers ....  634 

interest  of,  in  the  general  labor  movement 620 

mentioned iv,  i,  18,  25,  n.  138,  281,  284-5,  289-91,  293-4,  «•  384 

"•  495.  592,  644,  646,  662-3,  668 

Post  No.  577,  G.  A.  R 632 

printers  rear  a  monument  to  perpetuate  the  memory  of 628 

public  reception  tendered  by  Union  No.  6  to 623 

remarks  by,  at  reception  tendered  to  him  by  Union  No.  6 624 

second  mass  meeting  of  printers  in  1850 234 

reproduction  of  first  working  card  signed  by 205 

severance  of  friendly  relations  by  union  printers  with 286 

statue  of,  erected  by  union  printers 632 

Union  No.  6  feelingly  deplores  the  demise  of 626 

renews  friendly  relations  with 295 

Greeley  Monument  Association 634 

Fund 495 

Smith,  Miss  Nixola iv 

Square,  resolution  by  Common  Council  naming 633 

Zaccheus 617 

Green,  Gen.  Duff 192-3,  421 

Peter 21 

Greenbaum,  Samuel,  Supreme  Court  Justice 379 

Greene,  General 175 

George  E 568-9 

Greenhalg,  Isaac  E -.  . 19 

Greenleaf's  New  York  Daily  Advertiser «•  37 


688  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Greenwood,  Mrs.  A.  J 565 

Gregg,  the  Rev.  James  B 497 

Gregory,  William  S 7 

Grice,  Julia 421,  435 

Grosse,  Edward 543-6,  548 

Guild,  H.  A 219,  573,  582 

Gullen,  Mr 48 

Gundlach,  William 548 

Gurowski,  Count n.  624 

Gutenberg,  Johann n.  195,  602 

Society 553 

Haegy,  Pierre  J.  B v,  n.  549 

Hague  Conference,  The 613,  615 

Haldeman,  Bruce 357,  360 

Hale,  of  Hallock,  Butler  &  Hale 250 

"  Half-way  journeymen,"  circular  in  relation  to 67 

Hall,  Bolton 485 

Richard  P 147 

&  Sellers 38 

Hallock,  Butler  &  Hale 250 

Gerard 241 

Hamer,  Miss  Mamie 612 

Hamill,  John 42 

Hamilton,  Alexander 190 

Hammill,  Thomas  J v 

Hammond,  William  J 567 

Hardcastle,  John 37 

Joshua 67 

Harding,  President 290 

William 588 

Harmon,  Robert  0 567,  623,  626 

Harness  makers 32 

Harper,  James «.  5 1 8 

Joseph  M 33 

&  Brothers 267,  300,  307,  637 

Harris,  Daniel 591 

M 6 

Harrisburg  Typographical  Union n.  206 

Hart,  Thomas 556 

Hartman,  John 568-9 

Hastings,  David 374 

Hon.  Frederick  H 586,  589 

Hugh 659 

Hat  finishers 16 

Hatten,  George 141 

Hatters 149,  473-4 

Hawkes,  Bastable  J v,  512,  533 

Charles  E 344,  374 

Hawkins'  Zouaves 650 

Hayes,  Rutherford  B 655-6 

Tilden  electoral  controversy,  important  part  taken  by  John  C.  Reid 

in  the 655 

Hays,  J.  W v,  360 

Hayward,  Billings 163-4 

Health  and  sanitation,  permanent  committee  on,  created  by  Union  No.  6 .  .  502 

Henry,  Patrick 174,  190 

Vn,  King 116 

Hepburn,  Frederick  A 201 

Herald.     (See  New  York  Herald.) 

Hester,  Col.  William 406 


INDEX.  689 

PAGE 

Hildreth,  Richard n.  624 

Hill,  Addison I95 

Gov.  David  B «•  525 

Hilliard,  Hon.  Henry  Washington «.  201 

Hoe,  Peter  S 627 

Hoffman,  Alderman  J.  Ogden 103 

Hoit,  Ichabod 86-7 

Holidays  for  working  people 522-6 

Holman,  Congressman 653 

Holme,  Randle n.  120,  n.  123 

Holmes,  Edward  A 288,  292,       668 

Home.     (See  Union  Printers'  Home.) 

Homestead  question,  discussion  in  1850  of  the 2 

Hone,  WiUiam n.  120,  re.  123 

Hopkins,  George  F 145 

Horseshoers 19 

Hosford,  E.  &  E «.  50 

Hosmer,  William 22 

Hospital  beds,  amount  paid  in  fifteen  years  by  Union  No.  6  to  maintain .  . .       510 

maintenance  of,  by  Union  No.  6  for  sick  members 500 

Hough,  Isaac 6 

Houghton,  of  Hurd  &  Houghton 304 

Hours  of  labor  — 

decrease  of,  on  newspapers  caused  by  composing  machines 371 

fixed  by  journeymen  bakers  at  twelve  daily  in  1850 24 

for  machine  composition,  number  of  per  day,  suggested  in  1890 329 

in  1893,  for  bookwork  on  composing  machines 336 

the  printing  trade  in  1851 226 

minimum  number  fixed  for  bookwork  composition 340 

movements  for  shortening 368-83 

of  book  and  job  compositors  in  1833 136 

boot  and  shoe  workers  excessive  in  1850 18 

compositors  in  1829 242 

German  printers  in  the  seventies  and  eighties 545 

journeymen  bakers  excessive  in  1850 23 

morning  newspaper  time  hands  in  1870 3^5 

newspaper  printers  e.xcessive  in  1833 108 

1850 210 

1881..  . 370 

"    ■         piece  compositors  excessive  in  1864 289 

pressmen  in  1833 136 

1851 226,       231 

tailors  excessive  in  1850 12 

"  third  shift  "  on  newspapers 340,  354,       362 

original  rule  fixing  the  minimum  number  of,  per  day  for  newspaper 

piece  composition 279-80 

reduction  of,  caused  by  introduction  of  composing  machines n.  478 

on  newspapers  in  1864 279 

House  of  Call,  opening  of  a,  by  Franklin  Typographical  Association 197 

Union  No.  6  establishes  a 452 

Housesmiths 6 

Howard,  Eva  B 421,       435 

Howell,  J 577 

Mr 116 

Howells,  William  Dean,  letter  from,  read  at  the  Greeley  centenary  exer- 
cises        637 

Hoyt,  George 22 

Huestis,  Samuel 106 

Hughes,  Archbishop 99 

Gov.  Charles  E '611 

Hugo,  Victor 615 

Huntington,  the  Rev.  James  O.  S 6lo 


690  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Hurd  &  Houghton 304 

Hyer,  Walter 36 

w 41.   51-2 

Idleness.     (See  Unemployment.) 

Illustrations,  list  of • xix 

Immigration,  assisted,  opposed  by  union  printers  in  the  thirties 109,  147 

Service,  United  States 614 

Income  tax,  levy  of  an,  by  Union  No.  6  for  beneficial  purposes 468 

Incorporation  of  New  York  Typographical  Society,  act  of 78 

Independent.     (See  New  York  Independent.) 

Indianapolis  Typographical  Union. n.  206 

Industrial  Congress  of  New  York  City  — 

first  delegates  of  Union  No.  6  to  the 592 

founding  in  1850  of  the 2,  592 

mentioned 11,  12,  16,  28 

preamble  to  the  first  constitution  of  the 592 

Ingles,  John 385 

Initiation  fee,  amount  required  for  membership  in  Union  No.  6 468 

Injunction,  issue  of  an,  against  Union  No.  6  in  1899 401 

1906 379 

Innet,  Edward 41 

Inscription  on  the  base  of  the  Horace  Greeley  statue  erected  by  union 

printers 634 

International  Allied  Printing  Trades  Association 514 

International  Copyright  Bill  — 

introduction  of  the,  by  Congressman  Amos  Jay  Cummings 652 

National  Typographical  Union  in  1858  urges  the  enactment  of  an.  .  .  .  527 

passage  by  Congress  in  1890  of  the 528 

Union  No.  6  in  1888  advocates  an 528 

International  Federation  of  Workers 545 

International  Typographical  Union  — 

advantages  to  the,  from  a  mileage  system  for  traveling  printers 534 

advocacy  in  1881  of  the  ten-hour  working  day  on  newspapers  by  the.. .  371 

charter  issued  by  the,  to  Union  No.  6 567 

convention  in  1885  of  the,  held  in  New  York  City 579 

decision  in  1873  of  the,  to  cease  chartering  women's  unions 438 

declaration  in  favor  of  woman  suffrage  by  the n.  430 

dedication  of  the  Union  Printers'  Home  by  the 497 

delegates  in  1885  from  New  York  City  to  the 580 

forbids  in  1878  the  granting  of  charters  to  women  printers 439 

general  introduction  of  the  eight-hour  working  day  ordered  by  the.  ...  377 

gift  to  the,  from  Messrs.  Childs  and  Drexel 494 

granting  of  charter  by  the,  to  Women's  Typograpliical  Union  No.  i .  .  435 

jurisdiction  over  machine-tenders  assumed  by  the 563 

laws  of  the,  regarding  mortuary  benefits 505 

mentioned iv,  v,  n.  207,  n.  295,  344,  359-60,  375,  n.  384,  438,  n.  446 

539.  542,  544.  547.  55o.  552,  556,  566,  584,  627,  646,  657-8,  666-7 

organization  in  1869  of  the 577 

pressmen  separate  from  the 558 

priority  law  enacted  in  1890  by  the 529 

repeal  in  1875  of  resolution  by  the,  to   cease    chartering    women's 

unions 439 

report  of  committee  on  proposed  amalgamation  of  German-American 

Typographia  with  the 553 

resolution  in  1896  of  the,  for  the  nine-hour  working  day  in  book  and 

job  offices 373 

resolutions  of  the,  revering  the  memory  of  Hon.  Amos  Jay  Cummings.  654 

superannuated  pension  system  adopted  by  the 493 

technical  course  in  printing  of  the 465 

union  label  issued  by  the 511 


INDEX.  691 

PAGE 

Iron  molders 19 

Irving,  Washington n.  518 

Irvington  (N.  J.)  Christian  Palladium  and  Messenger 651 

Ives  Company,  J.  J.  Little  and iv 

Jackson,  Andrew 633 

George  W 379-82,  419 

Jay,  John 190 

Jefferson,  Thomas 634 

"  Jeffing  "  described 122 

Jenkins,  E.  0 267,  303 

Jennings,  Louis  J 655 

Jersey  City  Times 663 

Jessup,  WilHam  J 591 

Jewelers 20 

Job  offices.     {See  Book  and  job  offices.) 

work,  wages  and  hours  of  labor  in  1850  of  printers  on 226,  230 

Johns,  Susie 42 1 ,  435 

Johnson,  J.  C 264 

John 116 

L.  &  Co 494 

Johnston,  George  Y 203,  205 

John 42 

S 69 

Joint  Conference  Committee,  settlement  of  1 869  strike  by  a 303 

Jonas,  Dr.  Alexander 548 

Jones,  George 289,  292,  405 

Gilbert 405 

Lewis  Thomas 163 

S.  P 262 

W.  B 28 

&  Rogers ~ 389 

Tones'  Wood 623 

Journal  of  Commerce.     {See  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce.) 

{See  New  York  Journal.) 

Journeymen  Printers'  Co-operative  Association 591 

Kain,  Edward  J 417 

Karnes,  William 8 

Kaufman,  Mr 546 

Kelby,  Robert  H iv 

Keller,  Hon.  John  W 500,  603,  634,  653 

Kellogg,  H.  N 357.  360 

Kells,  David 668 

Kelly,  Comptroller  John 390 

W.  T 567 

William  T 202 

Kennaday,  Paul 501-2 

Kennedy,  Thomas 78-9 

Kenney ,  John  A 668 

the  Rev.  Edward 610 

Kent,  John 259 

Kerridge,  the  Rev.  Philip  Markham 654 

Keyser,  John  F 568-9 

Miss  Harriette  A n.  610-1 1 

Kiefer,  Dean  A.  R 497 

Kiernan,  Thomas 8 

Kildare,  WilHam 219 

ICindelon,  Owen  J v,  418,  n.  451,  603.  654 


692  INDEX. 

PAGE 

King,  Charles «.  518 

George 67 

Henry  VII 116 

Kivlen,  Michael 439 

Kjelgaard,  J.  W 485 

Knights  of  Labor 392-3 

Knopf,  Doctor 501 

Knox,  General 1 75 

Konig,  Mr 546 

Kom,  Mr 546 

Kossuth,  Louis 635 

Krauth,  Augustus  H 155 

La  Crosse  (Wis.)  Sun 661 

Label.     {See  Union  label.) 

Labor  combinations,  transitory 34 

conditions,  effect  of  discovery  of  gold  in  California  on i 

Labor   Day — 

first  demonstration  by  workingmen  on 522 

legalization  of,  in  New  York  State 522 

number  of  New  York  printers  in  the  1887  parade  on 523 

resolutions  of  the  New  York  Board  of  Aldermen  relative  to 522 

turnout  of  New  York  workingmen  in  1887  on 522 

Labor  enters  politics 175 

movement,  affiliation  of  Union  No.  6  with  the  general 585-94 

rise  of  the  modem,  in  1850 1-33 

newspaper,  a  i-cent  daily,  established  by  trade  unions  in  1836 153 

pastoral  letter  of  the  Rt.  Rev.  Henry  C.  Potter  on  the  subject  of 608 

Temple,  idea  of  a,  originates  with  printers  in  1835 153 

Laborers,  building 8 

Labor's  first  Congressman 184 

Lafayette,  General 152 

Lane,  John  F 636 

Lang,  John 148 

Lassalle,  Ferdinand  Johann  Gottlieb 544 

Lathrop,  Gen.  Austin 520-1 

Laughlin,  Frank  C,  Supreme  Court  Justice 382 

Lawlessness,  Union  No.  6  abhors  acts  of 293 

Leather  dressers 150 

Lee,  Gen.  Robert  E 635 

Leech,  Mr 12 

Lees,  Henry 271 ,  273 

Leibman,  M 584 

Leslie,  Frank 663 

Leslie's  Weekly 627 

LeweUen,  J.  Richard 573 

Lewis,  Judge  Ellis,  biographical  sketch  of 100-2 

mentioned 499,  518 

Miss  Augusta,  address  by,  to  the  International  Typographical  Union 

in  1871 437 

chosen  corresponding  secretary   of   the  International 

Typographical  Union  in  1870 436 

mentioned n.  207,  421,  432-3,  435 

Library  formed  by  union  printers  in  1834 151 

Lilienthal,  Doctor 548 

Lincke,  George  H 41 

Lincoln,  Abraham 99.  633-5,  637,  666 

Linesay  &  Bros 267 

Linotype  machines.     {See  Composing  machines.) 

Litchfield,  Elisha 178 


INDEX.  693 

PAGE 

Little,  Andrew 627 

Brown  &  Co 304 

Hon.  Joseph  J.,  biographical  sketch  of 665-6 

mentioned iv,  342,  374-5,  603 

J.  J.,  and  Ives  Company iv 

of  Farmer,  Little  &  Co 627 

&  Co.,  J.J 345-6 

Lockout,  printers'  first,  in  1809 48 

Locks,  manufacture  of,  in  prisons  dangerous  to  public  safety 182 

Lockwood,  Howard,  &  Co 660 

London  Craftsman 115,  124 

Review  of  Reviews 613 

Times 242 

Long's  printing  ofiSce 67 

Longshoremen 389,  485 

Loomis,  Aphaxad 1 78 

Lovejoy,  the  Rev.  Elijah  P n.  188 

Low,  Hon.  Seth 346,  603,  61 1 

Lowenstein,  M.  J 344 

Ludlam,  George  T 32 

James  H 32 

Luken,  George  McKay 578 

Lycett,  William v 

Lynch,  James  M.,  address  of,  on  the  history  of  the  union  label 511 

nientioned 344,  346,  352,  357,  360 

views  of,  on  the  priority  law  of  the  International  Typo- 
graphical Union 532 

technical  training  in  printing 466 

Raymond 569 

Lynde,  V/illoughby 163 

McAllister,  J.  W 329 

McBeath,  James 163 

McCabe,  John  F 636 

William v,  522 

McCaflferty,  Robert 21 

McCartney,  William  H 141,  145,  152,  160 

McCormick,  Patrick  H 352,  379-82,  406,  668 

McCreery,  John 116 

McDevitt,  Charles 98,  loi,  202,  n.  206,  222,  507 

McDonald,  Peter 235,  568-9 

William 163 

McDougal,  William 67 

McElrath,  Thomas i,  287,  616,  619-20 

McElroy ,  William  H 643 

McGovern,  Edward 329 

McGrath,  William 627 

McGuire,  P.  J n.  585 

McHale,  Thomas  F 584 

Mcllvaine,  Bishop 99 

McKay,  George  A v,  417-18,  522,  668 

McKechnie,  Robert,  biographical  sketch  of 648-51 

mentioned 415,  434,  582,  585,  624,  626-7,  668 

remarks  by,  at  reception  to  Horace  Greeley 623 

McKenna,  James 497,  582 

McKinley,  John,  Jr v,  81 

McLaren,  Bishop 497 

McLean,  Andrew 643 

Mrs.  James  R 565 

McLoughlin,  John  E 584 

McManus,  Henry  P n.  287 

WilUam  B 668 


694  INDEX. 

PAGE 

McNamara,  Michael  H 668 

McPeake,  James 7 

Machine-tenders  — 

apprentices,  wage  scale  of 462,  465 

book  and  job,  wage  rates  of,  in  1910-12 366 

branch  of,  attached  to  Union  No.  6 563 

introduction  of  the  trade  of,  into  the  printing  industry 558 

jurisdiction  over,  assumed  by  the  International  Typographical  Union.  563 
negotiations  regarding,  between  international  organizations  of  ma- 
chinists and  printers 559 

newspaper,  wage  rates  of,  in  1910 363 

wage  scale  of,  established  in  1898 341 

Machinery 19 

Machines.     (See  Composing  machines.) 

Machinists 558-63 

Mack  &  Andrews 81 

Mackay,  Angus  F 603 

Madison,  President  James 41 ,  190 

Mahoney,  John 627 

Mail  and  Express.     {See  New  York  Mail  and  Express.) 

Mailers 512-13 

Maine  Monument  Fund,  contribution  of  Union  No.  6  to  the 606 

Manlius  Onondaga  County  Republican 100 

Manual  labor  school,  erection  of  a,  in  Washington,  to  teach  printing  trade .  '  193 

Marble  cutters 8 

Mariners'  compass,  utility  of  the 171 

Marot,  Miss  Helen 612 

Marsden,  James 627 

Marsh,  Hon.  George  P «.  83 

Martin,  W.  C 297 

Martling,  A.  B 37 

Masons 36 

operative 11 

Master  printers.     {See  Printers,  employing.) 

Mathew,  Father  Theobald 635 

Matrices,  borrowing  of,  prohibited 339 

Maune,  Oswald 365 

Maxwell,  Charles  M v,  355,  359,  668 

May,  S.  S 250 

Meagher,  Edward 329 

Thomas  Francis 635 

Mechanic  arts,  influence  of  the,  on  society 169 

Mechanical  genius,  republics  develop 173 

Members  of  Union  No.  6,  not  recipients  of  public  charity 481 

report  on  the  physical  condition  of 503 

Membership   in   subordinate   unions,   recommendation   of   the   National 

Typographical  Union  that  employers  be  admitted  to 414 

of  New  York  Printers'  Union  during  1850 413 

Typographical  Society  in  1809-10 42 

Membership  of  Union  No.  6  — 

at  the  beginning  of  the  1906  eight -hour  strike 419 

end  of  September,  191 1 413 

effect  of  the  1906  strike  on  the 419 

growth  of  the,  after  the  estabUshment  of  the  office  of  organizer 418 

since  the  introduction  of  composing  machines n.  478 

through  special  efforts  in  1883 416 

increase  of  the,  after  the  Civil  War 415 

through  a  general  amnesty  in  1868 416 

loss  of,  during  the  Civil  War 415 

panic  of  1857  depletes  the 413 

table  of  the,  from  January  i,  1850,  to  April  i,  191 1 420 

trade  dispute  and  hard  times  in  1876  cause  a  decrease  of  the 416 


INDEX.  695 

PAGE 

Memphis  Typographical  Union n.  206 

Mercantile  Advertiser.     {See  New  York  Mercantile  Advertiser.) 

Mercer,  Hon.  David  H 654 

Mercury.     (See  New  York  Mercury.) 

Mesier,  Alderman  Peter  A 102 

Metals,  machinery  and  shipbuilding 19 

workers  in  precious 20 

Methodist  Book  Concern 300,  650 

Metropolitan  Book  and  Job  office 300 

MeyerhofiF,  J 627 

Mileage  system  for  traveling  printers,  suggestion  by  Union  No.  6  of  a. .  .  .  533 

Milholland,  John  E 394-5.  603 

Miller,  Hugo v,  357,  360,  550 

James  A.,  M.  D 502 

Millville  (N.  J.)  Transcript n.  495 

Miners,  coal 474 

Ming,  John 36 

Mirror.     (See  New  York  Mirror.) 

Miscellaneous  trades 31 

Mitchell,  John 359 

Molders,  iron 19 

Molineux,  William 568 

Monaghan,  Bartholomew  D 8 

Money,  bonds  and  certificates.  Union  No.  6  objects  to  the  use  of  steam 

presses  by  the  Government  to  print 608 

workingmen  in  1834  object  to  the  issuance  of  paper 184 

Monroe,  James 187 

Monthly  Bulletin,  Union  No.  6  begins  the  publication  of  the 470 

Moon,  David  H v 

Moore,  Ely  — 

address  by,  at  commemorative  exercises  of  the  New  York  General 

Trades  Union 1 65 

biographical  sketch  of 177-91 

fulfillment  of  a  dire  prophecy  by 1 90 

honors  conferred  upon 191 

Labor's  first  Congressman 184 

mentioned 1 63-4 

speech  of,  against  national  banking  system 187 

favoring  the  doctrine  of  State  rights 190 

Moore,  George  H 634 

Morbidity  benefits.     (See  Benefits,  morbidity.) 

Morgan  Iron  Works,  strike  in  the 19 

Morning  Journal.     {See  New  York  Morning  Journal.) 
Post.     {See  New  York  Morning  Post.) 

Morocco  dressers  and  finishers 32 

Morris,  Gen.  George  P 82,  loi 

Jacob 36 

Morse,  Prof.  Samuel  F.  B 606 

Mortuary  benefits.     {See  Benefits,  mortuary.) 

Mott,  Jacob  S 81 

Moulton,  John  W 106,  163-4,  ^95 

Mounce,  William v 

Movements  for  higher  wages 208-367 

Moxon,  Joseph .- n.  118,  n.120 

Munsell,  Joel n.  120,  n.123 

JVIurphy,  James  J  — 

address  of,  on  "  Organized  Labor,  the  Advocate  of  Peace  " 614 

mentioned v,  355,  358,  373,  395,  463,  500,  613,  653,  668 

Murray,  Dennis 32 

Mr 48 

R 627 


696  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Nathan,  Marcus 603 

Nalional  Arbitration  and  Peace  Congress 613 

banking  system 187 

Civic  Federation 359 

National  Convention  of  Journeymen  Printers  — 

delegates  in  1850  from  New  York  City  to  the 568 

1851  from  New  York  City  to  the 573 

in  1850,  address  issued  by  the 570 

assembling  in  New  York  City  of  the 568 

second  meeting  of  the,  in  Baltimore,  Md 570 

National  Guard,   Union   No.   6  defeats  constitutional   amendment  for- 
bidding members  to  join  the 605 

Labor  Congress 429,  n.  430 

National  Labor  Union  — 

alliance  of  the,  with  the  Patrons  of  Husbandry  and  the  Grangers. .  .  .  n.  586 

delegate  from  Union  No.  6  to  the  1 868  congress  of  the 585 

1 869  congress  of  the 586 

original  congress  in  1866  of  the 585 

printer-delegates  in  the  1 868  congress  of  the 585 

National  Printers'  Union,  permanent  organization  of  a,  opposed  in  1851 . .  573 
Trade   Union.     (See  New  York  National  Trade  Union.) 

Trades  Union 1 77 

Typographical  Association,  second  annual  convention  in  1837  of  the.  .  160 
National  Typographical  Convention  of  1836  — 

general  appeal  to  printers  by  the 157 

mentioned 155 

regulation  of  apprenticeship  by  the 156 

traveling  cards  authorized  by  the 157 

National  Typographical  Union  — 

address    by    President    McKechnie    to   the,  favoring  recognition  of 

women  printers 434 

becomes  the  International  Typographical  Union  in  1869 577 

charter  issued  by  the,  to  Union  No.  6 201 

Women's  Typographical  Union  No.  i 421 

convention  in  1854  of  the,  resolves  not  to  encourage  the  employment 

of  women  printers 424 

1862  of  the,  held  in  New  York  City 578 

1867  of  the,  favors  the  eight-hour  working  day 368 

submits  to  locals  the  question  of  women  printers .  429 

delegates  from  the,  to  the  1868  Congress  of  the  National  Labor  Union .  585 

in  1852  from  New  York  City  to  the 577 

1862  from  New  York  City  to  the 578 

founding  in  1852  of  the,  in  Cincinnati,  0 577 

general  amnesty  in  1868  of  the 416 

lots    drawn    in    the    1852  convention  of  the,  to  determine  charter 

numbers  of  subordinate  unions 206 

mentioned iv,  262,  295,  301,  397,  n.  432,  474,  516,  536,  538 

576,  580,  644,  648,  650,  n.  652 
petition  in  1853  to  the,  to  charter  New  York  Printers'  Co-operative 

Union 266 

1854  to  the,  to  charter  New  York  Printers'  Co-operative 

Union 271 

powers  of  foremen  defined  in  1858  by  the 529 

question  of  a  Printers'  Home  first  submitted  to  the 495 

reasons  for  the  non-assembling  in  1861  of  the 578 

recommendation  of  the,  that  employers  be  admitted  to  full  member- 
ship in  subordinate  unions 414 

refusal  in  1853  of  the,  to  charter  the  Printers'  Co-operative  Union .  .  .  269 

1854  of  the,  to  charter  the  Printers'  Co-operative  Union..  .  274 

i860  of  the  president  of  the,  to  charter  Brooklyn  printers...  537 

report  on  strike  of  1869  made  to  the,  by  President  McKechnie 303 

National  Women's  Trade  Union  League 612 

Nesbitt,  George  F.  &  Co 245-6,  300,  627,  667 


INDEX.  697 

PAGE 

New  Haven  Belles-Lettres  Respository 82 

Daily  Union «.  432 

Palladium 656 

New  York  Albion 660 

American 144.       359 

Citizen 48 

A rbeiter   Union 542,       545 

BoycoUer 388,  391 ,  658-9 

Columbian «.  87 

Commercial  Advertiser,  extract  from  the 132 

mentioned 100,  618,  627,  637-8,       659 

Courier loi 

and  Enquirer,   comments  of  the,  on  the  strike  of  its  printers 

in  1853 247 

mentioned 246 

Daily  Advertiser loi ,       144 

Greenleaf 's w.  37 

Express I97 

News,  mentioned 294,  552,  645,       666 

novel  suggestion  by  the,  to  promote  industrial  peace .  . .       293 

Day  Book,  comment  of  the,  on  the  strike  of  its  printers  in  1853 246 

mentioned 422 

Demokrat 546,       548 

Diary,  or  Evening  Register «•  36 

Era «•  432 

Evening  Call 330 

Express 651 

Mirror 242,       244 

Post,  mentioned 177,  239,  n.  518,       618 

strike  in  1883  on  the 407-12 

5mm 330.  401.  449.       651 

World 330 

Express 224,      390 

Gazette 141 

and  General  Advertiser,  extract  from  the 147 

General  Trades  Union.     (See  General  Trades  Union  of  New  York.) 
Herald,  article  from  the,  on  the  eight-hour  demonstration  in  1871. . . .       369 
excerpt  from  the,  anent  the  death  of  John  R.  O'Donnell ....       657 
mentioned.  3,  196^  n.  202,  281,  n.  318,  323-4,  n.  625,  627,  656,  666-7 

Historical  Society iv 

Independent «.  433 

Journal 54^.       548 

^  of  Commerce  becomes  a  union  office 305 

comment  of  the,  on  the  strike  of  printers  in  1851       240 

mentioned 144,  197,  243-4,  246,  252-4,  256-8 

renewal  of  its  opposition  to  Printers'  Union  in  1853       249 

reply  of  the,  to  the  Tribune's  strictures 254 

strike  in  1851  of  printers  employed  by  the 239 

Journeymen  Printers'  Co-operative  Association,  delegate  from  the, 

to  the  1868  Congress  of  the  National  Labor  Union 585 

Mail  and  Express,  strike  in  1883  on  the 407 

Mercantile  Advertiser 38 

Mercury 627 

Mirror 82,  246 

Morning  Journal 55i~2 

Post 67,  618 

National  Trade  Union I77 

Oestliche  Post 54^-7 

Pick 267 

Press 449 

Press  Club 500,      644 


698  INDEX. 

PAGE 

New  York  Presse 546 

New  York  Printers'  Co-operative  Union  — 

decision  in   1853  of  the,  to  appeal  to  the  National  Typographical 

Union 263 

dissolution  of  the,  in  1857 275 

first  officers  of  the 262 

formation  in  1853  of  the 261 

membership  in  1853  of  the 271 

petition  in  1853  of  the,  to  the  National  Typographical  Union  for  a 

charter 266 

1854  of  the,  to  the  National  Typographical  Union  for  a 

charter 271 

wage  scale  adopted  in  1853  by  the,  for  book  and  job  printers. . .   261,  264 
New  York  Printers'  Union  — 

becomes  New  York  Typographical  Union  No.  6 206 

benefits  provided  by  the 204-5 

dues  and  assessments  of  the .  .  . 205 

first  officers  of  the 205 

scale  committee  appointed  by  the 223 

wage  scale  proclaimed  by  the 226-32 

initial  constitution  of  the 203 

mentioned n.  616,  646 

motives  that  impelled  the  organization  of  the 202 

organization  in  1 850  of  the 201 

preliminary  meeting  to  discuss  the  formation  of  the 203 

report  of  committee  appointed  by  the,  to  investigate  the  state   of 

trade  in  1850 209 

reproduction  of  the  first  working  card  issued  by  the 205 

resolutions  passed  by  the,  honoring  the  memory  of  President  Zachary 

Taylor 605 

New  York  Printing  Co 300 

Public  Advertiser 67 

Recorder 333,  445,  656 

Revolution,  extract  from  the,  relative  to  women  printers 430 

mentioned 431,  433 

Shoe  and  Leather  Reporter 658 

Spirit  of  the  Times 618 

Staats-Zeitung 344,  546-7 

Star 389-90 

State  Allied  Printing  Trades  Council.     {See  Allied  Printing  Trades 
Council,  State.) 

Federation  of  Labor 592 

Workingmen's  Assembly.     (See  Workingmen's  Assembly  of  the 
State  of  New  York.) 

conventions 586 

Stereotype  Association 267 

Sun,  comments  of  the,  on  the  strike  of  its  printers  in  1853 248 

controversies  of  the,  with  Union  No.  6 396-402 

editorial  of  the,  on  the  1887  Labor  Day  parade 523 

mentioned.  .245-6,  278,  323,  n.  390,  n.  470,  n.  624,  627,  645,  651,663-4. 

refusal  of  the,  to  reduce  wages  of  compositors  in  the  seventies. .  663 

settlement  in  1864  of  the  dispute  with  the 398 

1902  of  the  dispute  with  the 402 

strike  in  1852  on  the 396 

1899  on  the 399 

Sunday  Dispatch 245 

Tages-Nachrichten 546,  548 

The  Man 184-5 

War 82 

to  Washington  in  1836,  cost  of  and  time  consumed  in  trip  from 159-60 

Times,  advertisement  of  the,  for  printers 286 

mentioned 137,  281,  292,  295,  n.  318,  323,  449,  627,  655-6 


INDEX.  699 

New  York   Times — {Continued)  page 

strike  in  1876  on  the 404 

1883  on  the 404 

New  York  Tribune  — 

answer  of  the,  to  a  correspondent  relative  to  cost  of  living 285 

article  from  the,  concerning  co-operative  shop  of  journeymen  bakers. .  25 

close  of  the  controversy  of  the,  with  the  Journal  of  Commerce 256 

comment  of  the,  on  the  incipient  riot  of  1850 14-15 

strike  of  its  compositors  in  1864 291 

criticism  of  the,  on  the  attitude  of  the  Journal  of  Commerce  in  1851 .  .  243 

editorial  from  the,  criticising  the  Journal  of  Commerce 252 

extract  from  the,  regarding  printers'  wages 284 

first  issue  of  the 619 

mentioned.  . .  i,  196-7,  202,  205,  223-4,  236,  246-7,  254-6,  281,  283,  288-90 

300,  n.  318,  422,  425-6,  507,  616,  620-1,  625,  627,  638,  643-6,  651 

657,  659-60,  662-4 
opinion  expressed  by  the,  on  the  second  revision  of  the  printers'  wage 

scale  in  1864 282 

settlement  in  1892  of  the  strike  on  the 392 

staff  in  the  early  fifties  of  the i 

strike  in  1852  on  the 384 

1864  on  the 286 

1877  on  the 386 

1883  on  the 387 

1894  on  the 393 

strikes  on  the 384-96 

suggestion  of  the,  for  a  Joint  Committee  of  Arbitration 293 

views  of  the,  regarding  the  printers'  strike  in  1864 287 

New  York  Typographical  Association.     {See  Tvpographical  Association  of 

New  York.) 
New  York  Typographical  Society  — 

ceases  to  be  a  trade  union 80 

circular  of  the,  to  master  printers  regarding  "  half-way  journeymen  " .  67 

decadence  of  the,  as  a  trade  union 75 

demand  in  18 19  of  the,  for  an  additional  tariff  on  imported  books.  .  .  527 

first  anniversary  of  the 84 

by-laws  of  the 45 

officers  of  the 41-2 

funds  of  the 73 

geographical  jurisdiction  of  the 47 

history  of  the,  1809-1818 41-104 

illustrious  members  of  the 81 

initial  constitution  of  the 42 

membership  of  the,  in  1809-10 42 

mentioned. .  v,  107,  n.  120,  190,  201,  n.  206,  222,  245,  424,  507,  516,  n.  621 

646 

protective  powers  of  the,  removed  by  act  of  incorporation 78 

urges  uniform  wage  rates  in  all  localities  in  18 15 6.1. 

wage  scale  of  the,  in  1809 57 

1815 62 

New  York  Typographical  Union  No.  6.     {See  Typographical  Union  No.  6.) 

Union  and  Transcript 145 

a  I -cent  daily  labor  newspaper  established  in  1836 153 

Printer 388 

and  American  Craftsman,  excerpt  from,  concerning 

strike  of  printers  in  1864 n.  287 

Unionist,  article  from  the,  on  the  death  of  John  W.  Touhey 658 

Volks-Zeitung 548 

World,  comment  of  the,  on  the  strike  of  newspaper  compositors  in 

1889 326 

mentioned 323,  337,  429-30,  627,  650,  656,  667 

reasons   assigned   by   the,   for  dismissing   its    women    com- 
positors in  1 800 43 1 


700  INDEX. 

New  York  World — {Continued)  page 

strike  in  1867  on  the 402 

1878  on  the 403 

1 883  on  the 403 

New  Yorker,  the 206,  617,  619,  638 

Newberger,  Joseph  E.,  Supreme  Court  Justice 380 

Newman,  Nathan 603 

William n.  194 

Newspaper,  proposal  in  1894  to  establish  a  daily  for  the  benefit  of  un- 
employed printers 48 1 

work,  wages  and  hours  of  labor  of  printers  on,  in  1851 226,  229-30 

writers 513 

Niles,  Hon.  William  W 634 

Nine-and-one-half-hour  working  day  — 

adoption  of  the,  for  book  and  job  printers 374 

general  inauguration  of  the,  in  1898  in  book  and  job  oflBces 376 

Nine-hour  working  day  — 

adoption  in  1893  of  the,  for  machine  operators  on  bookwork 336 

book  and  job  printers  move  for  the 372-6 

demand  in  1896  by  the  International  Typographical  Union  for  the..  373 

general  inauguration  of  the,  in  1899  in  book  and  job  offices 376 

Numerical  strength  and  upbuilding  efforts  of  Union  No.  6 413-20 

O'Beirne,  Gen.  James  R 653 

O'Brien,  William  J .     591 

O'Connell,  John  S v 

P.J V 

O'Donnell,  John  R.,  biographical  sketch  of 656-8 

mentioned  ....   387,  403,  405,  412,  416-17,  500,  598,  667-8 

O'Neill,  Thomas 41 .  52 

O'Reilly,  Miss  Leonora 614 

Oberly,  John  H 495,  516,       538 

Oestliche  Post.     {See  New  York  Oestliche  Post.) 

Officers  of  Union  No.  6,  salaries  of 471 

Official  Annual  of  Union  No.  6,  for  1892 »•  36,  k.  39 

Ogden,  Henry  T_. 573,  n.  574 

Operators,  machine.     {See  Composing  machine  operators.) 

Oppenheimer,  Sigmund v 

Order  of  Faust,  The,  founding  of,  in  1843 567 

Organizations  in  the  building  industry  in  1795 36 

Organizer,  creation  in  1895  by  Union  No.  6  of  the  office  of 418 

Original  organization  of  typographers 34 

Ottarson,  Franklin  J.,  biographical  sketch  of 646-7 

mentioned..    195,198,237-8,262,568,573,582,645,  668 
Out-of-work  benefits.     {See  Benefits,  unemployment.) 

Overtime  law,  enactment  of  an,  in  the  interest  of  the  unemployed 481 

newspaper  apprentices  forbidden  to  work 463 

rates  on  newspapers,  establishment  of,  in  1907 358 

work,  agreement  as  to,  in  all-machine  offices 342 

readjustment  of,  in  1897  for  job  compositors 340 

regulation  of,  on  newspapers  in  1897 339 

Pabst,  Louis 553 

Packard,  Robert 36 

&  Van  Benthuysen 100 

Paddock,  Mrs 664 

Paddon,  William  B 163 

Page,  Senator  Alfred  R 611 

Painters  and  decorators 7 

coach 21,  588 

window  shade 23 

Palmer,  J.  W 42 


INDEX. 


701 


PAGE 

Panic  of  1837,  effect  of  the,  on  the  printing  trade 138,  193 

1857,  depletion  of  the  ranks  of  Union  No.  6  caused  by  the .'  413 

effect  of  the,  on  industry 275 

unemployment  of  printers  during  the 474 

1873,  effect  of  the,  on  the  membership  of  Union  No.  6 416 

the  industrial ^05 

1893,  distress  caused  by  the 477 

effect  of  the,  on  printers'  wages 338 

Paper  money,  workingmen  in  1834  object  to  the  issuance  of 184 

Parker,  W.  C [_  312 

Parsons,  Joseph 163 

Parton,  James 620 

Pasko,  Wesley  Washington,  biographical  sketch  of 659-60 

mentioned n.  297,  321,  520,  627 

tribute  by,  to  the  memory  of  Horace  Greeley  625 

Patrons  of  Husbandry «.  585 

Patterson,  Mrs.  Phebe 422 

Paul,  Abraham loi 

Payne,  Hulbert 540 

Payson,  Congressman 652 

Peace  among  nations,  espousal  of,  by  Union  No.  6 613 

workingmen's  mass  meeting  to  promote 613 

Peake,  Robert 264 

Pearce,  Grafton 268-9 

Peck,  Hon.  George  Wilbur,  biographical  sketch  of 660-1 

letter  from,  to  Union  No.  6 661 

Peck's  Sun 661 

Pensions,  amount  of,  paid  by  Union  No.  6 510 

for  superannuated  union  printers 492-4 

People's  Institute 612 

Peregoy ,  John  W 568-9 

Person,  J.  D 163 

Petition  of  Printers'  Co-operative  Union  for  a  charter  in  1853 266 

1854 271 

Pettit,  William  E v 

Philadelphia  Daily  News 426 

Gazette 38 

North  A  merican 426 

Printers'  Circular n.  495,  n.  624,  646 

Public  Ledger 494,  499 

Typographic  Advertiser,  idea  of  a  Printers'  Home  suggested  by  the. . .  494 

Typographical  Society 40,  51,  53,  59-60,  64-5,  421 

Union n.  206,  428 

Philbin,  Martin 32 

PhiHips,  Mr 415 

Wendell n.  188 

Philp,  William 303 

Photo-engravers 513-14,  584 

Pick.     {See  New  York  Pick.) 

Piecework,  abolition  of,  in  newspaper  offices  using  composing  machines.. .  335 

Pierce,  N.  R 423 

President 191 

Pigott,  James  R v 

Pipe  makers,  tobacco 32 

Pittsburgh  Typographical  Union n.  206 

Plumbers 474 

and  gas  fitters 7 

Poems  by  Samuel  Woodworth 83-9 

Poer,  Robert  M 289 

Political  action  taken  by  Union  No.  6 388,  402 

PoHtics,  women  in  1850  urged  to  enter 17 

Polk,  President 191 


702  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Pool.  A.  C 573 

Poole,  Mr 142 

Poore,  Ben  Perley 201 

Porters,  public 32 

Potter,  the  Rt.  Rev.  Henry  C,  mentioned 500,  610-1 1 

pastoral  letter  of,  on  Labor 608 

Potts,  John  H 106 

Powderly,  Hon.  Terence  V 614 

Powell,  Mme.  Alma  Webster 637 

Preface iii 

Prendergast,  R.  B 374 

Prescott,  W.  B _. 512 

Presidents  of  Typographical  Union  No.  6,  list  of 668 

Press  feeders,  mentioned 512-13 

strike  of,  in  1887 318 

freedom  of  the,  Union  No.  6  protests  against  interference  with  the. .  .  607 
(See  New  York  Press.) 
Presse.     {See  New  York  Presse.) 

Pressmen,  alliance  of  international  unions  of 558 

hours  of  labor  of,  in  1 833 136 

1851 226,  231 

mentioned 59,  62,  108,  370.  375,  455,  512-14,  556-8,  579,  584,  666 

offer  of,  to  assist  printers  in  1869  strike 301 

rival  unions  of 557 

strike  of,  in  1887 318 

wages  of,  in  1809 58 

1815 62 

1833 136 

1851 226,  231 

1853 261,  264 

1864 280 

Washington  in  1815 95 

Prindle,  William  H 205,  222 

Printers  accord  financial  support  to  trades  on  strike  in  the  thirties 149 

apprentices,  initiation  of,  into  trade  mysteries 125 

benefits  established  in  the  thirties  by 112 

Brooklyn,  attempt  of  to  form  a  union  in  i860 536 

unsuccessful  strike  of,  in  1867 538 

Circular.     {See  Philadelphia  Printers'  Circular.) 

discourage  incompetent  workmanship 109 

Printers,  employing  — 

adniission  of,  to  subordinate  unions  recommended  by  the  National 

Typographical  Union 414 

counter  scale  of  prices  adopted  by,  in  1809 54 

1869 299 

list  of,  that  employed  members  of  the  Printers'  Co-operative  Union 

in  1853 267 

object  to  demands  of  New  York  Printers'  Co-operative  Union 263 

union  scale  of  1850  rejected  by  a  majority  of 225 

views  of,  on  the  strike  of  book  and  job  compositors  in  1869 298 

wage  scale  adopted  in  1876  by 307 

Printers  eschew  religious  discussion  at  union  meetings 151 

establish  a  library  in  1834 151 

excess  of,  in  1 864 282 

farm,  amount  expended  to  maintain  the 510 

experiences  on  the,  at  Bound  Brook,  N.J 488 

for  idle  members  of  Union  No.  6 484-92 

opening  of  the,  at  Pelham  Bay  Park 486 

physical  and  moral  benefits  derived  from  life  on  the 487 

project  abandoned 492 

first  lockout  of,  in  1809 •.  .  48 

national  convention  of  journeymen 155 


INDEX.  703 

Printers  —  {Conlinued)  page 

first  strike  of,  in  America 35 

German.     {See  German  printers.) 
Home.     {See  Union  Printers'  Home.) 

Printers'  League  of  America  — 

agreement  of  the,  with  Union  No.  6 365 

apprenticeship  rules  approved  by  the 464 

founding  of  the 364 

scale  of  prices  of  1910  accepted  by  the 367 

Printers,  mass  meeting  of,  in  1859  to  upbuild  Union  No.  6 413 

mileage  system  for  traveling 533 

modem,  practice  ancient  printing-house  customs 120 

New  York,  assist  Boston  craftsmen  on  strike  in  1849 202 

not  any  in  State  prisons  in  the  early  fifties «•  518 

number  of,  in  New  York  City  in  1850 210 

Ode,"  poem  by  Samuel  Woodworth 87 

propose  use  of  traveling  cards  in  181 6 72 

protest  against  reduction  of  wages  in  1837 139 

strike  of  1864,  mass  meeting  of  workingmen  to  express  sympathy 

with  the 288 

suggest  original  central  labor  organization  in  New  York  City 162 

The,"  Bamett's.     {See  "  The  Printers,"  Bamett's.) 

tmemployment  of,  during  the  War  of  18 12 70 

in  1834 138 

Union.     {See  New  York  Printers'  Union.) 

unions  in  the  eighteenth  century 34 

wages  in  Boston  in  1849 201 

1800 39 

the  eighteenth  century 36 

{See  also  Compositors.) 

Printing,  advance  in  the  art  of,  noted  in  1802 40 

all  arts  preserved  by 171 

and  Independence,"  poem  by  vSamuel  Woodworth 89 

difficulties  of  introducing  technical  training  in 466 

exposition  to  commemorate  the  fiftieth  anniversar>'  of  Union  No.  6.  .  602 

International  Typographical  Union's  technical  course  in 465 

plant,  Government  ownership  of,  opposed  by  union  printers  in  1850..  595 

of  Rivington's  Gazette  destroyed «•  35 

public.     {See  Public  printing.) 

Printing  trade  — 

condition  of  the,  in  the  thirties 107 

ease  of  competition  a  curse  in  the 220 

effect  of  the  War  of  1812  on  the 60 

erection  of  a  manual  training  school  in  Washington  to  teach  the.  ...  193 

inharmony  in  1853  invades  the 262 

low  ebb  in  1849  of  the  Boston 201 

report  of  committee  in  1850  on  the  state  of  the 209 

Printing  Trades  Council.     {See  Allied  Printing  Trades  Council.) 

Priority  law  — 

adoption  of  the,  to  insure  equality  of  rights 53^ 

enforcement  of  the,  in  New  York  City  confined  to  newspaper  offices..  530 

International  Typographical  Union  in  1890  enacts  a 529 

membership  votes  against  repeal 

of  the 532 

repeal  of  the,  requested  by  Union  No.  6 53 1 

views  of  President  James  M.  Lynch  of  the  International  Typograph- 
ical Union  on  the 532 

Prison  labor  — 

abolition  of  the  contract  system  of,  demanded  by  union  workmen 591 

act  of  1868  nullifying  contract  for  printing  by «•  5^7 

agitation  in  1834  against  contract i77 

by  contract,  agitation  against  the  introduction  of,  in  Kings  County 

Penitentiary 518,  548 

Commission  of  1886 5^9 


704  INDEX. 

Prison  labor — (Continued)  page 

making  of  imported  articles  by  convicts  suggested  as  a  solution  of...  i8i 

New  York  constitution  forbids  competitive i86,       521 

piece-price  system 519 

public  account  system 519 

report  of  Commission  appointed  in  1834  to  inquire  into  the  effect  of 

contract 178 

study  of 516-21 

Prisons  — 

act  of  1890  restricting  printing  or  typesetting  in 520 

manufacture  of  locks  in  New  York 182 

use  of  motive  power  machinery  forbidden  for  manufacturing  purposes 

in- 519 

Proofreaders,  mentioned 455 

newspaper,  twelve-hour  working  day  in  1851  for 368 

union  men  to  be  employed  as 358 

wage  scale  of,  in  1907 357-8 

wages  of,  in  1891 330 

wages  of ,  in  1 872 305 

Protective  trade  union  for  book  and  job  printers,  formation  of  a,  suggested.  259 
Public  Advertiser.     (See  New  York  Public  Advertiser.) 

porters 32 

Public  printing  — 

abolition  of  contract  system  of,  demanded  by  convention  of  union 

printers  in  1851 597 

contract  system  of,  deprecated  by  1850  convention  of  union  printers..  595 
formation  of  copartnership  of  union  printers  suggested  in  1850  to 

perform 595 

Public  works,  convict  labor  on,  impracticable 180 

Pudney  &  Russell 267 

Pump  makers 19 

Putnam's 517 

Quackenboss,  G.  V.  S 536 

Quarrymen 8 

Radcliff,  Mayor  Jacob 103 

Rahal,  James  P 668 

Rainnie,  James v 

Randall,  George  H 268 

Randell,  George  H 596 

&  Blaemeke 546 

"  Rat  "  lists  disseminated  in  1831 143 

exchange  of 50 

printer,  origin  of  the  term  of «•  50 

"  Rats,"  keeping  of  a  registry  of  the  names  of,  recommended  by  the  1850 

National  Convention  of  Journeymen  Printers 569 

Receipts  and  expenditures  of  Union  No.  6  in  fifteen  years 470 

Recorder.     (See  New  York  Recorder.) 

Reed,  Thomas  J 202 

Reid,  John  C,  biographical  sketch  of 654-6 

important  part  taken  by,  in  the  Tilden-Hayes  dispute. .  .  .  655 

Whitelaw 386-8,  391-2 

Reins,  David  H.,  biographical  sketch  of 81-2 

mentioned 41-2,  49-50,  58,  61,  69,  87,  90,  245 

Rejuvenation  of  Union  No.  6  in  1883,  work  of 4^6 

Religious  discussion  eschewed  at  trade  union  meetings 151 

Renne,  Thomas  W 106 

Rennie,  John  G 24 

Rents  in  1850 13 

Representative  form  of  government  in  the  affairs  of  Union  No.  6 447-5' 


INDEX.  705 

PAGE 

Restriction  of  output  on  composing  machines,  opposition  of  Union  No.  6 

to 337 

Retail  prices  in  i860  and  1864 285 

trade 27 

Revenues  of  Union  No.  6,  sources  whence  derived 468 

Revolution.     {See  New  York  Revolution.) 

Reynolds,  James  R 78 

Rice,  Jesse 106 

Richardson,  William 11 

Richmond  Borough  Central  Federated  Union 594 

Ridder,  Herman 344,  357-8 

Ridgewood  (N.  J.)  News iv 

Riggers,  ship 20 

Ringwood,  Thomas 36-7,  39 

Ripley,  George i 

Rise  of  the  modern  labor  movement  in  1850 1-33 

Rittenhouse,  David 1 74 

Rival  union  of  printers,  rise  and  development  in  1853  of  a 258 

Rivington,  James «•  35 

Rivington's  Gazette 35 

Roberts,  Miss 16 

of  Davies  &  Roberts 667 

Robertson,  James 24 

Robinson,  Hon.  James  M 653 

John  C 567,  n.  624,  626 

Rochester  Daily  Telegraph 100 

Rockerf eller,  Henry 589 

Roe,  Frederick 32 

Rogers,  Edgar  H 203,  205,  222,232,  237,  n.  259,  568-9,  573,  576-7,  595-7 

of  Jones  &  Rogers 389 

Rood,  William  S v 

Rook,  A.  W 573 

Alexander 268 

Rooker,  Myron  H 575,  597 

Thomas  N 201,  222,  236,  384-6,  395,  472,  627 

Roosevelt,  Hon.  Theodore 603 

Rose,  W.  N 141 

Ross,  W.  H 28 

Rouse,  Leon  H v 

Routt,  Governor  of  Colorado 497 

Rowell,  George  P 627 

Russel,  famous  pie  bakery  of 638 

Russell,  Benjamin 82 

E.  E 584 

G.H 374 

of  Pudney  &  Russell 267 

Ryan,  James  J 584 

Rymer,  Joseph  F 582 

Saddle  and  harness  makers 32 

Sail  makers 19 

St.  Louis  Intelligencer 644 

Star 344 

Typographical  Union n.  206 

Salaries  of  officials  of  Union  No.  6 471 

Sash  and  blind  makers 22 

Saturday  Half  Holiday  — 

New  York  law  of  1887  establishing  the 523 

observance  of  the,  by  book  and' job  compositors 525 

protest  of  Union  No.  6  against  the  abolition  of  the 524 

veto  by  Gov.  David  B.  Hill  of  bill  to  abolish  the 524 


7o6  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Sauer,  Mr 12 

Savage,  C.  C 267,  627-8 

Chief  Justice • 175 

William n.  128 

Sawyers,  ship 20 

Scale  of  prices.     (See  Wage  scale.) 

Schmidt,  Herman 546 

Prof.  Max 637 

Schoffer,  Peter n.  195 

Schurz,  Gen.  Carl 411-12,  635 

Schweizer,  J.  B 543 

Scott,  James. 18 

Marsden  G 342,  347-52,  355-7.  654.  668 

Scribner  &  Co 307 

Scully,  Thomas  F 580 

Searing,  Augustus  P 78-9 

Sears,  Capt.  Isaac «•  35 

Seaver,  Colonel 518 

Seitz,  Don  C 355,  359 

Sellers,  of  Hall  &  Sellers 38 

"  Setting  Type,"  poem  by  Franklin  J.  Ottarson 647 

Seven-and-one-half-hour  working  day  — 

for  "  third  shift  "  on  newspapers 362 

inauguration  of  the,  on  newspapers 372 

Seven-hour  working  day  — 

adoption  in  1898  of  the,  for  "  third  shift  "  on  newspapers 340 

unsuccessful  effort  in  1893  to  inaugurate  a,  on  newspapers 372 

Seward,  William  H 634 

Sewing  machine,  pessimistic  view  in   1850,  concerning  the  effect  on  in- 
dustry of  the 17 

Seymour,  Mr 59 

Shaw,  Christopher 33 

Shearman,  George 626 

Sheet-iron  workers 19 

Sheldon,  George 28 

Sherman,  John  H 41,  52,  102 

Roger 175 

Ship  riggers 20 

sawyers 20 

Shipbuilding 19 

Shoe  and  Leather  Reporter.     (See  New  York  Shoe  and  Leather  Reporter.) 

clerks 31 

workers 17 

Shorter  working  day  — 

advantages  of  a,  described  by  an  employing  printer 374 

for  book  and  job  printers,  conference  in  1898  in  relation  to  the 375 

movement  by  German  printers  for  a 545 

Sick  benefits.     (See  Benefits,  sick.) 

members  of  Union  No.  6,  hospital  beds  provided  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of 500 

Siebers,  Ernest 542 

Silversmiths 20 

Simmons,  A.  H 145 

Simonds,  Congressman 652 

Six-day  law  of  the  International  Typographical  Union 405 

unemployment  decreased  by  the 476 

Sixteen  hours  per  day,  an  average  of,  worked  by  printers  in  1850 210 

Slavery  regarded  by  Washington  and  others  as  inconsistent  with  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 190 

Slawson,  Samuel 538,  n.  567 

Sloan,  Samuel 222,  385,  415 

Slote,  Peter 36 


INDEX.  707 

PAGE 

Smeeton,  William  B 567 

Smith,  Alderman  R.  J 160 

Charles  B 582,  668 

F.J 237 

Gen.  Kirby 604 

Georjge  W 582 

Gerrit n.  624 

Hon.  S.  Wesley,  address  by,  on  the  resolution  naming  Greeley  Square..  633 

James 536 

John  A 262,  266-9 

Joseph 318-19 

Miss  Nixola  Greeley iv 

R.  B 569 

R.  H 303 

Reuben 32 

Robert  C 536 

T.  B 267 

William 19 

Smythe,  J 201 

Snedecor,  Assistant  Alderman 160 

Snow,  George  N i 

Soule,  Mrs.  Henry  D 565 

Southwick,  Henry  C 36,  38 

Spanish-American  War,  resolutions  of  Union  No.  6  in  relation  to  the 605 

Spence,  Miss  Elizabeth 612 

Speyer,  George 544 

Spirit  of  the  Times.     {See  New  York  Spirit  of  the  Times.) 

Sprague,  Mayor  Ira  G 497 

Squier,  Jacob 106 

Slaats-Zeitung.     {See  New  York  Slaats-Zeitung.) 

Staff  of  the  New  York  Tribune  in  the  early  fifties i 

Stafford,  O.  A 273 

Standing  time  on  newspapers,  original  rule  requiring  payment  for 229 

Stanton,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady n.  430 

Star.     {See  New  York  Star.) 

State  Allied  Printing  Trades  Coimcil.     (See  Allied  Printing  Trades  Coun- 
cil, State.) 
State  Printing  Office  — 

creation  of  a,  urged  by  Union  No.  6 598 

Union  No.  6  denounces  Governor  Flower's  veto  of  the  bill  creating  a..  600 

veto  of  the  bill  to  establish  a 599 

State  rights,  doctrine  of,  favored  by  Ely  Moore 190 

Typographical  Union,  organization  in  1891  of  the 583 

Workingmen's    Assembly.     {See    Workingmen's    Assembly    of    the 
State  of  New  York.) 

Statistics  of  German  printing  establishments  in  1875 548 

Statue  of  Horace  Greeley  erected  by  union  printers 632 

Stead,  William  T 613 

Steam  engine,  power  and  benefit  of  the 171 

Stedman,  Edmvmd  C,  poem  read  by,  at  the  unveiling  of  the  Greeley 

monument 629 

Steiger,  E 546-7 

Stein,  Abraham 359 

Stephens,  A.  V 160 

Stephenson,  J 627 

Stereotypers,  mentioned 370,  379,  392-4,  455,  512-14,  584 

strike  in  1887  of 318 

Stereotyping,  increase  of,  in  the  thirties 108 

Stewart,  Ethelbert n.  34,  n.  36,  n.  39,  n.  50,  n.  574 

Stillwell,  Mr 36 

Stirk,  William 301 ,  303,  668 


7o8  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Stoddard,  Claude 603 

Richard  H 660 

Stone  cutters 8,  1 85,  370 

masons 4 

Mr 48 

Stoneall,  Mr 164 

Stoneall's  Hotel,  James  C 201 

Stopford,  Miss 16 

Story,  Francis  V 618 

Strasser,  Adolph 593 

Straw  and  pamilla,  sewers 16 

Street  car  employees 474 

Strike  benefits.     (See  Benefits,  strike.) 

of  boiler  makers  in  185 1 19 

Strike  of  book  and  job  compositors  — 

adjustment  by  a  Joint  Conference  Committee  of  the  1869 302 

in  1853 265 

1863 277 

1869 296 

1876 307 

1887 318 

Strike  of  book,  job  and  newspaper  compositors  in   1883 316 

boot  and  shoe  workers  in.  1850 18 

Brooklyn  printers  for  increase  of  wages  in  1867 538 

building  laborers  in  1852 10 

carpenters  in  1833 149 

confectioners  in  1853 26 

German  printers  in  1872 546 

hatters  in  1834 149 

journeymen  hoasesmiths  in  1850 7 

tailors  in  1850 10 

leather  dressers  in  1836 150 

New  York  City  building  trades  for  the  eight-hour  working  day 

in  1872 369 

pressmen  for  the  eight-hour  working  day  in  1872  556 

newspaper  compositors  in  1889 324 

printers,  first  in  America 35 

in  181 1 60 

1840 141 

1851 238,  244 

1864 288 

1872  to  enforce  apprenticeship  rules 457 

on  Rivington's  Gazette 35 

saddle  and  harness  makers  in  185 1 32 

tailors  in   1836 150,  175 

upholsterers  in  1850 22 

Washington  printers  in  1835 192 

on  the  Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle 405 

New  York  Day  Book 246 

Evening   Post 407-12 

Journal  of  Com?nerce 239 

Mail  and  Express 407 

threatened  by  barbers  in  1850 31 

Strikes,  celebrated  newspaper 384-412 

of  New  York  book  and  job  printers  for  the  eight-hour  working  day 

in  1905-6 378-9 

printers  in  1840 141 

on  the  New  York  Sun 396-402 

Times 404-5 

Tribune 286,  384-96 

World 402-4 

Stttbbs,  William  L n.  194,  202,  219,  668 


INDEX.  709 

Sun.     (See  New  York  Sun.)  PAGE 

Sunday  Dispatch.     {See  New  York  Sunday  Dispatch.) 

labor,  objection  of  the  National  Typographical  Union  to 477 

Superannuation  benefits.     {See  Benefits,  superannuation.) 

Sutliffe,  Thomas  T 668 

Sutton,  T 267 

Swain,  James  B «•  51 7 

Mr 638 

Mortines 78-9 

Swords,  J 53 

Tages-Nachrichten.     {.See  New  York  Tages-Nachrichten.) 

Tailors 10,  150,  175,  290,  589 

Tallmage,  Recorder 15 

Tariff  on  imported  books  — 

New  York  Typographical  Society  in  18 19  demands  an  additional. . .  527 

Union  No.  6  in  iSgd  protests  against  a  reduction  of  the 527 

Tax,  levy  of  an  income,  by  Union  No.  6  for  beneficial  purposes 468 

Taylor,  Bayard,  mentioned i,  632,  644 

oration  of,  at  the  unveiling  of  the  Greeley  monument. . .  .  630 

Charles  H.,  Jr 360,  626 

Douglas 627 

Gen.  Zachary 604,  633 

Jol^n 538 

of  Billings  &  Taylor 267 

Technical  training  in  printing  — 

difficulties  of  introducing 466 

International  Typographical  Union's  course  of 466 

Telegraphers 412,  474 

Tenement  house  inspection 2 

Ten-hour  working  day  — 

adoption  of  the,  bj;-  the  Typographical  Association  of  New  York.  .  .  .  136 

in  1870  for  morning  newspaper  time  hands 305 

1 85 1  in  evening  newspaper  and  job  printing  offices  226 

German  printers  in  the  earl}^  eighties  inaugurate  the 545 

on  newspapers,   International  Typographical  Union  in   1881   advo- 
cates a 371 

Teubner,  Mr 546 

Textiles 10 

"  The  Bucket,"  poem  by  Samuel  Woodworth 83 

Composing  Room,"  poem  by  G.  Brimmer 129 

Hague  Conference 613,  615 

Man.     {See  New  York  The  Man.) 

Printers,"  Barnett's,  extracts  from k.  50,  «.  511-12 

War.     {See  New  York  The  War.) 

"  Third  shift,"  newspaper,  hours  of  labor  of  the 354,  362 

wages  and  hours  of  labor  established  in  1898 

for  the 340 

Thomas,  the  Rev.  Nehemiah 82 

Thompson,  Gen.  Waddy iqo 

J 67 

Thomas 41-2,  49,  51-2 

W.  P 387 

Ticknor  &  Fields 304 

Tilden-Hayes  electoral  controversy,  important  part  taken  by  John  C. 

Reid  in  the 655 

Samuel  J 655-6 

Times.     {See  New  York  Times.) 

Tin,  copper  and  sheet-iron  workers 19 

Tindall,  W.  W 106 

Titus,  Mr 536 

Tobacco 23 

pipe  makers 32 


7IO  INDEX. 

PAGE 

Tole,  James,  address  of,  at  the  Greeley  centenary  exercises 638 

mentioned v,  358-9,  367,  637,  668 

Torboss,  Isaac 22 

Touhey,  John  W.,  biographical  sketch  of 658-9 

Tousey,  Sinclair 627 

Town,  Charles  F 422,  582,  668 

Townsend,  Robert,  Jr 163 

Traveling  cards  — 

early  provision  of  Union  No.  6  for  admitting  holders  of 469 

issuance   of,    recommended   by   the    1850    National   Convention   of 

Journeymen  Printers 569 

National  Typographical  Convention  of  1836  authorizes  the  issuance 

of 157 

proposed  by  union  printers  in  18 16 72 

Tribune.     {See  New  York  Tribune.) 

Troup,  Alexander n.  432-3,  516-17,  582,  585 

Trow,  John  F 198-9,  267,  303 

Troy  Typographical  Union 589,  659 

Tuberculosis,  Union  No.  6  plans  to  diminish  the  inroads  of 501 

Tucker,  Judge  Gideon  J 293,  645 

Turner,  Captain 16-17 

Turners,  wood,  metal,  bone  and  ivory 22 

Tuttle,  Nathaniel 395-6 

Twelve-hour  working  day  — 

establishing  the,  on  morning  newspapers  in  1851 226 

German  printers  in  the  seventies  observe  the 545 

sought  by  journeymen  bakers  in  1850 24 

Two-thirders,  employment  of,  in  the  thirties 108 

ruinous  system  of 192 

Type  Founders  Company,  the  American iv 

journeymen 33,  512 

measurement  in  1818 62 

Typesetters.     {See  Compositors.) 

Typesetting  machines.     {See  Composing  machines.) 

Typographers,  original  organization  of 34 

Typographic  Library  and  Museum iv 

Typographical  Association  of  New  York  — 

assisted  immigration  denounced  by  the 147 

benefits  established  by  the 112 

circular  issued  in  1833  by  the 107 

1837  by  the,  against  wage  reduction 1 39 

collapse  of  the 194 

creation  of  chapels  by  the 114 

delegates  of  the,   to  the  first  National  Convention  of  Journeymen 

Printers 155 

financial  support  accorded  by  the,  to  trades  engaged  in  strikes 1 49 

first  constitution  of  the 106,  1 1 1 

officers  of  the 1 06 

wage  scale  adopted  by  the 134 

general  amnesty  proclaimed  in  1833  by  the 144 

history  of  the,  1831-1840 105-94 

library  established  in  1834  by  the 151 

mentioned v,  206,  617 

Typographical  convention,  pioneer  national 155 

Journal,  the 512 

Society,  founding  in  1794  of  the 35-6 

officers  in  1 796  of  the 36 

Typographical  Union  No.  6  — 

"  Big  Six  "  popular  title  of i 

birthplace  of 643 

charter  issued  to,  by  the  International  Typographical  Union 567 

National  Typographical  Union 201 


INDEX.  711 

Typographical  Union  No.  6 — {Continued)  page 
constitutional  amendment  forbidding  members  to  join  the  National 

Guard  defeated  by 605 

contribution  of,  to  the  Maine  Monument  Fund 608 

co-operation  of,  with  C.  A.  I.  L 608 

espousal  by,  of  peace  among  nations 613 

first  president  of 616 

union  label  issued  by . 511 

history  of,  1852-1911 206-668 

Horace  Greeley  centenary  observed  by 636 

list  of  presidents  of 668 

lots  drawn  to  determine  charter  number  of 206 

memorial  services  of,  in  honor  of  George  W.  Childs 500 

Hon.  Amos  Jay  Cummings 653 

number  of  members  of,  who  enlisted  in  the  Civil  War 604 

patriotic  sentiment  expressed  by 604 

petition  of,  to  Congress  requesting  the  granting  of  belligerent  rights 

to  Cuba 605 

printing  exposition  to  commemorate  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of 602 

protest  of,  against  Government  use  of  steam  presses  to  print  money, 

bonds  and  certificates 608 

public  reception  tendered  to  Horace  Greeley  by 623 

resolutions  adopted  by,  concerning  the  completion  of  the  Atlantic 

cable 606 

of,  in  relation  to  the  Spanish-American  War 605 

opposing  interference  with  the  freedom  of  the  press 607 

respect  to  the  memory  of  Horace  Greeley  adopted  by 626 

statement  of,  concerning  the  1869  book  and  job  strike 300 

upbuilding  efforts  of 309,  416 

withdrawal  of,  from  the  State  Typographical  Union 583 

Typothetas  of  the  City  of  New  York  — 

action  of  the,  against  contract  printing  in  prisons 520 

agreement  of  the,  with  Union  No.  6  as  to  overtime  in  all-time  machine 

offices 342 

wage  scale  in  1902 343 

arbitration  of  a  dispute  in  1896  with  a  member  of  the 345 

committee  of  Union  No.  6  appointed  in  1896  to  confer  with  the 338 

eight-hour  working  day  eventually  adopted  by  the 379 

mentioned 660,  665 

nine-and-one-half-hour  working  day  granted  by  the 374 

hour  working  day  granted  by  the 376 

organization  in  1862  of  the n.  296 

protest  of  the,  against  the  strike  in  1 872  to  enforce  apprenticeship  rules  457 

refusal  of  the,  to  grant  card  shops  in  1887 318 

the  eight-hour  working  day  in  1906 377 

request  of  the,  for  a  wage  reduction  in  1873 306 

resolution  of  the,  to  employ  women  compositors  in  1869 434 

services  of  the  State  Board  of  Mediation  and  Arbitration  requested 

in  1887  by  the 318 

wage  scale  adopted  in  1876  by  the 307 

Typothetas,  United,  of  America  — 

action  in  1898  of  the,  on  the  shorter  working  day 375 

agreement  of  the,  with  international  unions  for  the  nine-hour  working 

day 376 

mentioned 666 

opposition  in  1904  of  the,  to  the  eight-hour  working  day 377 

Unemployed  members  of  Union  No.  6  — 

farm  project  for 484 

overtime  law  in  the  interest  of 481 

permanent  benefit  fund  for 479 


712  INDEX. 

Unemployed  members  of  Union  No.  6  —  {Continued)  page 

proposal  to  establish  a  daily  newspaper  for  the  benefit  of 48 1 

relieving  in  1 857 475 

succoring  in  the  seventies 475 

temporary  aid  given  in  1885  to 476 

various  suggestions  in  1893  as  to  how  to  relieve 478 

Unemployment  among  printers  during  the  War  of  1 812 70 

in  1834 138 

benefits.     {See  Benefits,  unemployment.) 

six-day  law  decreases 476 

Unfair  lists,  dissemination  in  1831  of 143 

exchange  of 50 

the  1850    National    Convention    of    Journeymen    Printers 

recommends  the  dissemination  of 569 

Union  and  Transcript.     {See  New  York   Union  and  Transcript.) 

label,  description  of    the   first   one   designed   for   the    International 

Typographical  Union w-  51 1 

of  the  International  Typographical  Union 511 

original,  designed  by  Union  No.  6  in  1891 511-12 

penalty  for  illegal  use  or  counterfeiting  of  a 515 

propaganda  for  the  use  of  the 514 

labels  of  the  Allied  Printing  Trades  Council 511 

State  Law  legalizing 515 

Printer  and   American    Craftsman.     {See  New  York    Union  Printer 
and  American  Craftsman.) 
{See  New  York   Union  Printer.) 
{See  New  York   Union.) 
Union  Printers'  Home  — 

amount  paid  in  fifteen  years  by  Union  No.  6  to  maintain  the 510 

contributions  of  Union  No.  6  to  the 498 

cost  of  construction,  furnishing  and  maintenance  of  the 498 

dedication  in  Colorado  Springs  of  the 494,  497 

financial  aid  granted  by  Union  No.  6  to  its  members  residing  at  the .  .  498 

hospital  building  erected  at  the 497 

library  established  at  the 497 

statistics  of  admissions,  dismissals,  etc.,  at  the 498 

tents  installed  for  tubercular  patients  at  the 497 

Union  printers  of  the  North  and  South,  bonds  of  fraternity  of,  not  severed 

by  the  Civil  War 578 

who  attained  distinction 616-68 

Unionist.     {See  New  York   Unionist.) 

Unions  of  printers  in  the  eighteenth  century 34 

United  States  Bank,  workingmen  in  1834  oppose  the  rechartering  of  the.  .  184 

Bureau  of  hahor,  Bulletin  No.  61  of  the.  .   n.  36,  n.^g,n.  50,  n.  574 

Industrial  Commission 446 

Typothetas  of  America.     {See  Typothetae,  United,  of  America.) 

Unsanitary  printing  offices  in  the  thirties 107-8 

Upholsterers 22 

Urquhart,  Robert 567 

Utt,  John  M 36 

Vale,  Gilbert 567,  668 

Valentine,  R.  C 267 

Van  Benthuysen,  of  Packard  &  Van  Benthuysen 100 

Van  Cott,  J.  M 28 

Van  Dusen,  Isaac 556 

Van  Winkle's  printing  office 67 

Vincent,  John 585 

Vogt,  Charles,  biographical  sketch  of 637 

letter  from,  read  at  the  Greeley  centenary  exercises 638 


INDEX.  713 

PAGE 

Wage,  agitation  in  1850  for  the  minimum,  on  public  works 2 

earnings  of  book  printers  in  1853,  low  average  of 260 

payments  in  1850,  irregukirity  of 211 

rate,  reduction  in  1876  of  job  compositors' 308 

rates  and  earnings  of  printers  in  1850 210 

just  and  endurable,  urged  by  Horace  Greeley  in  1850 221 

of  Albany  printers  in  191 1 601 

compositors,  refusal  of  the  New  York  Sun  in   the  seventies 

to  reduce  the 663 

German  printers  in  1872 547 

New  York  pressmen  in  1851 226,  231 

1857  and  1864 556 

uniform,  urged  for  printers  in  all  localities 64 

reduction,  protest  of  Franklin  Typographical  Association  against  a. . .  198 
Wage  scale  — 

adopted  by  employing  printers  in  1809 54 

1869 299 

1876 307 

New  York  Printers'  Co-operative  Union  in  1853.  ...   261,  264 
adoption  of,  in  1891  for  operation  of  composing  machines  on  news- 
papers   331 

1 893  for  bookwork  on  composing  machines 336 

1897  for  learners  on  machines  in  book  offices 339 

amendments  in  1897  and  1898 339 

attempt  of  newspaper  publishers  in  1 889  to  reduce 324 

book  and  job,  adopted  by  Union  No.  6  in  1853 • 264 

1863 277 

1869 296,  303 

1883 316 

1887 317 

1902 343 

1910 366 

decision  of  National  Board  of  Arbitration  against  increase  of,   on 

newspapers  in  1901 352 

first  one  adopted  by  Union  No.  6  for  machine  composition,  in  1887 .  .  327 

for  Brooklyn  printers,  adoption  of  a,  authorized  by  Union  No.  6 539 

Union  No.  6  establishes  a 541 

machine-tenders',  adoption  of,  in  1898 341 

the  "  third  shift  "  established  in  1898 340 

time  work  on  evening  newspapers,  adoption  of,  in  189 1 330 

mass  meeting  of  printers  requests  the  New  York  Printers'  Union  to 

prepare  a 222 

newspaper,  adopted  by  Union  No.  6  in  1853 246 

adoption  in  1892  of  an  all-time 335 

increase  of,  in  1 864 278 

1887 3^7 

1907  by  national  arbitrators 357 

1910  by  national  arbitrators 360 

reduction  of,  in  1857 276 

1876 308 

revision  of,  in  1889  by  Union  No.  6 324 

of  1864,  final  readjustment  of,  by  Union  No.  6 294 

revision  of,  by  Union  No.  6 278 

second  revision  of,  by  Union  No.  6 279 

machine-tenders'  apprentices 462 

morning  newspaper  compositors  in  1870  and  1872 305 

Union  No.  6,  revival  of,  in  1883 311,  315 

suspension  of,  in  1 877 309 

Washington  printers  in  181 5 95 

on  novels,  reduction  of  piecework  of,  in  1896 338 

proclaimed  by  the  New  York  Printers'  Union  in  185 1 227 


714  INDEX. 

Wage  scale  —  (Continued)  page 

proposed  in  1890  for  operation  of  composing  machines  on  newspapers.  329 
reasons  of  Bishop  Burgess  for  deciding  against  increase  of  newspaper, 

in  1901 352 

rejection  of,  by  a  majority  of  employing  printers  in  1850 225 

second  mass  meeting  of  printers  in  1850,  to  discuss  a 232 

Wages,  increase  of,  demanded  by  carpenters  and  masons  in  1795 36 

movements  for  higher 208-367 

mutual  agreement  among  workingmen  to  raise,  declared  in  1834  to  be 

a  conspiracy 175 

of  block  and  pump  makers  in  1850-1 19 

boot  and  shoe  workers  in  1850 18 

Boston  printers  in  1849 201 

bricklayers  and  masons  in  1851 4 

building  laborers  in  1850-2 9,  10 

carpenters  and  joiners  in  1 850 5 

coach  painters  in  1850 21 

coachmen  in  1850 32 

confectioners  in  1850-3 26 

cordwainers  in  1809 102 

journeymen  bakers  in  1850 24 

tailors  in  1 850 10 

New  York  newspaper  printers  in  1850 202 

1853 246 

painters  and  decorators  in  185 1 7 

plumbers  in  1 850 7 

pressmen  in  1 809 58 

1815 63 

1833 136 

printers  in  1800 39 

1809 57 

1815 62 

1829 242 

1833 134 

1844 195 

the  eighteenth  century 36 

voluntary  advances  of,  in  1853 245 

quarrymen  in  1850 8 

sash  and  blind  makers  in  1850 22 

ship  sawyers  in  1850 20 

straw  and  pamilla  sewers  in  1850 17 

turners  in  1850 22 

upholsterers  in  1850 22 

struggles  in  1809  by  printers  for  increased 51 

union  printers  in  1837  protest  against  a  reduction  of 139 

Waite,  G.  &  R 81 

Waldron,  George  W v 

Walking  delegate,  creation  in  1886  by  Union  No.  6  of  the  office  of 418 

title  of  changed  by  Union  No.  6  to  organizer  in  1895 .  .  418 

Walsh,  A 627 

Michael  R 582,  586,  n.  591 ,  626-7 

Thomas  J...  201,266-7,  273,  414,  423,  538,  569,  573,  n.  574,  578,      582 

668 

Walter,  John 242 

Walton,  George 175 

Henry 1 63 

War  of  1812,  effect  on  the  printing  industry  of  the 60,  107 

Ward,  Artemus,  bequest  of,  for  an  Asylum  for  Superannuated  Printers. . .  495 

James  R n.  616 

Wardman,  Ervin 348,  350-2.  355-6,  358,  463 

Washington,  George «•  35.  I74.  190,  634 

National  Journal 97 


INDEX.  715 

PAGE 

Watch  case  makers 20 

makers 20 

Waterbury ,  Selleck 3 1 

Watson,  John 202 

Wayz-goose,  institution  of  the 123 

Weavers,  white  work 18 

Weed,  Thurlow,  biographical  sketch  of 98-100 

mentioned n.  120,  627-8 

Weeks,  Lyman  Horace n.  37 

Weil,  Jean 542,  546,       553 

Weiss,  Mrs.  Louise n.  430 

Wells,  A.  H 106 

Mr 48 

Wendell,  Cornelius n.  596 

West,  Benjamin 174 

Westminster  Abbey 1 1 5-1 6 

Wetzel,  WiUiam  F 636 

Whalen,  Hon.  John  S 613 

Wheaton.  Thomas  H 584 

Wheeling  (W.  Va.)  Register 657 

Whitcomb,  H.  H 201 

White,  Horace 41 1 

William 567,  582,  626,       668 

Whittit,  Mr 536 

Wiener,  Adam 380 

Wieser,  Mr 546 

Wildman,  Theodore  C 322 

Willett,  B.  P 365 

Williams,  Hon.  John  Sharpe 654 

J.  H 36 

Joshua  E 303 

Wilson,  John 19 

Miss  Anna  C n.  432 

Mr 536 

&  Son 304 

Winchester,  Mr 638 

Window  shade  painters 23 

Windt,  John 106 

Winne,  Giles  F 225 

Wire  weavers 474 

Witter,  M.  R.  H 580 

Woman  suffrage  — 

declaration  by  the  International  Typographical  Union  for n.  430 

endorsement  of,  by  Union  No.  6 n.  430 

petition  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor  for n.  430 

Woman's  Auxiliary  to  Typographical  Union 565 

Suffrage  Association n.  430 

Women  printers  — 

address  by   President   McKechnie   to  the   National   Typographical 

union  favoring  the  recognition  of 434 

beginning  of  the  employment  in  New  York  City  of 422 

chapter  on  the  subject  of 421-40 

employment  of,  favored  by  Horace  Greeley 424 

in  the  eighteenth  century 42 1 

in  men's  organizations,  full  pay  demanded  for 440 

inability  of,  to  obtain  same  wages  as  men 438 

International  Typographical  Union  in  1878  forbids  the  granting  of 

charters  to 439 

manifesto  against  the  employment  of 426 

mentioned 240 

National  Typographical  Union  in  1854  resolves  not  to  encourage  the 

employment  of 424 


7l6  INDEX. 

Women  printers  —  (Contimied)  page 

New  York  World's  reasons  in  1868  for  dismissing  its 431 

opposition  of  Philadelphia  Typographical  Union  to  the  employment  of.  428 
question  regarding,  submitted  in  1867  by  the  National  Typographical 

Union  to  subordinate  unions 429 

refusal   in    1857    of  Boston  Typographical  Union  to  exclude  those 

who  received  equal  pay  with  men 428 

of,  to  take  places  of  striking  men 433 

resolution  of  the  Typothette  in  1869  to  employ 434 

Women  urged  in  1850  to  enter  politics 17 

Women's  Trade  Union  League  — 

founding  of  the  New  York  City 612 

membership  of  the 612 

mentioned 614 

motto  of  the 612 

National 612 

respresentatives  of  Union  No.  6  in  the 612 

work  of  the 612 

Women's  Typographical  Union  No.  i  — 

charter  issued  to,  by  the  National  Typographical  Union 42 1 

dissolution  of 439 

founding  of,  in  1 868 432 

International  Typographical  Union  in  1869  charters 435 

mentioned 627 

Union  No.  6  demands  the  revocation  of  the  charter  of 438 

favors  granting  a  charter  to 435 

Women's  typographical  unions  — 

decision  of  the  International  Typographical  Union  in  1873  to  cease 

chartering 439 

International   Typographical   Union   in    1875   repeals   resolution    to 

cease  chartering 439 

Wood,  John 303 

the  Rev.  J.  W.  B. 28 

working  and  furniture 21 

Woods,  F.  &  J 38 

Wood  worth,  Samuel,  biographical  sketch  of 82-94 

mentioned loi 

poems  by 83-9 

Workers  in  precious  metals 20 

Working  card,  first,  issued  by  New  York  Printers'  Union 205 

Women's  Association 433 

Workingmen  in  1834  favor  constitutional  currency  of  gold  and  silver 184 

mass  meeting  of,  to  protest  against  the  Conspiracy  Bill  of  1864 587 

objection  of,  in  1834  to  the  issuance  of  paper  money 184 

opposition  of,  in  1S34  to  rechartering  the  United  States  Bank 184 

Workingmen's  Assembly  of  the  State  of  New  York  — 

aboHtion  of  contract  prison  labor  demanded  by  the 591 

amalgamation  of  the,  with  the  State  Branch  of  the  American  Federa- 
tion of  Labor 592 

causes  that  led  to  the  formation  of  the 586 

co-operation  of  the,  with  Union  No.  6  regarding  convict  labor 518 

creation  of  a  State  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  urged  in  1871  by  the.  .  591 

enactment  of  a  Child  Labor  Law  demanded  by  the 591 

first  officers  of  the 589 

founding  in  1865  of  the 589 

legalization  of  the  eight-hour  working  day  urged  in  1865  by  the 590 

objects  of  the 590 

original  constitution  of  the 589 

Workingmen's  Federation  of  the  vState  of  New  York 592 

Workingmen's  Union  of  New  York  City  — 

agitates  for  the  eight-hour  working  day  in  1864 368 


INDEX.  717 

Workingmen's  Union  of  New  York  City  —  {Continued)  page 

formation  in  1864  of  the 592 

mentioned 290,  398,  456,  593 

Wynkoop,  M.  B 303 

Yellow  fever  epidemic  of  1803  in  New  York  City 40 

suflerers,  New  Orleans,  union  printers  of  New  York  City  in 

1853  send  relief  to 472 

Young,  Doctor 16 

Frederick 569 

Nelson  W 585,  591 ,  648-9 


CENTRAL  UNIVER^ITV  r  ,.. 

University  of  CalTfn  ^'^^^ARY 

y  or  California,  San  Diego 


DATE  DUE 


^W^ 


l\^^^w 


F^c^LlTV 


V-L 


imt:- 


'"MM^Mf 


W^ 


'^: 


')i^i 


'1 


^fiy^t 


<« 


W^^^ 


■WM^$^- 


^wmm 


'III'!!'!) 


